William Burney Bannerman

Major General William Burney Bannerman CSI FRSE (6 July 1858–3 February 1924) was a 19th and 20th century high-ranking Scottish military surgeon. He was one of the first to use Henry Littlejohn's analytical techniques on a large scale, demonstrating the value of inoculation.

Life

Clarendon Crescent in Edinburgh
The Bannerman grave, Grange Cemetery

He was born at 7 Clarendon Crescent[1] in Edinburgh on 6 July 1858 the son of David Anne Douglas (sic), daughter of David Douglas, Lord Reston and Rev James Bannerman .

He was educated at Edinburgh Academy then studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with an MB ChB in 1881.

Joining the British Army as part of the Indian Medical Service he served as a surgeon from 1883. Training at Netley, he arrived at Bombay in May 1884 initially posted at Secunderabad. After some training in Urdu he was posted to Baluchistan to control a cholera epidemic there. In 1886 he contracted malaria and went to Madras to recover. He was then posted to Trichinopli. In November 1886 he was sent to Burma on active duty first in Mandalay then in Pyintha. From March to October 1888 he served withe Upper Burma Operational Force. Falling ill again, he was sent to England for a year to recover. He received his doctorate (MD) entitled 'On the nature of malaria and its prophylaxsis' in 1889 and returned to India in November 1889.[2] Continuing in the army, he begame district surgeon to the Mangalore region. He returned to the University of Edinburgh 1895/6 to take a course on public health from Henry Harvey Littlejohn. Returning to India in 1896 early in 1898 he undertook what would now be a highly controversial experiment in the village of Undhera where there was a plague outbreak. On an arbitary selection basis he inoculated exactly half of the village and (using Littlejohn principles) observed the results – obtaining an accurate (if perhaps inhumane) result of the effectiveness of the vaccine (proving it 90% effective).[3]

In April 1899 he was made director of the Plague Research Laboratory in Madras. He was raised to lieutenant colonel in 1903. In 1904 he became director of the Bombay Bacteriological Laboratory and in 1910 was raised to brevet colonel. In May 1911 he became surgeon general for the Madras district. In 1913 he was created honorary physician to King George V (in India).[3]

In 1902 he elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir William Turner, Alexander Crum Brown, Sir Thomas Richard Fraser and Charles Hunter Stewart. He served as the Society's vice vresident from 1921 to 1924.[4]

King George V created him a Companion of the Order of the Star of India (CSI) in 1911.[4]

He retired to Edinburgh in 1918 and died on 3 February 1924.[3]

He is buried with his parents in the Grange Cemetery in south Edinburgh. The grave lies in the north-west section under a large tree.

Publications

  • Concerning Animals and Other Matters
  • Serum Therapy of Plague in India
  • Production of Alkali by Plague Bacillus in Liquid Media
  • Scientific Memoirs of Government in India

Family

In 1889 he married Helen Brodie Cowan Watson (1862-1946), daughter of Robert Boog Watson.

References

  1. ↑ Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1858
  2. ↑ Burney, Bannerman, William (1889). "On the nature of malaria and its prophylaxsis".
  3. 1 2 3 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0370164600021064
  4. 1 2 Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
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