Early Life
One of seven sons born in Grahamstown to Henry Carter Galpin, watchmaker and jeweller, and Georgina Maria Luck, Ernest Galpin started his education at the local St. Andrews School. Due to his father's ill-health, Ernest left school at 14 to assist with the business. A short spell of active service on the frontier followed, after which he joined the Oriental Banking Corporation, later the Bank of Africa. After being transferred to Middelburg in the Cape, he developed an interest in the local plants and spent long hours dissecting and identifying wild flowers with the aid of the three volumes of Flora Capensis and Harvey's Genera. However, it was not till 1888 when he became bank manager in Grahamstown, that his collecting took on a serious turn. In 1889 he was transferred to Barberton and became intrigued by the relatively unknown local flora. His specimens now started reflecting his meticulous nature in that they were carefully pressed, preserved and labelled with extensive notes on locality, habitat and plant form. His duplicates soon found their way to Kew, Zurich and a number of notable botanists such as Harry Bolus, John Medley Wood and Peter MacOwan. Not surprisingly his collection became internationally known. In Barberton he befriended a young lawyer and plant collector Douglas Gilfillan, later to become his brother-in-law through their marriage to the de Jongh sisters. Galpin had had some new plant discoveries painted by Marie Elizabeth de Jongh (the daughter of Countess Mimi von Schönnberg) and married her in 1892. She shared his love of the outdoor life and accompanied him on many of his excursions and expeditions.
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