696 Donald Dalrymple

Constituency : Bath 1868-73

Donald  took  the  second  Bath  seat  from  the  Tories.

Donald  was  from  Norwich, the son of an eminent doctor.He  was  educated  at  the grammar  school  there  and  became  a  doctor.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians  but  had  retired  from  practice  by  the  time  he  entered  Parliament. He  was  a  director  of  the  Norwich  Unioon  Insurance  Company. He  was  an  Anglican  who  opposed  the  sale  of  livings. He  was  also  the  proprietor  of  a  lunatic  asylum

 Donald's  particular  concern  was  the  treatment  of  alcoholics  and  he  chaired  a  select  Committee  on  the  subject. He  viewed  alcoholism  as  an  illness  in  which  "self  control  is  suspended  or  annihilated "  rather  than  a  moral  weakness. He  dismissed  a  scheme  for  permissive  legislation  on  local  licensing  regulations  which  angered  his  temperance  supporters. In  1871  he  visited  inebriates  institutions  in  the  USA  and  Canada  and  came  back  convinced  that  some  element  of  compulsion  was  necessary. In  1872  he  promoted  a  Habitual Drunkards  Bill  based  on  the  recommendations  of  a  Select  Committee  but  it  was  held  up  by the  controversies  around  the  Irish  Universities  Bill  and  an  Act  wasn't  passed  until  1879 .  A  Home  for  Inebriates  opened  in  1884  was  named  after  him  in  recognition  of  his  efforts.

Donald  also spoke  against  the  abolition  of  imprisonment  for  debt.

Donald  wrote  On  The  Climate  of  Egypt.

He  died  while  on  a  shooting  expedition  in  1873  aged  59.