Humphrey Morrison Burkill

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(8 December 1914 - 12 July 2006), was a director of the

Singapore Botanic Gardens The Singapore Botanic Gardens is a -year-old tropical garden located at the fringe of the Orchard Road shopping district in Singapore. It is one of three gardens, and the only tropical garden, to be honoured as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Th ...

from 1957-1969.

Early life and education

Burkill was born to

Isaac Henry Burkill Isaac Henry Burkill (18 May 1870 – 8 March 1965) was an English botanist who worked in India and in the Straits Settlements (present day Singapore). He worked primarily in economic botany but published extensively on plant biology, ethno-botany ...

and Ethel Maud Morrison on 8 December 1914 in the Director’s House on the grounds of the gardens of the

. When Burkill was four, he was put in the care of a family from

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, and attended a preparatory school when he was eight. He attended Repton School when he was thirteen, and later attended

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

. He studied in the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

and received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in 1936. He received his postgraduate degree in crop husbandry in 1939.

Career

After getting a job from Dunlop Malayan Estates, Burkill returned to

British Malaya The term "British Malaya" (; ms, Tanah Melayu British) loosely describes a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the island of Singapore that were brought under British hegemony or control between the late 18th and the mid-20th century. U ...

to become a rubber planter, and learnt

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

, which was expected of him, as well as

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

and

Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...

. He later joined the Federated Malay States Volunteer Force. As the Japanese invaded Malaya during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Burkill became part of the retreat to Singapore, after which he seconded to the Royal Engineers. Following the

Fall of Singapore The Fall of Singapore, also known as the Battle of Singapore,; ta, சிங்கப்பூரின் வீழ்ச்சி; ja, シンガポールの戦い took place in the South–East Asian theatre of the Pacific War. The Empire of ...

, he was detained in Changi Prison by the Japanese. He was sent to a labour camp in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

, where he collected wood cut in the countryside and transported it down a river. As he could speak Thai, he communicated with the local villagers and secretly did illicit trading. After the Japanese surrendered, he returned to Malaya to work for Dunlop, and became a botanist for the

Rubber Research Institute of Malaya The Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia (RRIM; ms, Institut Penyelidikan Getah Malaysia) is a research center for problems and matters pertaining to rubber and its industry in Malaysia. History On 29 June 1925, the bill to incorporate the Rubb ...

in 1948. Burkill was appointed as the assistant director of the gardens in 1954 by then Gardens director M. R. Henderson. He became the director in 1957, succeeding John William Purseglove. He oversaw changes in the staff when Singapore became part of

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

, with the largely British administrators and researchers being replaced by locals such as Chew Wee Lek and Chang Khiaw Lan. He oversaw the first serious investigation of Malayan seaweeds. Burkill delivered a paper on the Role of Singapore Botanic Gardens in the development of orchid hybrids in Singapore during the 1963

World Orchid Conference In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

in Singapore. Burkill retired from his position as director in the middle of 1969. He was offered work at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew to revise ''Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa'', which was written by J. M. Dalziel and published in 1937.

Personal life

Burkill married Joan Bloomer on 28 June 1946. They have a son and a daughter. Following his retirement, he and his family moved to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. His wife died in 2004. Burkill died on 12 July 2006 at his residence in Plymouth, England.

Accolades

Burkill was awarded the

during the

1970 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1970 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced in supplements to the '' Lo ...

Legacy

The Director’s House on the grounds of the Gardens was later renamed Burkill Hall after both Burkill and his father.

References

{{Reflist 1914 births 2006 deaths