Harvey Pirie

Dr James Hunter Harvey Pirie (10 December 1878^[1] – 27 September 1965^[2]) was a medical doctor 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.

Medical career

Pirie earned his medical degree at the University of Edinburgh. From 1902 until 1904 he participated in the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition under William Speirs Bruce as a surgeon and geologist. 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.^[2] He signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 1948^[2] and in the same year, the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists of South Africa.^[3]

Publications

• The voyage of the Scotia, being a record of a voyage of exploration in the Antarctic Seas by Robert Cockburn Mossman, James Hunter Harvey Pirie, and Robert Neal Rudmose-Brown, C. Hurst London (1906)
• Antarctic posts and stamps, Harry Hayes, Batley, 1975.

References and sources

References

Sources

• Dr Harvey Pirie and the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (1902-4). Scottish science and medicine in the Falklands and Antarctica. PMID 6340196
• James Hunter Harvey Pirie collection.
• Brief biography of his wife Mabel.