Old Photograph Insch Scotland

Old photograph of Insch, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Situated approximately 28 miles from the city of Aberdeen. In the Middle Ages, this Scottish village was home to a colony of Flemish merchants. Robert Daun was born in Insch 1785, the eldest son of Rev George Daun,the local minister, on 16 April 1785. He went to Elgin Grammar School and then studied Medicine at King's College, Aberdeen graduating MA in 1803. Having sat the relevant medical exams in London, in 1804 he received a commission as Assistant Surgeon aged only 19 in the army and travelled to India to work there, aiding in the Second Anglo-Maratha War. He served first with the 22nd Light Dragoons then the 59th Foot. He returned to Britain around 1812 and received his MD degree from Aberdeen University in 1813. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1814. He then joined the Scots Greys. This resulted in his being shipped with them to the Continent, and being with them at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Whilst not on the front line, his position as Surgeon to the regiment would have rendered him an unenviable task, in this, one of history’s bloodiest battles. Thereafter he joined the occupying army in Paris following Napoleon’s defeat.He was nomadic by nature living in London 1832 to 1835, St Andrews 1835 to 1839 and Aberdeen 1839 to 1861. In 1832 he was elected a Member of the Geological Society of London, England. He died peacefully at home in Edinburgh on 14 June 1871, aged 86. He is buried in Dean Cemetery in west Edinburgh. His wife, Helen Jamieson, died 1892, lies with him.


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