Arthur James Ballantine, medical practitioner and botanist, was the son of Major Robert Ballantine and his wife Anna Letitia Maria Ballantine. He passed the matriculation examination of the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1904 and continued his studies at the South African College, Cape Town, the next year. In 1907 he was awarded the degree Bachelor of Arts (BA) with honours in botany by the University of the Cape of Good Hope. For a short period he did botanical research under professor H. H. W. Pearson* and wrote "A preliminary note on the embryo-sac of Protea lepidocarpon", which was published in the Annals of Botany (1909).

After graduating Ballantine went to Edinburgh to study medicine, qualifying as Bachelor of Medicine (MB) and Bachelor of Surgery (ChB) in 1912. Subsequently he worked for some time in England as house surgeon at the Leith General Hospital and Tunbridge Wells General Hospital. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1914.

Returning to South Africa during World War I (1914-1918), Ballantine was appointed to a temporary post in the Department of Anatomy at the South African College in March 1915. However, at the end of that year he joined the Army Medical Corps and served as superintendent of various military hospitals both in South Africa and in north Africa. After the war he resided and practiced in Wynberg, Cape Town. He still lived there in 1926, when he was honorary visiting physician to the Victoria Cottage Hospital in Wynberg. In 1947 he contributed a paper on "The treatment of asthma" to the South African Medical Journal. He retired in 1952 and settled in East London. A few years later he wrote Brief history of the Victoria Hospital, Wynberg (1958, 18 pp.)

Ballantine was a shy but friendly person. He remained interested in botany and accumulated a large collection of orchids which he left to the Botanic Garden in East London. He was married three times, in 1920, 1931 and 1950, and had a son and a daughter. His son also became a medical practitioner.

List of sources:

Ballantine, A. J. The treatment of asthma. South African Medical Journal, 11 October 1947, p. 735-736. Retrieved on 28 February 2023 from chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA20785135_21157

Geni, at http://www.geni.com/people/Arthur-James-Ballantine/6000000011201793234

In Memoriam: Arthur James Ballantine. Suid-Afrikaanse Tydskrif vir Geneeskunde, 20 Februarie 1965. Retrieved on 28 February 2023 from chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA20785135_38134

Medical, dental and pharmacy directory of South Africa, 1926/7.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Arthur James Ballantine / A. J. Ballantine.

Ritchie, W. The history of the South African College, 1829-1918. Cape Town: T. Maskew Miller, 1918.

University of the Cape of Good Hope. Calendar, 1908/9.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2023-02-28 14:59:19