Garibaldi Nelson (1840 - 1910): Surgeon
Garibaldi Nelson was born in Crossgar, County Down and was educated in Downpatrick, at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and at Queen's University, Belfast. He was given a commission in Regimento Inglese, in Italy, and fought for Garibaldi, who presented him with a sword of honour. He received two medals. Three years after his return he qualified as a medical doctor, and became a Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He then went to India for fourteen years, where he worked on a tea plantation. In 1877 he returned to Ireland and worked in Dublin with Oscar Wilde's father. He learned German and proceeded to Vienna, where he took classes in eye, ear and throat diseases. He returned to Belfast in 1880, and three years later was appointed the first Ophthalmic Surgeon in the Royal Hospital, and subsequently in the hospital for sick children. In 1898 he was President of the Ulster Medical Society. He died in Downpatrick, County Down.
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