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Born Edinburgh 1776; died Edinburgh 1851
Descended from East Lothian printers, Patrick Neill attended Edinburgh University though did not graduate. He joined the family firm of printers and eventually established his own firm of Neill & Co. ; the success of his company allowed him to devote much time to scientific pursuits. In 1804 he visited Orkney and Shetland and accounts of his natural history and economic observations appeared in The Scots Magazine. In 1808 he became a founder member of the Wernerian Natural History Society comprising leading lights of the Scottish scientific community as well as eminent international members. In 1809 he became first secretary of the Caledonian Horticultural Society (CHS), a position he was to hold for the next 40 years. This Society, still active today, brought together professional and amateur gardeners, academics, landowners and nurserymen. William Neill had inherited Canonmills Cottage in north Edinburgh and in its half acre garden created a ‘mini’ botanic garden with thousands of rare and unusual plants from all over the world, as well as a small menagerie. In 1813 Neill produced a report on Scottish Gardens and Orchards, the first general survey of Scottish horticulture, and in 1817 was commissioned by the CHS to examine the state of horticulture in Northern Europe involving an extensive trip through France and the Low Countries. In the 1820s he advised Edinburgh town council on the development East Princes St Gardens leading to new plantings of 27,000 trees and shrubs, though the design was subsequently wrecked by the building of the railway and Scott Monument in the 1840s. Neill was held in high regard by his fellow citizens as evidenced by his 1843 testimonial silver vase paid for by working gardeners, and the Caledonian Society’s successful growth and influence owed much to Neill’s enthusiasm and careful administration. He died in 1851 and among his charitable bequests was £500 to the Royal CHS to found a medal for a distinguished botanist or cultivator, and the same amount to the Royal Society of Edinburgh for a medal for distinguished Scottish naturalists.
Sources: Dictionary of National Biography; ‘Patrick Neill , Doyenne of Scottish Horticulture’Forbes W Robertson; (R. Desmond ‘Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists).
D.W.

English Botanist and founder of the Linnean Society

born at Bu of Hoy, Orkney on 29th November 1913, and died at Kirkwall, Orkney, 15th February 1968, James Sinclair obtained a BSc at Edinburgh University in 1936, became a teacher on Orkney where he also studied algae. He worked as a botanist at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh between 1946 and 1948, moving to become Curator of the Herbarium of the Botanic Gardens in Singapore between 1948 and 1963. He collected plants in Malaya, Borneo, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Born Lanarkshire 1685 (or 1683); died Edinburgh 1760
Charles Alston initially attended Glasgow University and then spent time in legal training through the patronage of the Duchess of Hamilton, before eventually being employed as her ‘principal servant’ where he was able to use his leisure time to study medicine. When the position of superintendent of the physic garden at the Palace of Holyrood in Edinburgh became vacant in 1715, the Duchess used her political influence to secure the post for her protégé. She acquired a commission from George I appointing him King’s Botanist in 1716, a post he held for life. He then returned to Glasgow to obtain a degree, taking a year out to study under Herman Boerhaave at Leiden, before graduating in 1719. After this his reputation developed rapidly. He was elected to the fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians in 1721 and appointed Secretary in 1725, a post he held for 21 years. He taught botany and materia medica at Edinburgh University where he played a major part in enhancing the international reputation of the medical school, and he was appointed professor in 1738, thereby combining the commission of the Kings Botanist in Scotland with the Chair of Botany at the University of Edinburgh, a pattern set for the next two centuries forging a link between the Garden's collections and the University's research and teaching. By 1746 Alston's reputation and stipend (from the Town Council, Patrons of the Chair) were such that he could take on the revival of the University’s botanical garden at Trinity Hospital. The city’s original Garden at St. Anne’s Yard and the Royal Garden at Holyrood also thrived under Alston. Alston first published in 1740 an index to plants demonstrated to pupils in the Botanic Garden. His research interests latterly focused on the medicinal qualities of quick-lime and water. He also made an ‘ill-judged’ attack on the Linnaean sexual system of plant classification.
Sources: DNB; Fletcher & Brown's ‘The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 1670-1970’; Desmond's Dictionary; Bown's '4 Gardens in 1'
by D.W.