James Lawson Drummond was born in Larne, County Antrim, and was educated at the Belfast Academy. He became an apprentice surgeon in the Royal Navy and then studied medicine in Edinburgh. In 1814 he was Physician to Belfast Dispensary and four years later was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the Belfast Academical Institution. From 1835 to 1836 he was Professor of Botany in the now Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and he was instrumental in founding the Faculty of Medicine of which he became the first President, in 1835, serving two further terms in 1836 and 1844. He was the first President of the Belfast Natural History Society and founder of the Belfast Museum, and was a member of the Belfast Literary Society, elected 21 January 1806; he read eight papers many on natural history of animals, but also one on the human eye.

Born:	May 1783
Died:	17 May 1853