South African botanist from Rosebank, Cape Town, the only son of the agriculturalist and horticulturalist Eustace Pillans. Neville Pillans went to England to train in agriculture at the University of Cambridge, but never graduated due to ill-health. He returned to South Africa and was variously employed as a customs clerk and agricultural assistant, before joining the Bolus Herbarium in 1918. His father had been an avid collector of succulents and Neville took over and developed the collection, rapidly becoming the foremost collector of Stapelieae. He published an article in the Agricultural Journal outlining the need for a garden dedicated to growing native plants, and later worked with H.H.W. Pearson in choosing the Kirstenbosch site for what would become the National Botanic Garden. Neville Pillans devoted his professional career to working on the South African flora and produced monographs on Restionaceae and Bruniaceae. He continued to work after his retirement on a revision of South African Hermannia until forced to give up on health grounds two years before he died at Plumstead, Cape Town. He is commemorated by the genus Pillansia L. Bolus, and in many plant names including Aloe pillansii Guthrie, Erica nevillei L. Bolus and Huernia pillansii N.E. Br.