Dr. David Purves (9 April 1924 – 3 January 2015) was a Scottish environmental scientist, playwright and poet, and a champion of the Scots language.
[3] In 1980, he was commissioned by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation to recommend standards for the disposal of sewage-sludge to land.
He retired from the Edinburgh School of Agriculture in 1982, but maintained an interest in global environmental problems as Supervisor of its Central Analytical Department until 1987.
[1] Purves contested Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles as a Scottish National Party candidate in the parliamentary election in February 1974.
[10] His poems in Scots were published in a range of magazines, including AKROS, Lines Review, Cencrastus, Chapman, Lallans, Markings, Northwords and Reforesting Scotland.
[25][26][27][28][29] Whuppitie Stourie, based on a Scottish version of the fairytale Rumpelstiltskin, was toured by Theatre Alba between 30 October and 28 November 1989.
[30][31][32][33] In an interview given to The Scotsman while The Knicht o the Riddils was playing in Musselburgh, Purves told Catherine Lockerbie that he was not trying to emulate the historical emphasis of admired Scots dramatists like Robert Maclellan.
a translation of Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, was produced by Theatre Alba at Lauriston Halls on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1999.
[37] The Ootlaw, a translation into Scots of August Strindberg's The Outlaw was staged by Theatre Alba at Duddingston Kirk on the 2009 Fringe.
[38] David Purves married Lilian Rosemary Stewart, a primary school teacher, at Cramond Parish Kirk, Edinburgh, on 19 September 1953.