
Richard grew up in Worthing with his two brothers and attended Lancing College from 1952 to 1957. He graduated with a degree in Botany from Southampton University and was awarded a London PhD based on his work in Salisbury Rhodesia, funded by a Rockefeller Scholarship.
Richard’s background was in Plant Pathology, a subject to which he was attracted by its relevance to food security and in which he published over 100 papers and two books. He taught and researched for 34 years at University College London, where he held an Honorary Chair and was a Fellow of the International Society of Plant Pathology. He was involved in numerous overseas projects, several of which were in African countries, and supervised Ph.D. students from these and other countries of the Developing World in topics directly concerned with plant disease problems affecting their food security. In 2009 he co-founded with Peter Scott the International Journal, Food Security: the science, sociology and economics of food production and access to food and was Editor in Chief since its inception until the end of 2018.
In 1984, as a result of a visit to Peru, he co-founded Purley Overseas Trust, a charity funding small-scale projects in developing countries and was Chairman from 1991-2014.
Richard was delighted to return to Lancing College in October 2017 to give the Head Master’s Lecture.
He was married to Lilian, a professional pianist, and they have two grown-up children and four grandchildren. His main hobby was playing the cello and he performed regularly with Croydon Symphony Orchestra for 50 years.
The Strange Family