Inspector-General of Hospitals and Fleets Sir John Denis Macdonald (26 October 1826 – 7 February 1908) was a

naval surgeon A naval surgeon, or less commonly ship's doctor, is the person responsible for the health of the ship's company aboard a warship. The term appears often in reference to Royal Navy's medical personnel during the Age of Sail. Ancient uses Speciali ...

Navy career

He was born in

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, the son of James Macdonald, an artist, art critic and one of the claimants of the Annandale Peerage. Upon the death of the last legitimate heir of the MacDonald's of Castleton, Isle of Skye, Scotland, James Macdonald inherited that title, as the nearest surviving legitimate male kin. John was educated at Cork school of medicine and

King's College, London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

, where he was awarded M.R.C.S.Eng in 1849. He later was awarded M.D. from the University of St. Andrews. Macdonald joined the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon and initially served at the Royal Hospital, Plymouth. In 1852 he was appointed to the survey ship HMS ''Herald''. As a result of his studies, principally with the microscope, on the seabed deposits brought up by the dredger he was awarded in 1862 the

Makdougall-Brisbane prize The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

by the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

and elected a member of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1859 (his membership was proposed by

Joseph Toynbee Joseph Toynbee FRS (30 December 1815 Another son, Harry Valpy Toynbee (1861–1941), was the father of universal historian Arnold J. Toynbee, and archaeologist and art historian Jocelyn Toynbee. He died on 7 July 1866, at 18, Saville Row, M ...

Edwin Lankester Edwin Lankester FRS, FRMS, MRCS (23 April 1814 – 30 October 1874) was an English surgeon and naturalist who made a major contribution to the control of cholera in London: he was the first public analyst in England. Life Edwin Lankester ...

Francis Sibson Francis Sibson FRS (21 May 1814 – 7 September 1876) was an English physician and anatomist. Early life He was born at Crosscanonby, near Maryport, Cumberland but grew up and was educated in Edinburgh, apprenticed to John Lizars, surgeon a ...

Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils. Owe ...

and

Richard Partridge Richard Partridge FRS, FRCS (19 January 1805, in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire – 25 March 1873, in London) was a British surgeon. Although he became President of both the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, he ...

among others). In 1864, by now promoted to surgeon, he was appointed to the

Royal Hospital Haslar The Royal Hospital Haslar in Gosport, Hampshire, was one of several hospitals serving the local area. It was converted into retirement flats between 2018 and 2020. The hospital itself is a Grade II listed building. History Formation and oper ...

in Gosport, Hampshire and in June 1870 was made staff surgeon to HMS ''Lord Warden'', flagship in the Mediterranean. In March 1872 he was appointed to the flagship at Portsmouth for service as professor of naval hygiene at the

Army Medical School Founded by U.S. Army Brigadier General George Miller Sternberg, MD in 1893, the Army Medical School (AMS) was by some reckonings the world's first school of public health and preventive medicine. (The other institution vying for this distinction ...

Netley Netley, officially referred to as Netley Abbey, is a village on the south coast of Hampshire, England. It is situated to the south-east of the city of Southampton, and flanked on one side by the ruins of Netley Abbey and on the other by the Ro ...

, a post he continued to hold after his promotion to Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals and Fleets in February 1875. In July 1880 he was promoted Inspector-General, and put in charge of the Royal Naval Hospital at Plymouth from 1883 to 1886. He retired in 1886. Following the succession of King

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

, he was among several retired navy officers appointed

Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

in the

1902 Coronation Honours The 1902 Coronation Honours were announced on 26 June 1902, the date originally set for the coronation of King Edward VII. The coronation was postponed because the King had been taken ill two days before, but he ordered that the honours list shou ...

list published on 26 June 1902, the investiture was on board the royal yacht ''Victoria and Albert'' outside

Cowes Cowes () is an English seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina, facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east bank. The two towns are linked by the Cowes Floa ...

on 15 August 1902, the day before the

fleet review A fleet review or naval review is an event where a gathering of ships from a particular navy is paraded and reviewed by an incumbent head of state and/or other official civilian and military dignitaries. A number of national navies continue to ...

held there to mark the

coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a coronation crown, crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the ...

. In later life he researched in the fields of

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

and natural history. He died in Southall, Middlesex in 1908.

Family

Macdonald was married twice; firstly in 1863 to Sarah Phoebe (d. 1875), daughter of Ely Walker of Stainland, Yorkshire, by whom he had three sons; James Alexander Walker (who died in infancy); John Denis; William Richard, and two daughter; Elyna Mary and Catherine Janet. He was later married to Erina, daughter of Rev. William Archer, prebendary of Limerick.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, John Denis 1826 births 1908 deaths People from Cork (city) Irish surgeons Fellows of the Royal Society Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Royal Navy Medical Service officers Royal Navy admirals