Apologies for the length of this but I couldn't stop writing!..
I'm saddened this morning to read of the death of a wonderful man I knew well in the 1970s. I'm glad that BBC News saw fit to report his death on their main page today:
`'Intellectual giant' Sir Geoff Palmer dies aged 85'
LINK
The BBC leads with his human rights advocacy but all that came long after I knew him. In the late 1960s I'd been working in a brewery laboratory but I had few qualifications and was advised to get myself a bioscience degree. So I left the brewery and eventually got a BSc in Applied Biology.
I wanted to follow it up by doing the highly respected MSc in Brewing Science at the British School of Malting and Brewing Science run by Prof Jim Hough in Birmingham. However he recognised I was more interested in doing research on brewing science than actually becoming a brewer. Fortunately my PhD supervisor was able to get me a grant to do a PhD on microbial biochemistry. Once that was achieved my dream job was to work in the microbiology department at the Brewing Research Foundation in Surrey.
I applied but they had no vacancy in that department but could offer me a job in a section working on mash filtration problems until a vacancy arose. I already had practical experience in brewing so took the opportunity to get started there and that's where I met Geoff Palmer whose group was working on the role of plant hormones in the germination of barley. He'd already proved that the long-held theory of maltsters that the hormone responsible for germination was formed in the embryo (aka barley germ) was wrong: it was formed in the aleurone layer which is part of the bran. Old-fashioned maltsters were reluctant to accept this new information, especially from a boisterous Jamaican, but in the end they accepted it because it allowed them to germinate the barley much faster than in the past (using `barley abrasion'). Geoff often related how he gave a lecture explaining the discovery to Scottish maltsters; one of them more or less said `Are you claiming you know as much about malting as we do?" to which Geoff replied "Probably some of my ancestors ate some of yours!"
Geoff got away with that partly through his charm and partly because his work was boosting the profits of the maltsters. Otherwise he would probably have been booted out of the job. The Research Foundation was very strict and the rest of us weren't allowed even to speak to brewers or maltsters without a manager present. Because I'd already worked in brewing and already knew brewers and maltsters I soon broke the rules and got into trouble. It was all too secretive and `buttoned up' so I left and got a job elsewhere. (When I left, one of Geoff's colleagues wrote on my leaving card `You're my hero!' I suspect she wrote it on Geoff's behalf.) Upsetting the Foundation put a black mark on my record and that was the end of my ambition to be a brewing science researcher!
That's the point at which I did a complete change and went to Bristol University to do organic geochemistry research on deep sea sediments for a while, before going into food science research. I didn't stay in touch with the other scientists at the Foundation and it's only when googling Geoff today that I found he left the year after I did. I probably got the blame for having started a trend!
Geoff took the opportunity to move back to the place where he did his PhD, Heriot-Watt College and Edinburgh University. That had been where he started the germination studies with Professor Anna MacLeod as his supervisor. (He always claimed he's been peeling potatoes in a restaurant until Professor MacLeod offered him a chance to do a PhD.) She ran training courses in brewing and malting at Heriot-Watt and could spot Geoff's potential and didn't care if he had a different skin colour; after all, she had to fight to be a woman in a man's world. The photo of her, fag in hand, reading a brewing journal sums her up!
Anna_MacLeod_Heriot-Watt_1970s.jpg
I'm glad to see Geoff was able, later in his life, to play a part in human rights advocacy. He was a very caring person and would have found it very rewarding. Also he took a balanced view and disapproved of the more extreme acts such as smashing statues, plaques etc. What a man! Rest in peace Sir Geoff Palmer.
