John Denis Macdonald

Sir John Denis Macdonald, born on 26 October 1826 and died on 7 February 1908, was a naval surgeon who rose to Inspector-General of Hospitals and Fleets in the Royal Navy. Born in Cork, Ireland, he studied at the Cork school of medicine and King's College London, qualified as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1849 and later took an M.D. at the University of St Andrews. He joined the navy as an assistant surgeon and in 1852 was appointed to the survey ship HMS Herald, where his microscope studies of seabed deposits brought up by the dredge earned him the Makdougall-Brisbane prize of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and election to the Royal Society. He later served at the Royal Hospital Haslar, as staff surgeon on HMS Lord Warden and as professor of naval hygiene at the Army Medical School at Netley, and he commanded the Royal Naval Hospital at Plymouth from 1883 to 1886. He was made Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1902 and spent his later years on zoology and natural history. This entry records what is publicly stated about his career and gives no medical advice.