Background
Gunning was the second son of the famous Dutch theologian Johannes Hermanus Gunning (1829-1905) and Johanna Jacoba Gunning.
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January Gunning
Edit ProfileEducation
He attended the University of Amsterdam, Leiden University and Jena University, qualifying as a doctor of medicine.
Career
In 1884 he emigrated to South Africa and started a practice in the Orange Free State. From the Free State, he moved to the Cape Colony and practised there until 1897 when he was appointed as first director of the Staatsmuseum (State Museum) in Pretoria, which later was renamed the Transvaal Museum. He remained director until his death in 1913.
Gunning was responsible for founding the National Zoo in Pretoria in 1899.
While Winston Churchill was imprisoned in Pretoria during the Boer War, he became well acquainted with Gunning, who was one of the directors of the prison. Of him, he said:
She was the daughter of William Rouse Dobbin and Emma Elizabeth Kirkham.
He compiled A Checklist of the Birds of South Africa with Alwin Karl Haagner in 1910. The bird species Sheppardia gunningi, also called east coast akalat or Gunning"s akelat, is named for him.
