Dr Cyril C. Webster (Wye College 1931)

Provided by Colin Webster

Tom Webster entered the then South East Agricultural College at Wye on a Surrey county scholarship in 1928. This was the beginning of a long and happy association with Wye. After excelling as a student he maintained contact with the college through the Agricola Club and in his retirement had the honour of being appointed a Fellow of the College.

After graduating from Wye he did 2 years postgraduate study then spent 20 years as an agriculturalist in the colonial service. The war years were spent in Malawi doing research on "tung"; a tree crop that produced an oil which was an important ingredient of marine paints. He wrote up this research and was awarded a London University PhD in 1949. Indeed the viva was carried out in the botany department at Imperial College.

He left the colonial service in 1957 to take the post of professor of tropical agriculture and deputy principal at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, in Trinidad, the college he had attended as a student. With colleagues he began to write the book Agriculture in the Tropics, which eventually ran to 3 editions.

The zenith of his career in tropical agriculture was to be director of the Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia (1961-65). This was a significant scientific centre in the country, having about a thousand ethnically diverse employees. His impartial and pragmatic management was much appreciated by the staff. In 1965 he was awarded a JMN (Johan Mangku Negara), a Malaysian honour.

Back in the UK (1965) he joined the Agricultural Research Council (now called Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) as a scientific advisor. At that time UK agriculture was a modest success story and civil research budgets were increasing. He worked energetically to ensue financial resources followed good ideas and good science. In 1971 he was promoted to Chief Scientist, the No.2 of the organisation

After his official retirement (1975) he kept busy writing books and articles. He returned east (1978-80) to be the first director general of the Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia. His colleagues will remember Tom for his integrity, his detailed and searching questions on every research project and the meticulous recording of the answers in a tidy script.