John Buddle Blyth was born in Jamaica in July 1814 to John Blythe and Mary Buddle, a "free woman of colour" and descendant of a freed slave. He was baptised on 11 April 1816 by Edmund Pope, rector of Westmoreland, and described as a "free child of colour". He eventually became the first professor of chemistry at Queens College, Cork, Ireland. Of note, whilst the Journal of the Chemical Society -1872, Volume 25 - Page 342 states that John Blyth, M.D., was born of Scotch parents in Jamaica, in 1814, the Centre for the Studies of the Legacies of British Slavery provides more details about his parents (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146634372). His father being Scottish, John was sent to Dumfries, Scotland for his education at an early age. Later, John Buddle Blyth attended the University of Glasgow where he studied the arts for 3 years before switching to medicine in 1833 and moving to the University of Edinburgh where he completed his medical degree in 1839. After practicing medicine for a short time, he decided to focus on chemistry as he wrote that " physiology and sound practical medicine must hereafter look (to chemistry) for their further progress". He then studied & worked in chemistry for a few years in both France and Germany returning to England in 1845 to work with the Royal College of Chemistry. He moved to the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, England as professor in chemistry where he remained for two years before being appointed the first professor of chemistry at Queen's College Cork in Ireland in 1849. In addition to teaching chemistry and examining chemistry for the Queen's University he also taught and did work for the government in medical jurisprudence. He died in Cork, Ireland in 1871 of apoplexy (what we now know as a stroke).