THE Chief Inspector of the City's Sanitary Department was born in Glasgow on the 24th of April, 1854. His father (also Peter Fyfe) was a lithographer in the city. He died early, and the family thereafter resided successively at Ashton, Gourock, and at Pollokshields. Mr. Fyfe received his education at Gourock Parish School and Glasgow Academy, then situated in Elmbank Street. In 1868 he was offered the choice of a practical training in his uncle's iron foundry, or the usual course at Glasgow University, in order to study for one of the professions. He accepted the former, and spent two years in learning foundry moulding and pattern-making, at the same time taking evening classes at the Andersonian College in geometry and mathematics under Professor Thorpe, and attending the drawing classes at the School of art in Sauchiehall Street. Having a strong bent for engineering, he, in 1870, became an apprentice in the firm of Messrs. Duncan Stewart & Co., London Road Iron Works, where, during the following six years, he passed through all the shops, including the drawing office. At the end of this time, viz., in 1876, he went for a short tour in the United States. On his return he became chief draughtsman to the well-known firm of crane-makers, Messrs. Alexander Chaplin & Co., in Cranstonhill; and three years thereafter, at the end of 1879, entered the service of the Corporation as engineer to the Cleansing Department, then under the supervision of Mr. John Young. It was in that year that this department, having just completed the purchase of the site of the old Glasgow Iron Co.'s works at Charles Street, St. Rollox, took its first great step forward - treatment of the city refuse by machinery.
    This was the turning point in Mr. Fyfe's career. The firm of Alexander Chaplin & Co. shortly after this was practically dissolved, both the partners having died; and the manager proposed to Mr. Fyfe that he should join him in taking over the assets of that firm, with a view to begin as engineers on their own account under the old name. But as he had started with his designs for the buildings and necessary furnaces and machinery for the St. Rollox Refuse Despatch Works, Mr. Fyfe felt loath to relinquish the undertaking; and, notwithstanding the tempting offer of a partnership in a going engineering concern, decided to abide in the Corporation service. Towards the end of 1885 Chief Sanitary Inspector Kenneth Macleod died, and Mr. Fyfe was selected out of 69 applicants to fill the vacant office. Since then he has laboured in his native city as the Sanitary Chief, and under him the department has grown steadily. In 1885 the total number of the staff and assistants was 84; now they number 244.
    He has written a large number of pamphlets on sanitary and public health subjects; was President of the Sanitary Association of Scotland in 1890, and shortly thereafter was ordained a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Member Associate of the Société Française d'Hygiène. He has some repute as a chess player and composer of chess problems, and in 1883 discovered a new method of opening this intricate game which has been named "the Fyfe gambit." He is a reader of classic poetry, and has on some occasions courted the muse, although anything in this line which has been published always appeared over a nom-de-plume until his drama "Kedar" saw the light in 1906. He has figured on many platforms throughout the country as a lecturer, and is identified with the problems of the housing of the poor and the abolition of the smoke nuisance. Among the many subjects with which he has dealt in the press and on the platform have been "Sewage of the Air," "A City's Health and how it is Preserved," "Building Construction in relation to Public Health," "Back Lands and their Inhabitants," and "Farmed-out Houses."
    A large part of the wonderful health which Glasgow now enjoys is to be attributed to the ingenuity, painstaking skill, and organising powers of Mr. Fyfe.

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