Bryan Donkin (physician)

Sir Horatio Bryan Donkin FRCP (1 February 1845 – 26 July 1927) was a British medical doctor and criminologist. He spent his early career as a consultant physician and lecturer at Westminster Hospital before joining the prison service.

Donkin, 1902 painting by Cyrus Johnson

Biography

Horatio Bryan Donkin was born on 1 February 1845 in Blackheath, the son of civil engineer Bryan Donkin (1809–1893)[1] and grandson of the engineer and inventor Bryan Donkin (1768–1855).[2][3]

He attended Blackheath Proprietary School and The Queen's College, Oxford, before graduating from St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in 1873. He held junior roles at St Thomas' Hospital and the City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, and, in 1874, began working at Westminster Hospital, initially as an assistant physician and later becoming consultant physician, dean, and lecturer in clinical medicine.[3]

He also served as physician to East London Hospital for Children and lectured at the London School of Medicine for Women. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1880 and received an M.D. from Oxford in 1893.[4]

Donkin was appointed a commissioner of prisons and director of convict prisons in 1898, resigning from his hospital posts. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Control of the Feeble-Minded in 1904–1908 and, upon retiring as commissioner, became medical adviser to the Prison Commission.[5] He was interested in the psychology of crime, and viewed prisoners as if they were patients.[6] He presented the Harveian Oration at the Royal College of Physicians in 1910, on the topic of "Inheritance of Mental Characters".[3][5]

He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in 1911, the honour being conferred by George V at St James's Palace on 23 February.[7]

A prominent member of the Savile Club,[3] Donkin was also a rationalist[6] and was involved with Ray Lankester in investigating and exposing spiritualists.[5] He was friends with Karl Marx, and treated Marx, his wife Jenny von Westphalen, and their daughter Eleanor Marx.[8] He died on 26 July 1927 in London.[3]

References
  1. "Obituary. Bryan Donkin, 1809-1893". Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 115 (1894): 391–393. 1894. doi:10.1680/imotp.1894.20123.
  2. "Obituary. Horatio Bryan Donkin, M.D.Oxf., F.R.C.P. Lond". The Lancet. 210 (5423): 299–301. 1927. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(01)30845-0. Donkin was the son of a civil engineer of the same name and the grandson of Bryan Donkin, engineer, astronomer, and inventor, who designed, among many other activities, the first paper-mills.
  3. Brown, G H. "Sir Horatio Bryan Donkin". Royal College of Physicians. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  4. East, W. Norwood (1928). "Sir Horatio Bryan Donkin, M.A., M.D.Oxon., F.R.C.P." (PDF). Journal of Mental Science. 74 (304): 1–12. doi:10.1192/bjp.74.304.NP.
  5. "Sir Bryan Donkin, M.D., F.R.C.P". BMJ. 2 (3474): 240. 1927. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.3474.240. S2CID 29615978.
  6. Yearsley, Macleod (1927). "Sir Bryan Donkin" (PDF). Nature. 120 (3017): 306. Bibcode:1927Natur.120..306Y. doi:10.1038/120306A0. S2CID 532455.
  7. "No. 28469". The London Gazette. 24 February 1911. p. 1462.
  8. Foster, John Bellamy (2020). The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology. New York: Monthly Review Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-58367-837-4.
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