George Alexander Pirie

George Alexander Pirie (1863 – 27 October 1929) was a Scottish medical doctor and pioneering researcher in the use of X-rays in clinical medicine.

Early life George Alexander Pirie was born in Dundee where his father, Dr George Clark Pirie, was a physician at the Dundee Royal Infirmary from 1862 to 1881. The family lived at 43 South Tay Street in Dundee.

Pirie graduated with an MA from the University of St. Andrews, and then studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with an MB ChM with first-class honours in 1886 and an MD in 1890.

Career In 1887 he started work at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary as a resident under Scottish physician Sir Thomas Grainger Stewart, before moving to Dundee. Pirie worked at the Dundee Royal Infirmary from 1896 to 1925, and was an early pioneer in the application of X-rays to clinical medicine. He began experimenting with radiology, radiography, and X-rays in 1896, soon after the Wilhelm Röntgen had first demonstrated X-rays and their potential in Germany.

Later life

From 1905, Pirie had begun to suffer from hand problems and by 1925 had had to give up work due to the damage caused to his hands and eyes through exposure to radiation during his work with x-rays. By 1926 he had lost the sight in one eye, had much reduced vision in the other, and had had both of his hands amputated due to radiation related tumours.

Memorials

Pirie was one of 14 Britons among the 169 X-ray pioneers from 15 nations honoured at the Monument to the X-ray and Radium Martyrs of All Nations unveiled in Hamburg in 1936 to commemorate those researchers who had died or been injured as a result of their X-ray related work.

George Pirie Way in the Ninewells Hospital site in Dundee is named after him.