Background
Hunter was born in the East End of London. His father was George Hunter, a deputy engineer in the General Post Office.
Hunter was born in the East End of London. His father was George Hunter, a deputy engineer in the General Post Office.
He completed his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1922 and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1929.
He entered The London Hospital in 1915 but left in World War I to become a surgeon probationer Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in HMS Faulkner in the Dover Patrol. After the war, he returned to The London Hospital and qualified in 1920. Following a series of house appointments, he became first assistant to Lord Dawson of Penn (1864–1945) and then was appointed Assistant Physician to The London Hospital in 1927.
Hunter became curator to the Medical School Museum in 1933, and during his 30 years in office collected specimens said to ‘represent almost all that is worth having in morbid anatomy’.
He later became Director of the Medical Research Council’s Department for Research in Industrial Medicine at The London Hospital. They had four children, two of whom became doctors.
In 1935 he gave a series of lectures to the Derby Medical Society on occupational diseases. These lectures were followed by other publications, often jointly with colleagues.
These all culminated in his 1955 book The Diseases of Occupations which became a classic "as soon as it was published".
lieutenant was said that he wrote all 1000 pages by getting up at 5 a.m. for 18 months. lieutenant has been criticized as "perhaps lacking in balance" and being "sometimes irrelevant" but "always entertaining and gaining immeasurably from its readability and its impact on the medical profession."
There followed a Penguin Book Health in Industry published in 1959. Hunter"s memory is preserved not only by his book but also by a Donald Hunter Room at the Royal College of Physicians.
There is also a Donald Hunter House in London which provides accommodation for students.