School & Education Awards

Lot 2091    Day 2    School & Education Awards

Estimate $1,000
Bid at live.noble.com.au

NBHS (NAPIER BOYS' HIGH SCHOOL), uniface struck in gold (9ct, 8.38g, 26x26mm), by L.S.McCl (L.S.McClurg, Ashburton), ring top suspension, reverse inscribed 'Pres. By/Napier/Chamber of Commerce/For/Commercial Arithmetic/H.Purves/1924'; another also die struck in gold (15ct, 9.21g,26x26mm), by L.S.McCl (L.S.McClurg, Ashburton), ring top suspension, obverse inscribed 'N.B.H.S.' (not die struck as for first medal), reverse inscribed 'Napier/Chamber of Commerce/For/Arithmetic/H.D.Purves/1924'; also NZFUW (NZ Federation of University Women), badge in sterling silver (49.5x26mm), no maker, pin-back, reverse inscribed 'To/Daphne Purves/President I.F.U.W. (International Federation of University Women)/From/T (?)/Otago Branch N.Z.F.U.W./27.10.77'. Very fine - extremely fine. (3)

Herbert Dudley Purves CMG (25 September 1908 - 15 April 1993) was a New Zealand academic, chemist, mathematician, medical researcher and scientist. He was educated at Hastings West Primary School and Napier Boys' High School. Purves' academic strengths showed early for he received prizes for Science in the third form, for Mathematics in the fourth form and for Latin, Mathematics and Science in the lower 6th.^^In 1926 he travelled to Dunedin to study physics, chemistry and mathematics. He majored in chemistry, earning a BSc in 1928 and an MSc with first-class honours in chemistry in 1931. His working life was spent in full-time medical research at the University of Otago Medical School in Dunedin. He began in 1932, as a research assistant to Sir Charles Hercus, then Professor of Bacteriology and Public Health. ^^In 1941 Purves became Principal Research Officer and Director of the New Zealand Medical Research Council's Thyroid Research Department in Dunedin which later became the Endocrinology Research Unit. In 1968 the Unit became the Laboratory of Experimental Endocrinology and Metabolism, and in 1971, The Neuroendocrinology Group. Purves played a leading role in the abolition of thyroid enlargement (goitre) which once disfigured nearly 20% of the population.^ ^His merits were recognised by his colleagues in Dunedin who made him President of the University of Otago Medical Research Society in 1955 and on his retirement, a life member of the Society. The endocrinologists of New Zealand elected him President of the New Zealand Society of Endocrinology from 1963-68, and his colleagues abroad conferred on him the title of Distinguished Thyroid Scientist at the seventh International Thyroid Conference in 1975.^ ^In the 1974 Queen's Birthday Honours he was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George for his distinguished contribution to medical research. In 1987, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Medical Research Council the Governor-General, Sir Paul Reeves, presented Dr. Purves with a special silver medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to medical research. He died on 15 April 1993, aged 84, after a long illness.^^Daphne Helen Cowie married Herbert Dudley Purves CMG, ChB, MB, MSc, Hon. DSc, FRS, FRACP in 1939. Dame Daphne Helen Purves, DBE (8 November 1908 - 14 October 2008) was New Zealand's oldest Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire at the time of her death. Her main area of expertise was education. She saw this as the key to better conditions for women worldwide and the passion of her life had been the International Federation of University Women of which she was president for three years from 1977. ^She died in hospital on 14 October 2008 aged 99, 3 weeks short of her 100th birthday. Read her story in the book titled, 'Nothing Like A Dame: A Biography of Dame Daphne Purves', by Molly Anderson.^^(Courtesy Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia)