Harvey Pirie


Dr James Hunter Harvey Pirie FRSE FRCPE was a 20th-century Scottish medical doctor, philatelist, orchid-grower and bacteriologist. Pirie named the bacterial genus Listeria in honor of Joseph Lister and the Pirie Peninsula is named after him. Cape Mabel was named after his wife. In authorship he is known as J. H. H. Pirie.

Life

He was born in Glasgow the son of Dr John Pirie of 26 Elmbank Crescent.
Pirie earned his first medical degree at Glasgow University graduating MB ChB in 1902. From 1902 until 1904 he participated in the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition on the ex-whaling ship Scotia, under William Speirs Bruce, Pirie acting as both surgeon and geologist. This involved spending the majority of 1903 on a makeshift base on the South Orkney Islands. He went on to postgraduate studies at the University of Edinburgh and was awarded his doctorate in 1907 after producing his thesis - 'On the smaller polygonal cells of the grey matter of the spinal cord'.
In 1908 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Daniel John Cunningham, Alexander Bruce, Henry Harvey Littlejohn, and David Waterston.
He later worked in a private medical practice in Scotland. In 1913, he joined the Colonial Medical Service in Kenya as a bacteriologist and he became deputy director at the South African Institute for Medical Research in Johannesburg from 1926 till 1941.

Philately

Pirie was a noted philatelist with a specialism in the philately of the polar regions. He was Editor of the South African Philatelist for thirty-six years, and wrote important works on the stamps of Swaziland and the New Republic. He signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 1948 and in the same year, the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists of South Africa.

Publications