22 Facts About Lawrence Ogilvie

Lawrence Ogilvie was a Scottish plant pathologist who pioneered the study of wheat, fruit and vegetable diseases in the 20th century.

From 1923, in his first job and aged only 25, when agriculture was Bermuda's major industry, Ogilvie identified the virus that had devastated the islands' high-value lily bulb crops in 204 bulb fields for 30 years.

Lawrence Ogilvie was established as a successful young scientist when he had a 3-inch column describing his work published by one of the world's premier scientific journals, Nature.

Lawrence Ogilvie was born in Rosehearty, a fishing village on the north coast of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on 5 July 1898.

Lawrence Ogilvie attended Aberdeen Grammar School and took his BSc and MA at the University of Aberdeen in 1921 as the Fullerton Research Scholar with special distinction in botany and zoology.

Lawrence Ogilvie was awarded the Collie Prize for the most distinguished student in botany.

Lawrence Ogilvie chose Bermuda, taking trains in September 1923 from Scotland to the port of Avonmouth near Bristol to catch the SS Changunida banana boat to Bermuda.

Lawrence Ogilvie was to be continuously employed from September 1923 in Bermuda, and then from 1928 in Bristol in the west of England, until he retired at the age of 65.

Lawrence Ogilvie developed agricultural laws for Bermuda; initiated seed testing; registered local seedsmen; organised the improvement of seed potatoes; established plant quarantine; studied the diseases of celery and other vegetables, maize, vines, avocados, bananas and citrus fruits; and investigated the banana losses from the Mediterranean Fruit Fly.

Lawrence Ogilvie was acclaimed in Bermuda for identifying the virus that had increasingly damaged the commercially vital lily-bulb export trade of Lilium longiflorum to the USA since the late 19th century.

Lawrence Ogilvie identified the virus as transmitted by the aphid Aphis lilii Takahashi.

Lawrence Ogilvie wrote The Insects of Bermuda, published in 1928 by the Department of Agriculture, Bermuda.

Lawrence Ogilvie identified and described 395 insects; in particular the Aphid ogilviei discovered by him on Lilium Harrisli in Bermuda.

Lawrence Ogilvie pioneered the European study of commercial fruit and particularly vegetable diseases with 44 scientific papers between 1929 and 1946 at Long Ashton Research Station.

Lawrence Ogilvie wrote the government's official national Diseases of Vegetables practical guide for trade growers: the six editions from 1941 to 1969 were full of photos of wilting crops.

Lawrence Ogilvie was influential in the World War II and post-war challenge of feeding Britain: he was the leading British expert on the diseases of cereal crops and vegetables.

Lawrence Ogilvie was consulted about willow diseases during World War II.

Lawrence Ogilvie was elected a vice president of the British Mycological Society in December 1956.

Lawrence Ogilvie often coped with their 40-foot-deep well : after 28 years in their house, mains water arrived in 1957.

Lawrence Ogilvie was a member of the wartime Dundry Home Guard and the night East Dundry fire-watching team.

Lawrence Ogilvie was a founding member and a chairman of the Friends of the Bristol Art Gallery, giving the Jacob Epstein bronze Kathleen to the gallery.

Lawrence Ogilvie was on the founding committee of Bristol's modernist Arnolfini Gallery.