Joshua Nunn

Colonel Joshua Arthur Nunn (1853–1908) was an Irish-born veterinarian and later barrister working in India and South Africa.

From 1880 to 1885 he was attached to the Indian Civil Service attached to the Punjab district and charge with disease control as required under the Glanders and Farcy Act. In 1886 he was ordered to go to South Africa to investigate a major outbreak of horse sickness. He first undertook courses in bacteriology at Cambridge and Paris as the outbreak was believed to be anthrax and would then have been a national disaster. He reached South Africa in January 1887. He proved the disease was malarial in origin. In 1888 he took part in the Zulu Campaign and was present at the surrender of Chief Somkali at the St Lucia Lagoon.

In 1904 he became Principal Veterinary Officer for England. In 1905 he became Principal Veterinary Officer for South Africa, and finally in 1906 Principal Veterinary Officer for India. King Edward VII created him a Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1906.

He retired due to continuing ill-health in 1907n and died in Oxford on 23 February 1908.

Family

In 1907 (aged 54) he married Gertrude Ann Chamberlain (née Kellner) a widow. He died within a year of marrying. They had no children.

Publications Animal Diseases in Rohtak (1882) Diseases in Sialkote and Hazara (1883) Diseases in the Montgomery and Shapur Districts (1885) Reports on African Horse Sickness (1888) Notes on Stable Management in India and the Colonies (1896) Lectures on Saddlery and Harness (1902) Veterinary First Aid in Cases of ASccident or Sudden Illness (1903) The Use of Molasses as a Feeding Material (1903) Veterinary Toxicology (1906) Diseases of the Mammary Gland of Domestic Animals