46 PROCEEDINGS OV THE 



entered the Meeting room, tliough from 1881-83 he was a Member 

 tiF the Council. The last occasion on which the present writer met 

 him was during the sittinu;s of a J^eparhnental Treasury Com- 

 mittee in 1900-01, when Sir John Kirk was j)iinctnal and constant 

 in his attendance. 



He was born at Barry, near Arbroath, on the 19th December, 

 \b'>i2, the second son of the liev. John Kirk, of Arbilot. Attracted 

 to botany, but choosing medicine as his profession, he entered 

 Edinburgh University before completing his 15th year, and in 

 1854 he graduated as M.D. and L.K.C.S. The Crimean War 

 broke out at that time, and Kirk oi'ganised a party of twenty 

 Scottish medical students to proceed to the seat of war ; he was 

 appointed assistant physician at lienkioi, where he found time to 

 collect a few plants and open up correspondence with Sir William 

 Hooker at Kew. 



.Returning home in 1857 he was meditating seeking an appoint- 

 ment in Canada, when the opening occurred of his going with 

 Liviiigtone on his Zambesi mission. They left England in March 

 1858, and soon after starting, Kirk acted as second in command 

 during the five eventful years which followed. Coming back to 

 the lower Zambesi, he employed all his skill in trying to save the 

 life of Mrs. Livingstone, and then falling ill himself, he was 

 ordered home, which he reached in 1863. 



Me accepted in January 18G6 the post of surgeon to the political 

 agency at Zanzibar; the next year he became Yice-Consnl, a twelve- 

 month later Assistant Political Agent, and in April 1873, Agent 

 and Consul. 



He married Helen Cooke in 1867 at Zanzibar, and three of his 

 four children were born there. He energetically supported Sir 

 Bartle Erere in his efforts to suppress the slave trade, wiiich 

 succeeded in 1873, after Erere had left. Kirk was raised to 

 Consul-General and had honours bestowed upon him — C.M.G. in 

 1879, K.C.M.G. in 1881, and G. C.M.G. in 1880. 



Lord Beaconsfield declined the offer to lease the mainland terri- 

 tories of the Sultan of Zanzibar, so the way was left open for 

 other nations. In 1884, Gerhard Rohlfs was sent to Zanzibar as 

 Consul-General in a ship of war, whilst Carl Peters and two com- 

 panions in disguise stole across to the n)ainlaud treaty-making. 

 But they were forestalled by Mr. H. H. Johnston under Kirk's 

 direction. He left Zanzibar in 1886, and he Hved to see the 

 mistakes of 1SS4-86 rectified and German East Africa come under 

 British administration. Pensioned in 1887, he was still xised hy 

 the Foreign Office on several missione, and his last trip to Africa 

 »vas to visit the L^ganda Railway. 



He settled at Sevenoaks soon after he returned, but still was 

 actively em])loyed, and it was not till 1911, when he was nearly 80, 

 that lie quitted his last oflice, Foreign Secretary of the Koyal Geo- 

 graphical Society. Increasing dimness of sight at last ])revented 

 his reading, and he passed quietly away on the 15th January; 

 1922, in his 90th year. 



