First generation • The Easmon family contributed to medical field following the qualification of
J.F. Easmon and
A.W. Easmon in 1879 and 1895 respectively.
John Farrell Easmon coined the term "
Blackwater fever" and was the first to link the disease directly to
malaria. J.F. Easmon was also the first and only
British West African in the nineteenth century to be substantively appointed as a
Chief Medical Officer or
Principal Medical Officer of a British West African territory.
Albert Whiggs Easmon was a pioneering
gynaecologist in
Freetown who received a purse of £100 from the ladies of Freetown. •
Edward Mayfield Boyle (1874–1936), the son of Charles Boyle and Sarah Easmon, was a
medical practitioner who attended
Howard University College of Medicine and was also one of a select group of African American medical doctors who completed courses at
Harvard Medical School. Boyle wrote a pamphlet that criticised the discriminatory practices of the British colonial administration towards medical doctors.
Second generation •
Macormack Easmon was the first West African to receive a Medical Doctorate from
London University and challenged colonial racism in the
British West African medical service. Easmon was commissioned as a Lieutenant with the West African Medical Staff between 1914 and 1915 in the
Kamerun campaign and was the only black African to receive a commission in the
First World War as an officer and received the medals,
Pip, Squeak and Wilfred for his service during the War.
Macormack Easmon was the founder of the
Sierra Leone Museum and as Chairman of the
Sierra Leone Monuments and Relics Commission designated several heritage sites in
Sierra Leone including
Bunce Island long before international interest in the slave fort. •
Kathleen Mary Easmon Simango was a talented cultural dance performer, artist and musician, and intended missionary who was the first
West African to earn a diploma from the
Royal College of Arts.
Kathleen Easmon was an active supporter of her maternal aunt,
Adelaide Casely-Hayford, and travelled to the United States with her aunt to raise funds for Casely-Hayford's proposed school. Alongside her aunt, Easmon was an honorary member of the
Zeta Phi Beta, an
African-American sorority. •
Edna Elliott-Horton, a niece of
Edward Mayfield Boyle, was reportedly the second
British West African woman to attend a university when she enrolled and completed her studies at
Howard University and the first West African woman to earn a liberal arts degree. •
Raymond Sarif Easmon was a prize-winning scholar at
Durham University who wrote several critically acclaimed plays and novels and was a critic of successive governments in Sierra Leone, in particular the governments of
Albert Margai and his successor,
Siaka Stevens.
Third generation •
Charles Syrett Easmon, a grandson of J.F. Easmon, was appointed as a professor in his early thirties and a high-ranking medical administrator, who received a
CBE for his contributions to the medical field in 2000. •
Charles Odamtten Easmon, a grandson of J.F. Easmon, was the first
Ghanaian to qualify as a surgeon and was a pioneer
cardiac surgeon and
gynaecologist credited by modern scholars as the
Father of Cardiac Surgery in West Africa. C. O. Easmon was a high-ranking
Freemason and was reportedly one of the first Ghanaians to own a
Mercedes-Benz when he bought a
Mercedes-Benz S-300 from a showroom in Germany. ==Commemoration and recognition==