James Alexander GAMMIE

James Alexander GAMMIE

Male 1839 - 1924  (84 years)


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  • Name James Alexander GAMMIE 
    Birth 12 Nov 1839  Maryculter, Kincardine, Scotland, UK Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Residence 1865-1897  Sikkim, Himalayan Mountains, India Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Census 1901  3 Grosvenor Rd, Chiswick, Middlesex, England, UK Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • 1901 Census for 3, Grosvenor Road, Chiswick, Brentford, Middlesex, England
      First name(s) Last name Relationship Marital status Sex Age Birth year Occupation Birth place
      James A Gammie Head Married Male 61 1840 Retired cinchona planter Scotland
      Mary Gammie Wife Married Female 61 1840 - Brentford, Middlesex, England
      James W Gammie Son Single Male 26 1875 Tea planter East Indies
      Amy Gammie Daughter Single Female 21 1880 - East Indies
      M Mary Mines Grand daughter Single Female 8 1893 - Littlehampton, Sussex, England
      A G Mines Grand son Single Male 10 1891 - Chiswick, Middlesex, England
      A E Mason Servant Single Female 18 1883 General servant domestic Bookham, Surrey, England
    Census 1911  1 Harvard Rd, Middlesex, England, UK Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • 1911 Census For England & Wales
      1 Harvard Road Chiswick W, Chiswick, Middlesex, England
      First name(s) Last name Relationship to head Marital status Sex Age Birth year Occupation Birth place
      James Alexander Gammie Head Married Male 71 1840 Pensioned cinchona planter Kincordine Maryculter Resident
      Mary Gammie Wife Married 47 years, 9 children, 7 living, 2 deceased Female 71 1840 - Middlesex Brentford
      Alexander George Mines Grandson Single Male 20 1891 Asst clerk post office savings bank Middlesex Chiswick
      Marjorie Mary Mines Granddaughter Single Female 18 1893 - Sussex Littlehampton
      Mary Edwards Servant Single Female 29 1882 General servant domestic Dublin Dublin Resident

    Census 1921  1 Harvard Rd, Middlesex, England, UK Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • 1921 census for 1 Harvard Rd, Middlesex, England
      First name(s) Last name Rel to head Sex Birth year Age birth place Occ. Employer
      James A Gammie Head Male 1839 81 years 7 months Kincardineshire, Scotland Cinchona Planter, Retried The Government Of Bengal, India
      Mary Gammie Wife Female 1840 81 years 6 months Brentford, Middlesex, England - -
      Mary A Mackinnon Daughter Female 1868 52 years 11 months Darjeeling, India - -
      Marjorie M Mines Granddaughter Female 1893 28 years 5 months Littlehampton, Sussex, England - -

    Occupation Cinchona planter, India 
    Death 13 Apr 1924  Brentford, Middlesex, England, UK Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • UK and Ireland, Find a Grave Index, 1300s-Current
      Name: James Alexander Gammie Gender: Male Birth Date: 12 Nov 1839 Birth Place: Kincardine, Highland, Scotland
      Death Date: 13 Apr 1924 Death Place: Chiswick, London Borough of Hounslow, Greater London, England Cemetery: Old Chiswick Cemetery
      Burial or Cremation Place: Chiswick, London Borough of Hounslow, Greater London, England
      https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/229825812/james-alexander-gammie

    Probate 30 May 1924  London, Middlesex, England, UK Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • England and Wales, National Probate.
      Gammie James Alexander of 1 Harvard-road Chiswich Middlesex died 13 April 1924 Probate London 30 May to Cyril Claude Pearson broker and George Alexander Gammie retired Indian civil servant. Effects 5206 pounds 7 shilling 3 pence. Resworn 4662 pounds 11 shillings 4 pence.

