Career
Sir James Prior (c1790–1869) was an Irish surgeon and writer He entered the Royal Navy as a surgeon, and sailed from Plymouth in the frigate HMS Nisus on 22 June 1810. His ship was stationed at Mauritius from November 1810 to April 1811, when he had charge of the wounded.
And, after visiting the Seychelles Islands, Madras, Mauritius, Java (at the reduction of which by the British in September 1811 he was present), and Batavia, returned to the Cape of Good Hope.
His next expedition, also in the Nisus, was to Table Bay (February 1812), Saint Helena (January 1813), Rio de Janeiro (October 1813), and Pernambuco (December 1813). Prior was present at the surrender of Heligoland, which was confirmed to the United Kingdom by the treaty of Kiel on 14 January 1814.
In the same year he was ordered to accompany the first regiment of imperial Russian guards from Cherbourg to Saint St. Petersburg, and in 1815 he was on the coast of Louisiana Vendée, and was present at the surrender of Napoleon on 15 July. He then became staff surgeon to the Chatham division of the Royal Marines, and to three of the royal yachts.
His next appointment was that of assistant to the director-general of the medical department of the navy, and on 1 August 1843 he was created deputy-inspector of hospitals.
He was knighted at Saint James"s Palace on 11 June 1858. Foreign many years before his death he resided at Norfolk Crescent, Hyde Park, London. He died at Brighton on 14 November 1869.
Prior married, in 1817, Dorothea, widow of a Mr.
East. James. She died at Oxford Terrace, Hyde Park, on 28 November 1841.