Charles Donovan MD (19 September 1863 – 29 October 1951) was an Irish medical officer in the Indian Medical Service. He is best remembered for his discoveries of Leishmania donovani as the causative agent of visceral leishmaniasis, and Klebsiella granulomatis as that of donovanosis. The son of a judge in India, he was born in Calcutta and completed his primary education in India, and continued secondary school in Cork City, Ireland. He graduated in medicine from Trinity College, Dublin and joined the Indian Medical Service. He participated in British expeditions to Mandalay in Burma, Royapuram and Mangalore in India, Afghanistan, and finally Madras (now Chennai), where he spent the rest of his service. He was professor at Madras Medical College from 1898 until his retirement in 1919. Early life and education Charles Donovan was the eldest of nine children of Charles Donovan. He was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in Bengal (now West Bengal), India. His father, an Irish judge, was working in the Indian Civil Service. He attended elementary schools in Dehra Dun and Mussoorie. In 1879 when he was thirteen years of age he was sent to Cork City in Ireland to live with his grandfather Charles Donovan. He continued his education and entered Queen’s College, Cork. Then he studied medicine at Trinity College, Dublin. He received an MD degree in 1889 from the Royal University of Ireland. Medical career After postgraduate training in Dublin hospitals for two years, Donovan was commissioned as Captain in the Indian Medical Service in 1891. He was sent to the Royal Army Medical Corps at Netley for probationary training. He set sail for India on 30 September 1891 and reached Bombay (now Mumbai) on 26 October. After a brief stay in India he was stationed at Fort Dufferin in Mandalay. After seven years of service in several expeditionary forces in Burma, India and Afghanistan, he was finally posted in Madras in 1898. He initially worked in the Surgeon General Office before eventually being posted to Madras Medical College and Government General Hospital, both of which were teaching institutions. In the college he was a professor, and in the hospital he was a Second Physician and held the Chair of the Physiology Department. In 1910 he was transferred to Government Royapettah Hospital to become its first Medical Superintendent. He continued to teach at the medical college until his retirement in 1919 with the