John Fergus, medical practitioner, was the son of David Stevenson Fergus and Catherine Mitchell Turner. He qualified as Bachelor of Medicine (MB) and Master of Surgery (CM) at the University of Glasgow in 1875. After some time as acting house physician and house surgeon at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow he qualified as Doctor of Medicine (MD) at the University of Glasgow in 1878. He came to the Cape Colony the same year, where he was licensed to practice on 1 June 1878. Settling in Tarkastad he practiced there to 1909, for many years as district surgeon of Tarka. By 1888 he owned two portions of farms in the district. In 1882 he married Rachel Mary Baker, with whom he had six childen. During the 1890s and up to 1909 Dr William Henry Fergus (MB and CM, Glasgow, 1886), who was John's brother, also practiced in Tarkastad; he had returned there by 1916 as medical officer of health.

In 1903 John Fergus donated the skull of a Triassic reptile to the South African Museum in Cape Town. It became the type specimen of a species named Proterosuchus fergusi in his honour.

List of sources:
Cape of Good Hope. Report of the trustees of the South African Museum,1903.

Cape of Good Hope Government Gazette, 9 January 1885, pp. 41-45: List of licensed medical practitioners in the Cape Colony.

FamilySearch: John Fergus. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/L2ND-375

General Directory of South Africa, 1908, 1909, 1916.

Medical and pharmacy register for the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, 1893, 1907.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Fergus, John / Fergus, Dr J.

South African Medical Directory for 1897. Cape Town: Cape Times, 1897.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2024-04-29 12:40:13