William Guyer Hunter

Sir William Guyer Hunter KCMG FRCP (1829 – 14 March 1902) was a British surgeon-general in India, principal of medical colleges and Conservative politician. He took part in official enquiries into vaccination and cholera.

Hunter was born at Calcutta and was educated at King's College London and Aberdeen University. He began his training at Charing Cross Hospital in 1844 at the same time as Thomas Henry Huxley and Joseph Fayrer, and passed, in 1850, into the Bombay medical department as an assistant-surgeon. He 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". The following year he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) for his services in Egypt.

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