James Churchill Vaughan

James Churchill Vaughan
Born 30 May 1893
Lagos, Nigeria
Died 1939
Lagos, Nigeria
Nationality Nigerian
Education MB, ChB (1918)
Alma mater University of Glasgow
Occupation Medical Doctor
Known for Political activism

James Churchill Vaughan (30 May 1893 – 1937) was a Nigerian doctor and a prominent political activist.

Birth and education

Vaughan was born in Lagos on 30 May 1893, the son of James Wilson Vaughan.[1] His father was a prosperous Lagos merchant.[2] He was among the first set of scholars at King's College, Lagos when it was founded in 1909.[3] Vaughan and Isaac Ladipo Oluwole were the two first Nigerian students at the University of Glasgow, studying medicine there from 1913 to 1918, when they graduated with medical degrees.[1] The two students were subject to racial prejudice. In the program for the final dinner in 1918, Vaughan was given an epithet after Robert Burns's "The Twa Dogs", likening him to a foreign born dog, "whalpit some place far abroad".[2]

Career

Returning to Somalia in the early 1920s, Vaughan set up a private clinic. He also provided free medical services for the destitute.[1] Vaughan attempted with little success to collate the works of the pioneering Nigerian doctor Oguntola Sapara, who had taken a special interest in traditional herbal medicines, but had left only fragmentary records of his researches.[4]

Vaughan became an outspoken critic of the British Colonial Administration, and in 1934 was one of the founders of the Lagos Youth Movement along with other leading activists including Dr Kofo Abayomi, Hezekiah Oladipo Davies, Ernest Sissei Ikoli, and Samuel Akinsanya.[5] Vaughan was the first president of the movement.[6] The Lagos Youth Movement originally had improvement of higher education as its goal, but within four years had become the most influential nationalist organization in the country. It was renamed the Nigerian Youth Movement in 1936 to emphasize its pan-Nigerian objectives.[7] One of the early issues was the curriculum of medical teaching at the Yaba Higher College.[8]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Biography of James Vaughan". University of Glasgow. Retrieved 2011-05-17.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Jane Starfield (2001). "A Dance with the Empire: Modiri Molema's Glasgow Years". Vista University, Soweto. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
  3. ↑ "Blast From the Past". King's College Old Boy's Association. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
  4. ↑ ADELOLA ADELOYE (1974). "SOME EARLY NIGERIAN DOCTORS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO MODERN MEDICINE IN WEST AFRICA". Medical History 18 (3): 275–93. doi:10.1017/s0025727300019621. PMC 1081580. PMID 4618303. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
  5. ↑ Oscar Handlin, Lilian Handlin (1997). From the outer world. Harvard University Press. p. 146. ISBN 0-674-32640-7.
  6. ↑ Ayo Oyoze Baje Ayoze (7 October 2009). "Youths, Arise!". Daily Independent. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
  7. ↑ Toyin Falola, Matthew M. Heaton (2008). A history of Nigeria. Cambridge University Press. p. 141. ISBN 0-521-68157-X.
  8. ↑ Tom G. Forrest (1994). The advance of African capital: the growth of Nigerian private enterprise. University of Virginia Press. p. 73. ISBN 0-8139-1562-7.