    _FGRAVE 229825812 
    Notes 
    • From http://www.kewguild.org.uk/media/pdfs/v3s25p399-1.pdf
      JAMES A. GAMMIE.
      THE honourable roll of the Kew Guild contains few names of members whose association with Kew is of longer standing, and no name more deserving of honour by its members than that of the President-elect for 1918.
      Born on November 12, 1839, at Kingcausie, in the county of Kincardine. Mr. Gammie served his apprenticeship at Drum Castle, Aberdeenshire, where his father had charge of the gardens for 45 years.
      At the age of 17 he came south, working successively in the gardens of Stapleton Park, York*; Messrs. J.Veitch, Chelsea, and Stockwood Park, near Luton, entering Kew in the spring of 1861, among his colleagues of that year being Mr. W. B. Hemsley and Mr. J.K.Jackson.
      During a stay of four and a half years Mr. Gammie's work was wholly confined to the decorative and flower garden department under Mr. Craig.
      After this period of service at Kew, our President-elect was specially selected by the Secretary of State for India, in August 1865, to serve as Manager of the young and struggling Cinchona Plantation in Sikkim.
      The task he had to undertake was difficult. The cultural requirements of the various Cinchonas had still to some extent to be ascertained ; the soil was indifferent; the climate was not ideal.
      The uphill work called both for knowledge and judgment as to what was feasible and for courage to attempt what might seem impossible.
      If the hour ever produces the man this happened when Mr. Gammie devoted his talents to the problem, and to hini is largely due the success that, in the face of difficulties which might have disheartened the bravest, has rewarded the effort to produce Cinchona Bark on a commercial scale in the Government Plantations in Sikkim.
      This, however, was but half the task that confronted the Cinchona Department. The other was to separate from the harvested bark the alkaloids it contained and to do this economically and on a commercial scale.
      In this, too, Mr. Gammie took an important share. Before a method of separating quinine had been devised, a process was adopted for the extraction as a mixed febrifuge of all the alkaloids in the bark.
      This process was worked by Mr. Gammie from 1879 onwards and called for the same skill and thoroughness that had marked his work as a planter.
      When Mr. Wood, the quinologist, who designed this process, retired in 1879, he and Mr. Gammie still kept the further aim of separating pure quinine in view.
      At last Mr. Wood invented, in his private laboratory in London, an admirable process which Mr. Gammie perfected in the factory in Sikkim.
      It is on official record that without Mr. Wood the process would net have been invented; without Mr. Gammie it would not have been successfully applied to manufacture.
      For his share in this great work Mr. Gammie, then Resident Manager of the Government Cinchona Plantations, was promoted to be Deputy Superintendent of the Cinchona Department.
      But for him the humane object of the Indian Government when they introduced Cinchona to the East, which was to place quinine within reach of the poorest, could not have been realised so early and so effectively as it was.
      After eleven years spent in working and improving this process Mr. Gammie retired in 1897.
      If the thoroughness with which Mr. Gammie's work as a planter was done made the growing of Cinchona a success, it was this same quality that enabled him to prepare cinchona febrifuge and, later still, to separate quinine.
      The capacity for mastering his subject was accompanied by a corresponding ability to prevent his subject from mastering him.
      This double gift was nowhere more apparent than in the studies of his leisure hours, which were devoted to natural history.
      None have ever made more use of their opportunities in this fleld than our President-elect, and few'have acquired a wider knowledge of the subject as a whole, the method followed being that of thoroughly mastering some particular branch of the fauna of British Sikkim before seriously undertaking the study of another.


      Aberdeen Journal 17 April 1924 page 8 (obviously based on above).
      Mr James A. Gammie. Distinguished worker quinine plantations.
      Our obituary notices to-day include the name of Mr James A. Gammie a distinguished Aberdeenshire man, who for 32 years was Superintendent of the Government Cinchona (Quinine) Plantations in Sikkim.
      Mr Gammie served his apprenticeship at Drum Castle, where for 45 years his father was gardener.
      After a period in Kew Gardens, he was specially selected, in 1865, by the Secretary of State for India, to serve as manager of the young and struggling Chinchona Plantation in Sikkim.
      He had a difficult task, for the cultural requirements of the various Chinchonas had still to some extent to be ascertained; the soil as indifferent; the climate was not ideal.
      But Mr Gammie surmounted these difficulties, and to him was due the success that made it possible to produce Cinchona bark on a commercial scale in the Government plantations there.
      To him also, in a great measure, belongs the credit for the successful experiments to separate from the harvested bark the alkaloids it contained, and to do this economically on a commercial basis.
      But for him, it has been stated, the humane efforts of the Indian Government to place quinine within the reach of the poorest could not have been realised so early and so effectively as it was.
      Mr Gammie retired in 1897, and, since then, had resided in London, devoting his leisure to natural history.
      In 1918 he was honoured by the Kew Guild by being elected president of that society.
      He was the most modest of men (writes a correspondent), shy and retiring, and loving the quite way of life, but was great in friendship and hospitality.
      He kept us his interests in nature study to the last, and his life was full of devotion to the best things.
      The Church of Scotland station of Kalimpong never had better friends than Mr Gammie, his wife and their like-minded family.
      These survive him, and also his two sisters, Misses Gammie, Lochwood, Drumoak.

