Frederick George Donnan, 1870-1956

Abstract

This biography is compiled from the Personal Record which Donnan left with the Royal Society, the assistance of numerous pupils and friends, and from the recollections of the writer extending over a long period. Donnan was born on 5 September 1870 at Colombo, Ceylon, and was the second of a family consisting of two brothers and four sisters. His father was William Donnan, a merchant of Belfast, and his mother’s maiden name was Jane Ross Turnley Liggate she also being a native of Northern Ireland. Donnan’s uncle, Captain James Donnan, was ‘master attendant’, Colombo and Inspector of the Ceylon Pearl Fisheries, who received a C.M.G. on his retirement; his son, Donnan’s cousin, was a regular soldier who spent most of his life in India, retiring with the rank of Colonel in 1913, rejoining the Army in 1914, and dying of heat stroke in Mesopotamia. Donnan’s brother, William Dunlop Donnan, was a general medical practitioner (M.D. of the Queens University) of Belfast till his death in 1941. Donnan returning from Ceylon at the age of 3 had no recollections of that country at all and this must be considered in making any appreciation of him as a devoted Ulster patriot. Donnan was a bachelor, so particular and generous mention must be made of his two sisters Jane and Leonora (Nora) who played such an important and unobtrusive part in his life. Jane was his secretary at University College and later looked after the I.C.I. Research Associates working there; after his retirement she carried on with his correspondence. In these later years her eyesight began to fail and steadily worsened. She died only three days before her brother and they were cremated on the same day. On duty she was most intelligent and efficient and in private life had all the family charm.