Kenya Past & Present 13 - 1981 - Obituary - Dr. P.R.O. Bally - Peter Bally's recent death in Nairobi at the age of 85, is a loss both to botany and to Kenya. This gentle unassuming man was readily overshadowed by more forceful personalities, and his considerable contribution to the knowledge of indigenous African plants is probably little known outside specialist botanical circles. After reading chemistry at the University of Zurich he worked first for the League of Nations and then for a pharmaceutical firm which sent him to India to test antimalarial drugs. But he had been irresistably drawn to Africa through his friendship with Vivienne de Watteville whose book 'Out in the Blue' he had translated into German and in 1931 he accepted a post with an oil company which took him to Northern Tanzania. His travels there stimulated his interest in natural history and brought it into sharp focus on the study of medicinal plants. His first book on this subject was published in 1938. In that same year he was persuaded by Dr. V.G.L. van Someren, the Curator, to become the botanist of the Coryndon Museum (now the National Museums of Kenya) in Nairobi. ……… [lots more]

Langata cemetery, Nairobi Peter Bally / 1895 - 1980 / Jesus said I am / the resurrection / and the life / (John 11.25)

Gazette 12 Mar 1981 probate

Medium height with brown wavy hair with a monocle

Hunt Institute (web): Peter René Oscar Bally (1895–1980) was a taxonomist, plant collector in East Africa, author of "East African succulents, pts., 1–6" (Journal of East African Natural History, 1940–1946), botanist, botanical illustrator and head of the herbarium of Coryndon National Museum, Nairobi, Kenya, 1938–1958. Bally then moved his family to his homeland of Switzerland due to the decolonization of African countries from European rule. Once back in Europe Bally worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as well as the Conservatoire et Jardin Botanique in Geneva, Switzerland. A number of plant species are named for him, including Aloe ballyi Reynolds.

Leonard E. Newton, Peter Bally and his Succulent Plant Legacy, Nairobi 1999, p. 28: 
1895 Born 9 May in Schönenwerd, Switzerland.
1914 Started studying chemistry in University of Zurich.
1924 To India to introduce a new medicine against malaria.
1929 To Tanzania, to search for new medicinal plants.
1930 To Kenya as representative in Mombasa for an oil company.
1938 Appointed as botanist in the Coryndon Museum, Nairobi.
1947 Collected plants in Ghana and Nigeria.
1952 Collected plants in Madagascar.
1958 Retired from post in Coryndon Museum. Worked briefly in Les Cedres, France.
1959 Joined the herbarium of the Conservatoire Botanique in Geneva University, Switzerland. Started frequent visits to Kew Herbarium, England, to work on Euphorbiaceae. Collaboration with Susan Carter started.
1961 Publication of monograph The Genus Monadenium.
1968 Paintings included in international exhibition of botanical art at the Hunt Botanical Library, Pittsburgh, U.S.A.
1969 Returned to live in Nairobi.
1973 Awarded honorary doctorate by University of Basel, Switzerland.
1975 Made a Fellow of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America.
1980 Died 26 July, in Nairobi.