James Lawson Drummond (1783 – 1853) was an Irish physician, naturalist and botanist. Drummond was born in Larne, Co. Antrim and educated at the Belfast Academy. He received a surgical training at the Belfast Academical Institution and was an apprentice surgeon in the Royal Navy. After serving as navy surgeon in the Mediterranean from 1807 to 1813, he retired from the navy in May 1813 and then further studied medicine in Edinburgh. With a thesis on the comparative anatomy of the eye, Drummond graduated M.D. from Edinburgh on 24 June 1814.