Joseph Jordan (doctor)

Joseph Jordan, FRCS, (3 March 1787 – 31 March 1873) was an English surgeon known primarily for his involvement in developing medical education outside its then traditional base of London. He established a medical school in Manchester and was an honorary surgeon of the Manchester Royal Infirmary, as well as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Joseph Jordan was descended from Dutch people who had emigrated to England in the 14th century. His grandfather was William Jordan, a printer of linen and cotton who had established himself in Manchester in 1745 and whose son, also called William, had six children from his marriage to Mary Moors. Joseph was born on 3 March 1787 as the youngest of the four sons.

Jordan was a diligent but wayward child at school and was expelled when he damaged its clock while investigating the mechanism. He was apprenticed at the age of 15 to a surgeon at what was then known as the Public Infirmary of Manchester (since 1830, the Manchester Royal Infirmary), transferring his tutelage to another surgeon at that hospital when he tired of being used as a lackey. He moved to Edinburgh when he was 19 and there he continued his medical education under the guidance of Alexander Munro and Charles Bell.

Having qualified in medicine at Edinburgh, Jordan enrolled in the 1st Battalion, Royal Lancashire Regiment on 12 December 1806. The Napoleonic Wars were then occurring and in April of the following year Jordan was promoted from the rank of Ensign to Assistant Surgeon. He did not see active service during his time in the army, although he was based at various locations around England and Scotland and did at one point have medical responsibility for some French prisoners. He found his military experience to be unsatisfying and supplemented his income with occasional private medical work, as well as continuing to study aspects of medicine and, in particular, anatomy. Achieving no further promotion, he resigned his commission and in 1811 went to London to further his studies.

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