Horatio Bryan Donkin

Sir Horatio Bryan Donkin (1 February 184526 July 1927) was a British medical doctor and criminologist. He spent his early career as a consultant physician and lecturer at Westminster Hospital before joining the prison service.

Biography Horatio Bryan Donkin was born on 1 February 1845 in Blackheath, the son of civil engineer Bryan Donkin (1809–1893) and grandson of the engineer and inventor Bryan Donkin (1768–1855).

He also served as physician to East London Hospital for Children and lectured at the London School of Medicine for Women. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1880 and received an M.D. from Oxford in 1893.

Donkin was appointed a commissioner of prisons and director of convict prisons in 1898, resigning from his hospital posts. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Control of the Feeble-Minded in 1904–1908 and, upon retiring as commissioner, became medical adviser to the Prison Commission. He was interested in the psychology of crime, and viewed prisoners as if they were patients. He presented the Harveian Oration at the Royal College of Physicians in 1910, on the topic of "Inheritance of Mental Characters".

A prominent member of the Savile Club, He died on 26 July 1927 in London.