Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
David Purdie was born privately and educated publicly. He grew up on the west coast of Scotland at Prestwick in Ayrshire, being educated at Ayr Academy and on the golf links of Prestwick St. Nicholas.
He then went on to Glasgow University where he graduated in Medicine learning the art and craft of public speaking in the University Union Debating Hall under such masters of the art as John Smith (later to lead the Labour Party) Sir Menzies Campbell and the late Donald Dewar.
After a year at sea with the Royal Naval Reserve, he followed a medical, academic and research career at Glasgow and Leeds Universities before becoming Dean of the Postgraduate Medical School at Hull University.
He was latterly Consultant to the Edinburgh Osteoporosis Centre which specialises in the detection and management of this brittle bone disease and remains an adviser to the Dept. of Health and the Ministry of Defence.
Outside medicine, he writes for The Sunday Times and The Scotsman on medical and literary matters and is a Parliamentary speech adviser to several members of the House of Commons.
His reputation as a speaker is attested by the engagements below and by the journalist Lewine Mair who described him in the Daily Telegraph as "Arguably our best after-dinner speaker of this moment." Professor Purdie is equally at home at a charity function , a Livery Dinner or a business occasion with his blend of acute observation and hilarious anecdote which is the key to his style, allied always to the one Golden Rule of speaking - leave them wanting more!
A golfer since childhood, he is a member of The Royal Burgess Golf Club, Edinburgh and of Sunningdale Golf Club. He was the speechwriter for his great friend Sam Torrance, Captain of the European Team at the 2002 Ryder Cup.
Click here to visit David Purdie's website
Some Speaking Engagements 2000 – 2006 only All England Club Dinner Institute of Directors JPMorgan Cazenove (private function) Tower of London Testimonial Dinner for Colin Montgomerie Glasgow Hilton Royal & Ancient Golf Club
250th Anniversary DinnerSt. Andrews The Company of Gunmakers Stationers' Hall Robert Burns Federation
Millennium Dinner - Royal MuseumEdinburgh Lord's Taverners Spring Lunch Park Lane Hilton Merchant Company of Edinburgh The Playfair Library Cambridge University Hawks Club The Savoy New York Society of St. Andrew The Waldorf – Astoria NYC The Bar Association - New College Oxford The Golf Writers' Dinner (at The Open) Muirfield
