Robert Kirk (1905-1962) was a Scottish

parasitologist Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question but by their way of life. This means it f ...

and pathologist.

Life

He was born on 26 January 1905 in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

the son of the Rev Robert Lee Kirk, a

Church of Scotland minister A Church of Scotland congregation is led by its minister and elders. Both of these terms are also used in other Christian denominations: see Minister (Christianity) and Elder (Christianity). This article discusses the specific understanding of ...

, and his wife Primrose Adair Martin, daughter of John Martin, a brewer. He was educated at

Greenock Academy The Greenock Academy was a mixed non-denominational school in the west end of Greenock, Scotland. It was founded in 1855 and was originally independent, later a grammar school with a primary department, and finally a Comprehensive school only fo ...

then studied Zoology and Medicine at

Glasgow University The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in post-nominals; ) is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ...

, winning the Gairdner Medal in medicine in 1930. He graduated MB ChB in Medicine and BSc in Zoology. His zoological studies were under Prof

John Graham Kerr Sir John Graham Kerr (18 September 1869 – 21 April 1957), known to his friends as Graham Kerr, was a British embryologist and Unionist Member of Parliament (MP). He is best known for his studies of the embryology of lungfishes. He was invol ...

. He served in several Glasgow hospitals and notably as Assistant Bacteriologist in the Glasgow Public Health Laboratories. After obtaining a further Diploma in Public Health (DPH) in 1933, he went to Africa to work in the Sudan Medical Service where he worked for twenty-two years, in both the

Stack Stack may refer to: Places * Stack Island, an island game reserve in Bass Strait, south-eastern Australia, in Tasmania’s Hunter Island Group * Blue Stack Mountains, in Co. Donegal, Ireland People * Stack (surname) (including a list of people ...

and

Wellcome Research Laboratories Wellcome Research Laboratories was a site in Beckenham, south-east London, that was a main research centre for pharmaceuticals. Until 1965, this laboratory site was situated in Kent. History In 1894 Henry Wellcome set up a laboratory in central L ...

rising to be Director of the former. Here he specialised in the study of

kala-azar Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), also known as kala-azar (Hindi: kālā āzār, "black sickness") or "black fever", is the most severe form of leishmaniasis and, without proper diagnosis and treatment, is associated with high fatality. Leishmaniasi ...

and yellow fever. He also undertook the

taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

of sand-flies. The

Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, more commonly known by its acronym RSTMH, was founded in 1907 by Sir James Cantlie and George Carmichael Low. Sir Patrick Manson, the Society's first President (1907–1909), was recognised as ...

awarded him the

Chalmers Medal The Chalmers Medal is the major mid-career award of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. The Chalmers Medal was initially awarded biennially, then annually, "in recognition of research of outstanding merit contributing to our knowl ...

for his work. He was awarded his doctorate (MD) in 1939 and won the Bellahouston Gold Medal. In 1943, he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

. His proposers were Sir

, Robert Staig,

Edward Hindle Edward Hindle FRS FRSE FIB FRGS FRPSG (21 March 1886–22 January 1973) was a British biologist and entomologist who was Regius Professor of Zoology at the University of Glasgow from 1935 to 1943. He specialised in the study of parasites. E ...

and Charles Wynford Parsons. In 1948, he was awarded an OBE and granted membership of the

Royal College of Physicians of London The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of ph ...

. He was made a Fellow in 1954. In 1951, he became Professor of Pathology at the Kitchener School of Medicine in

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum is the capital city of Sudan as well as Khartoum State. With an estimated population of 7.1 million people, Greater Khartoum is the largest urban area in Sudan. Khartoum is located at the confluence of the White Nile – flo ...

. In 1955, he left Africa and took the Sinclair Chair in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, and in 1960 moved again to be Professor of Pathology at the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is a public research university in Pokfulam, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society and formally established as the University of ...

. He died on 6 December 1962. He is buried in

Hong Kong Cemetery Hong Kong Cemetery, formerly Hong Kong (Happy Valley) Cemetery and before that Hong Kong Colonial Cemetery, is one of the early Christian cemeteries in Hong Kong dating to its colonial era beginning in 1845. It is located beside the racecour ...

Family

He married Elsie Tan Lee Chang, whom he met in Singapore. They had three sons and a daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirk, Robert 1905 births 1962 deaths Scottish pathologists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Scottish parasitologists Scientists from Glasgow People educated at Greenock Academy Alumni of the University of Glasgow 20th-century Scottish medical doctors Scottish people of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Academic staff of the University of Hong Kong Officers of the Order of the British Empire