William Guyer Hunter

Who was William Guyer Hunter?

Sir William Guyer Hunter FRCP was a surgeon-general in India, principal of medical colleges and Conservative politician.

Hunter was born at Calcutta and began his training at Charing Cross Hospital in 1844 at the same time as Thomas Henry Huxley and Joseph Fayrer. He went to India and became Principal of Grant Medical College in 1866, a post he held for ten years. He was also Vice Chancellor of Bombay University. He returned to London and was a member of the Royal Commission on Vaccination which was initiated in 1879 and sat for seven years. Hunter was surgeon to the Queen in 1881. In 1883 there was an outbreak of cholera in Egypt which had fallen under British jurisdiction in the previous year. There was an international dispute as to whether the disease was brought from Calcutta and hence should be dealt with by quarantine or whether it was indigenous. Hunter was sent as a medical commissioner and concluded "Facts…lead to the conclusion that cholera, be it called by whatever name it may…has existed in Egypt for some time past…In order to obtain as much information as possible on the subject above referred to, instructions have been issued to the medical officers recently arrived from England to institute cautious and careful inquiry".