‘I have a Notion of going off to India’: Colonel Alexander Porter and Irish Recruitment to the Indian Medical Service, 1855–96

Abstract

During the second half of the nineteenth century, Ireland became one of the leading centres for medical education in the British Isles. By the 1860s, Irish doctors could be found throughout the empire, with over half of graduates migrating to Britain or joining its uniformed medical services. This article follows the career of one such doctor: Colonel Alexander Porter. Trained at Queens' College Belfast, Porter joined the Indian Medical Service in 1865, serving as Principal of the Madras Medical College and Deputy Surgeon General of the Madras Medical Establishment before his retirement in 1895. Using Porter's diaries, this article aims to broaden our understanding of the Irish medical diaspora and its role in the spread of western scientific medicine and colonial rule in British India.