John Farrell Easmon
| John Farrell Easmon | |
|---|---|
 John Farrell Easmon (seated) and his brother Albert Whiggs Easmon | |
| Born |
John Farrell Easmon 30 June 1856 Freetown, Sierra Leone |
| Died |
June 9, 1900 Cape Coast, Ghana |
| Nickname | Johnnie or Johnie |
| Occupation | Chief Medical Officer |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | British Subject, |
| Ethnicity | Creole |
| Education | CMS Grammar School, University College London |
| Spouse(s) | Annette Kathleen Smith Easmon |
Dr. John Farrell Easmon, M.R.C.S. L.M., L.K.Q.C.P., M.D., CMO, (June 30, 1856-June 9, 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 nineteenth century. Easmon was botanist and a noted expert on the study and treatment of tropical diseases. In 1884, Dr. Easmon wrote a The Nature and Treatment of Blackwater Fever, a pamphlet on Blackwater fever that first noted the relationship between malaria and the disease. Easmon was the first to term the coin 'Blackwater Fever' in his pamphlet on the malarial disease.
Background
John Farrell Easmon or Johnnie was born in the Settler Town area of Freetown, Sierra Leone on June 30, 1856 to Walter Richard Easmon (1824-1883) and his second wife Mary Ann McCormack (1830-?). On both his paternal and maternal lineages, John Easmon was a descendant of Freetown's Founding Families, the Nova Scotian settlers who were originally from the United States. Easmon's paternal grandparents were William and Jane Easmon and they arrived in Sierra Leone from Nova Scotia in 1792. John Easmon's mother, Mary Ann MacCormack was part Irish and part Settler, and was the daughter of John MacCormack, a successful Irish trader who was the uncle of Dr. William MacCormac.
Education
J.F. Easmon grew up on Little East Street and attended a Roman Catholic primary school at Howe Street, Freetown before being enrolled alongside Isaac Easmon in the Church Missionary Society Grammar School in 1869. After serving as an apprentice to Dr. Robert Smith at the Colonial Hospital, in 1875 Easmon received his inheritance from the estate of his maternal grandfather and immediately registered at University College London in order to gain the M.R.C.S.. While at University College London, Easmon won six gold and silver medals (three gold medals and three silver medals) including the Liston Gold Medal for Clinical Surgery and his academic achievements were lauded by newspapers in Sierra Leone. After graduating in 1879 with a distinguished academic career, Easmon gained the L.M. and L.K.Q.C.P. from the King and Queen's College of Physicians in Ireland (now the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland) and the MD with distinction from the Université libre de Bruxelles.
Return to Sierra Leone
Easmon's distinguished academic career received attention from his uncle, Sir William MacCormac, who offered him a position as an assistant house surgeon. Easmon turned the offer down and returned to Freetown where he opened a practice on No. 2 East Street in Settler Town, Sierra Leone. Many elderly Settlers sought the attention of Johnnie and perhaps due to the amount of attention he received or to further his ambitions, Easmon moved to the Gold Coast in 1880. It was there that Easmon would establish himself as an eminent West African doctor.
Medical Career in the Gold Coast
Easmon moved to the Gold Coast in 1880 and accepted a position as an Assistant Colonial Surgeon in addition to opening a private practice in Accra. His popularity increased among native and European residents and when he applied as a colonial medical officer in Sierra Leone, the governor of the Gold Coast recommended to the colonial government that Easmon remain on the Gold Coast where he was needed.
Career as Chief Medical Officer
Easmon served as Chief Medical Officer before officially being appointed the C.M.O of the Gold Coast in 1893.
Family
John Easmon married Annette Kathleen Smith, the daughter of William Smith and the sister of Dr. Robert Smith and Adelaide Casely-Hayford in 1889. The couple had two children, McCormack Charles Farrell Easmon and Kathleen Easmon Simango. McCormack Easmon was also a prominent Creole doctor. John Easmon's grandson in the Gold Coast, Charles Odamtten Easmon became Chief Medical Officer in newly independent Ghana in 1964 and was Dean of the Medical School. John Easmon's half brother, Albert Whiggs Easmon, was a successful Creole doctor whose son Raymond Sarif Easmon, was a doctor and poet.
Sources
- M.C.F. Easmon, 'A Nova Scotian Family', Eminent Sierra Leoneans in the nineteenth century (1961)
- Dr. John Farrell Easmon: Medical Professionalism and Colonial Racism in the Gold Coast, 1856-1900, Adell Patton, Jr., The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 22, No. 4 (1989), pp. 601–636
- Adell Patton Jr., 'The Easmon Episode', Physicians, Colonial Racism, and Diaspora in West Africa, pp. 93–122