    Person ID I4278  Warren Nunn's family tree
    Last Modified 12 Dec 2022 

    Father George GAMMIE,   b. 24 May 1809, Marnoch, Banff, Scotland, UK Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 16 Mar 1906, South Coldstream Cottage Drumoak, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 96 years) 
    Mother Jean SILVER,   b. 18 Aug 1812, Maryculter, Kincardineshire, Scotland, UK Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 11 Aug 1891, Drumoak, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 78 years) 
    Marriage 21 Nov 1835  Maryculter, Kincardine, Scotland, UK Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • Scotland, Select Marriages, 1561-1910
      Name: George Gammie Gender: Male Marriage Date: 21 Nov 1835 Marriage Place: Maryculter, Kincardine, Scotland Spouse: Jean Silver


      Maryculter OPR: Jean Silver OTP and George Gammie Stripside Blairs married 21/11/1835
    Family ID F1253  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Mary PARRELL,   b. Oct 1839, Old Brentford, Middlesex, England, UK Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 29 Oct 1925, Brentford, Middlesex, England, UK Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 86 years) 
    Marriage 28 Jan 1864  St Mary's Parish Church, Ealing, Middlesex, England, UK Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • 1864 marriages solemnized in the parish church Ealing in the county of Middlesex.
      No 290, 1864 January 28th, James Alex Gammie, bachelor, gardener, of Kew. Father: George Gammie, gardener and Mary Parrell, spinster, of Old Bretford. Father: John Parrell. Witnesses: George Acnett?, Rebecca Parrell.


      England, Select Marriages, 1538-1973
      Name: James Alexander Gammie Gender: Male Marriage Date: 28 Jan 1864 Marriage Place: St Mary'S, Ealing, Middlesex, England Father: George Gammie Spouse: Mary Parrell FHL Film Number: 2214227

    Children 
     1. George Alexander GAMMIE,   b. Jul 1864, Brentford, Middlesex, England, UK Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 5 May 1934, Chiswick, Brentford, Middlesex, England, UK Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 69 years)
     2. Jane Elizabeth GAMMIE,   b. 12 Aug 1866, India Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Apr 1906, Brentford, Middlesex, London, England, UK Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 39 years)
     3. Mary Ann GAMMIE,   b. 23 Jul 1868, Bengal Presidency, India Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 27 Nov 1949, Ealing, Middlesex, London, England, UK Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 81 years)
     4. Louisa GAMMIE,   b. 9 Aug 1871, Notting Hill, London, England, UK Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 24 Jun 1896, Bulabarrie Tea Estate, Duars, India Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 24 years)
     5. James William GAMMIE,   b. 28 May 1874, Bengal Presidency, India Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 26 Feb 1934, Race Cottage, Ridgewell, Halstead, Essex, England, UK Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 59 years)
     6. Elsie GAMMIE,   b. 3 Apr 1876, Bengal Presidency, India Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Apr 1970, Midhurst, Sussex, England Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 94 years)
     7. Mabel GAMMIE,   b. 3 Apr 1876, Bengal Presidency, India Find all individuals with events at this locationd. UNKNOWN
     8. Amy GAMMIE,   b. 19 Aug 1879, Bengal Presidency, India Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 7 Nov 1975, Worthing, West Sussex, England Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 96 years)
     9. John Parrell GAMMIE,   b. 14 Jun 1881, Bengal Presidency, India Find all individuals with events at this locationd. UNKNOWN
    Family ID F415  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 28 Feb 2025 

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