Background
Pierce was born in Manchester to Edmund Kell Pierce and Elizabeth Tyler.
commissioner president medical doctor
Pierce was born in Manchester to Edmund Kell Pierce and Elizabeth Tyler.
Aged 14, after completing his school studies at the Friends’ School, Croydon, he started working at a pharmaceutical firm in London. He then worked as physician at Saint Bartholomew’s, Bethlem Royal Hospital and the Edinburgh Royal Asylum, Morningside, and in 1892 became medical superintendent at the Retreat, New York There he built a Nurses Home (1898) and spent much effort on improving the training and status of mental nurses.
In parallel, he taught mental diseases at Leeds University from 1908 to 1911 and had a consulting practice at Leeds.
He was president of the Medico-Psychological Association between 1919 and 1920. After retiring in 1922, he visited America, Africa and India, and served as a Commissioner in Lunacy in 1929-1931.
Pierce was a Quaker and spent his free time on gardening, wood-carving, painting, mountaineering and games. He died at Harpenden.