Charles Fabre Tonnerre M.D. (c. 1818 – 20 February 1884) was a French surgeon who settled in British India and converted to homeopathy to become the Medical Officer for Health for Calcutta (Kolkata). Tonnerre was vice-president of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India, and a member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal. He was also made a Knight of the Savoyan Roman Catholic chivalric Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus.

Charles Fabre Tonnerre’s early life is unclear but he is recorded as having served as ships surgeon in the French navy. It has been suggested that early in his career Tonnerre had served as auxiliary surgeon aboard the French corvette, Le Rhin, commanded by Auguste Bérard, that explored the Pacific in 1842. A product of this voyage was the authoring of a Polynesian vocabulary book by a Monsieur Fabre, now believed to have been Tonnerre.

On his retirement from the French navy, Charles Tonnerre settled in Calcutta (Kolkata), India. There, in March, 1851, he married Sarah Harcourt.

Charles Fabre Tonnerre was one of, if not the earliest member of the medical profession to adopt homeopathy into his practice. On March 17, 1852, he opened a ten-bed native Homeopathic Hospital and Free Dispensary in Calcutta. This continued in useful operation for several years.

Dr. Tonnerre’s appointment as Medical Officer of Health for Calcutta by Sir John Hunter Littler, G.C.B., Deputy Governor of Bengal and President of the Council of India, raised a perfect storm amongst the allopathic practitioners of Calcutta. He however retained his position, and did much useful work for the city of his adoption, until ill-health, arising from sewage poisoning to which he was exposed during his official duties, compelled him to retire.

As Medical Officer for the port city of Calcutta, Tonnerre was vigorous in his investigations and proposed regulations on the sale of adulterated alcohol and also recommended a registry of ships crews.

Several of Tonnerre’s sanitary reports from Calcutta in 1866-7 were included in the 1879 “Report on Measures Adopted for Sanitary Improvements in India,” commissioned by the Secretary of State for India.

In July 1865, Tonnerre was elected a member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and in 1874 he was listed as vice-president of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India.

Owing to his faltering health, Charles Tonnerre left India for Perigeux in the South of France, and by 1878 was living at rue d’Angoulême, 17, in Périgueux, where he was a member of the Société Historique et Archéologique du Perigord.

However, around 1883, Tonnerre relocated to England and settled in Sidmouth, Devon. There he was attended in his final months by veteran homeopath Dr. Adrian Stokes. Charles Fabre-Tonnerre died on 20 February 1884, aged 66.

Tonnerre’s obituary was in the April 1884 edition of the British Homoeopathic Review:

Dr. Tonnerre was loved and respected by a large and good circle of friends and patients among both Europeans and natives in Calcutta. Three of the leading newspapers, two English and one native, have noticed his death, and deeply deplored his loss.

Select Publications:

Vocabulaires Polynesiens, composes, en 1845, Suit. IV, Vocabulaire des iles Wallis, pouvant servir pour les iles Loyalty et la Nouvelle Caledonie [Revue Coloniale, Jl. 1847] (1847)

Statistiques Médicales de l’émigration Française a Calcutta (1862)