Inspector-General of Hospitals and Fleets Sir James John Louis Donnet (1816 – 11 January 1905) was a

British Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

surgeon. His work on yellow fever was the foundation of modern medical practice in dealing with this disease. Donnet was born in Gibraltar in 1816 the son of Henry Donnet, a Royal Navy surgeon, and Elizabeth Moore. He was educated in Edinburgh, London, at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

and at Anderson College, Glasgow. He joined the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon in 1840 on . He was sent to the Mediterranean during the

Oriental Crisis of 1840 The Oriental Crisis of 1840 was an episode in the Egyptian–Ottoman War in the eastern Mediterranean, triggered by the self-declared Khedive of Egypt and Sudan Muhammad Ali Pasha's aims to establish a personal empire in Ottoman Egypt. Backgr ...

aboard and after the capture of

Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

he was placed in charge of a temporary shore hospital. By 1849, Donnet had been promoted to Surgeon and aboard he was in the West Indies during an outbreak of yellow fever. Between 1850 and 1851 he was surgeon on on a voyage to the Arctic under Sir

Erasmus Ommanney Sir Erasmus Ommanney (22 May 1814 – 21 December 1904) was a Royal Navy officer and an Arctic explorer of the Victorian era. Early life He was born in London in 1814, the seventh son in a family of eight sons and three daughters of Sir F ...

. In 1854 was on in the Pacific Ocean. Between 1866 and 1867, was staff surgeon at the Port Royal Hospital in

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

where he studied yellow fever, and his study was published in the ''Health Report'' in 1867 and he later published ''Notes on Yellow Fever''. In May 1867 he was promoted to deputy inspector-general and in 1870 he was appointed an honorary surgeon to

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

. In 1873, he was in-charge of the medical wards of the Royal Navy Hospital Haslar hospital in Gosport which had an outbreak of

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

and

enteric fever Enteric fever is a medical term encompassing two types of salmonellosis, which, specifically, are typhoid fever and paratyphoid fever. Enteric fever is a potentially life-threatening acute febrile systemic infection and is diagnosed by isolating ...

and was also looking after cases of fever and dysentery following the

Third Anglo-Ashanti war The Anglo-Ashanti wars were a series of five conflicts that took place between 1824 and 1900 between the Ashanti Empire—in the Akan interior of the Gold Coast—and the British Empire and its African allies. Despite initial Ashanti victorie ...

. Promoted to Inspector-General in 1875 and was awarded a good-service pension in 1878. In the

1897 Diamond Jubilee Honours The Diamond Jubilee Honours for the British Empire were announced on 22 June 1897 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria on 20 June 1897. The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new honour, and ar ...

he was appointed a Knight Commander of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service ...

. He retired to

Bognor Bognor Regis (), also known as Bognor, is a town and seaside resort in West Sussex on the south coast of England, south-west of London, west of Brighton, south-east of Chichester and east of Portsmouth. Other nearby towns include Littleham ...

and died at home on 11 January 1905.

Family life

In 1852, Donnet married Eliza Meyer. The 1881 census shows that they had one daughter, Adelaide Mary Donnet, born in Portugal in or about 1862. They also had a son, James John Connor Donnet, who served as a doctor in the RAMC, in India 1890–1914.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donnet, James Royal Navy Medical Service officers 1816 births 1905 deaths Gibraltarian military personnel Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath University of Paris alumni