Edward jenner smallpox vaccine biography

Edward Jenner (1749-1823)

Edward Jenner was born in Berkeley, Gloucestershire on 17th May 1749.

Edward jenner vaccine

He was the eighth of the nine children born to the vicar of Berkeley, the Reverend Stephen Jenner, and his wife Sarah.

Education and medical training

Jenner went to school in Wotton-under-Edge and Cirencester. During this time he was inoculated for smallpox, which had a lifelong effect upon his general health.

At the age of 14 he was apprenticed for seven years to Mr Daniel Ludlow, a surgeon of Chipping Sodbury, where he gained most of the experience needed to become a surgeon himself.

In 1770 he moved to St. George's Hospital in London, to complete his medical training under the great surgeon and experimentalist John Hunter.

Hunter quickly recognised Edward's abilities at dissection and investigation, as well as his understanding of plant and animal anatomy. The two men were to remain lifelong friends and correspondents.

In 1772 at the age of 23, Edward Jenner returned to Berkeley a