Thomas Haining Gillespie[1] FRSE FSZS (3 October 1876 – 3 August 1967) was a Scottish solicitor, zoological administrator, and broadcaster.
He was the founder of Edinburgh Zoo and of its parent organisation the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland.
The cold climate presented an obstacle, but Gillespie was encouraged by the work of pioneering zoologists like Carl Hagenbeck and in 1909 he founded what was to become the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland.
[5] Gillespie's efforts came to fruition with the opening on 22 July 1913 of the Scottish National Zoological Park—now known simply as Edinburgh Zoo.
His contributions to these Children's Hour programmes began in 1926 when they were broadcast by the Edinburgh and Glasgow stations of the BBC.