John Ebenezer Esslemont, who passed away at Haifa November
22, 1925, was born on May 19, 1874, the son of John E. Esslemont of Fairford,
Cults, Aberdeenshire.
He received his preliminary education at Ferryhill public
school and continued his studies at the Robert Gordon College and ultimately at
Aberdeen University, where he graduated with honors in April, 1898, obtaining
not only the medical degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and of Surgery, but also a
Philip Research Scholarship at the University. He spent the second half of 1899
at Berne and Strasburg, at both of which places he wrote papers on his research
work, which were published and considered valuable.
Returning to Scotland in December, 1899, Esslemont took up
the position of assistant to Professor Cash at Aberdeen University, which
position he held until 1901, when he went to Australia, remaining there two
years. During this residence in Australia, he married on December 19, 1902.
Early in his life Esslemont’s health proved a cause of
trouble and anxiety, and in 1903 he was obliged to leave Australia, returning
to Aberdeenshire, where he spent the summer, but found it necessary in the
winter of that year to proceed to South Africa, the climate of which country it
was hoped would prove beneficial to his pulmonary ailment. He remained in South
Africa for five years, returning to his native country in 1908, when he
obtained the post of resident medical officer at the Home Sanatorium,
Bournemouth, which he continued to hold until 1923, when, owing to the death of
the proprietor, the Sanatorium was closed and Esslemont found himself without
medical occupation.
