James Lawson Drummond

Who was James Lawson Drummond?

James Lawson Drummond was an Irish physician, naturalist and botanist. Drummond was educated at the Belfast Academy. He received a surgical training at the Belfast Academical Institution and was an apprentice surgeon in the Royal Navy. After serving as navy surgeon in the Mediterranean from 1807-1813, he retired from the navy in May 1813 and then further studied medicine in Edinburgh. With a thesis on the comparative anatomy of the eye, Drummond graduated M.D. from Edinburgh on the 24th of June 1814. In 1814 he was Physician to Belfast Dispensary and in 1818 was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the Belfast Academical Institution. From 1835 to 1836 he was Professor of Botany, and he was one of the founders of the Faculty of Medicine of which he became the first President. He was the first President of the Belfast Natural History Society.

The Drummond's sea cucumber Thyonidium drummondi was named for him.