Roy Markham: Pioneer in Plant Pathology

I first met Roy Markham in September 1945, when I came to Cambridge after four years in the New Zealand army to begin research for the PhD in plant virology. As far as the University was concerned Dr. K. M. Smith was my supervisor, but I very rapidly came under Roy’s influence, and he was my de facto supervisor for three years. I came back to his group for four full years from 1952 to 1956 and later made several short visits to his laboratory both in Cambridge and, after the shift, in Norwich. Thus, I knew him well for a significant portion of his working life.

Roy made a number of seminal contributions to plant virology and thus to plant pathology. However, he was in no sense a plant pathologist himself. His formal training was in biochemistry, and he learned a great deal in the physical sciences on his own account. In the main thrust of his research, he was really one of the pioneers in that branch of science now known as molecular biology.