Jan Willem Boudewijn Gunning (3 September 1860 in

Hilversum Hilversum () is a city and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is the largest urban centre in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller towns. Hilvers ...

North Holland North Holland ( nl, Noord-Holland, ) is a province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevoland. In November 2019, it had a ...

– 26 June 1913 in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

), was a Dutch physician, who served as the director of both the Staatsmuseum and what was then known as the Pretoria Zoological Gardens (now the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa). Gunning was the second son of the famous Dutch theologian Johannes Hermanus Gunning (1829-1905) and Johanna Jacoba Gunning. He attended the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...

and

Jena University The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The un ...

, qualifying as a doctor of medicine. In 1884 he emigrated to South Africa and started a practice in the

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( nl, Oranje Vrijstaat; af, Oranje-Vrystaat;) was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeat ...

. The same year, he met and married Susanna Neethling (26 April 1862 - 14 May 1889) on 10 November 1884. From the Free State, he moved to the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...

and practised there until 1897 when he was appointed as first director of the Staatsmuseum (State Museum) in Pretoria, which later was renamed the

Transvaal Museum The Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, formerly the Transvaal Museum, is a natural history museum situated in Pretoria, South Africa. It is located on Paul Kruger Street, between Visagie and Minnaar Streets, opposite the Pretoria City Ha ...

. He remained director until his death in 1913. Gunning was responsible for founding the National Zoo in Pretoria in 1899. While Winston Churchill was imprisoned in Pretoria during the Boer War, he became well acquainted with Gunning, who was one of the directors of the prison. Of him, he said: Capt. Aylmer Haldane, another prisoner in the facility had the following to say: } On the death of his first wife, he married Ellen Elizabeth Dobbin (born 30 December 1867) of

Bethulie Bethulie is a small sheep and cattle farming town in the Free State province of South Africa. The name meaning ''chosen by God'' was given by directors of a mission station in 1829 which the town formed around. The mission building is the oldest s ...

on 19 November 1889. She was the daughter of William Rouse Dobbin and Emma Elizabeth Kirkham. He compiled ''A Checklist of the Birds of South Africa'' with

Alwin Karl Haagner Alwin Karl Haagner (1 June 1880 – 15 September 1962) was a South African ornithologist and mammalogist, who was instrumental in the establishment of the Kruger National Park and in early measures to raise awareness and protect Southern African w ...

in 1910. The bird species ''Sheppardia gunningi'', also called

east coast akalat The east coast akalat or Gunning's robin (''Sheppardia gunningi'') is a small passerine bird which can be found in the east of Africa from Kenya to Mozambique, and is named after J. W. B. Gunning. This species is a forest-dwelling insectivorous ...

or Gunning's akelat, is named for him.

Notes and references

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External links

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Johannes Hermanus GunningJohannes Willem Gunning
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gunning, Jan Willem Boudewijn 1860 births 1913 deaths Dutch emigrants to South Africa 19th-century Dutch physicians People from Hilversum South African museologists South African ornithologists South African zoologists