Early Life
Edward Jenner was born in Berkeley, Gloucestershire on 17th May 1749. He was the eighth of the nine children born to the vicar of Berkeley, the Reverend Stephen Jenner, and his wife Sarah. Unfortunately, by the time Edward was five years old both of his parents had died and he was left in the care of his older sister, Mary, who was soon to marry the incoming vicar, the Reverend G. C. Black.
Edward grew up with a great knowledge and interest in country matters: he collected birds' eggs and visited the shores of the River Severn (only a mile to the west of Berkeley) to collect fossils and anything of interest that might have been washed ashore.
Education and Medical Training
He went to school in Wotton-under-Edge and Cirencester. During this time he was inoculated for smallpox, which had a lifelong effect upon his general health. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed for seven years to Mr Daniel Ludlow, a surgeon of Chipping Sodbury, where he gained most of the experience needed to become a surgeon himself.
In 1770 he moved to St. George's Hospital in London, to complete his medical training under the great surgeon and experimentalist John Hunter. Hunter quickly recognised Edward's abilities at dissection and investigation, as well as his understanding of plant and animal anatomy. The two men were to remain lifelong friends and correspondents.
In 1772 at the age of 23 Edward Jenner returned to Berkeley and established himself as the local practitioner and surgeon. Although in later years he established medical practices in London and Cheltenham, Jenner remained essentially a resident of Berkeley.
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