John Farrell Easmon

John Farrell Easmon
John Farrell Easmon (seated) and his brother Albert Whiggs Easmon
Born	John Farrell Easmon (1856-06-30)30 June 1856 Freetown, Sierra Leone
Died	9 June 1900(1900-06-09) (aged 43) Cape Coast, Ghana
Nickname	Johnnie or Johnie
Occupation	Chief Medical Officer
Language	English
Nationality	British Subject,
Education	CMS Grammar School, University College London
Spouse	Annette Kathleen Smith Easmon

John Farrell Easmon, MRCS, LM, LKQCP, MD, CMO (30 June 1856 – 9 June 1900), was a prominent Sierra Leonean Creole doctor in the British Gold Coast who served as Chief Medical Officer during the 1890s. Easmon was the only West African to be promoted to Chief Medical Officer and served in this role with distinction during the last decade of the 19th century. Easmon was botanist and a noted expert on the study and treatment of tropical diseases. In 1884, Dr. Easmon wrote a pamphlet entitled The Nature and Treatment of Blackwater Fever, which noted for the first time the relationship between Blackwater fever and malaria. Easmon coined the term "Blackwater fever" in his pamphlet on the malarial disease.

A member of the prominent Easmon family medical dynasty, John Farrell Easmon (or "Johnnie") was born in the Settler Town area of Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 30 June 1856 to Walter Richard Easmon (1824–1883) and his second wife Mary Ann MacCormac (1830–1865). On both his paternal and maternal lineages, John Easmon was a descendant of Freetown's Founding Families, the Nova Scotian settlers who were African Americans originally from the United States. Easmon's paternal grandparents were William and Jane Easmon and they arrived in Sierra Leone from the United States via Nova Scotia in 1792. John Easmon's mother, Mary Ann MacCormac was part Northern Irish and part Settler, and was the daughter of Hannah Cuthbert a Settler woman of African American descent originally from Savannah, Georgia and John MacCormac, a successful Irish trader who was the uncle of Sir William MacCormac.