McGrath, S. P.

Powlson, D. S.

Webster, R.

English

Rothamsted Repository

Bernard Tinker (1930–2021); in MemoriamIt was with sadness and dismay that we, Bernard Tinker’s former colleagues here atRothamsted, learned belatedly of Bernard’s death more than four years ago. The worldhad lost an able scientist who had contributed much to its understanding of the role ofsoil in plant nutrition. And we had lost a friend and one-time guide and former headof our department. We cannot let this loss pass without remembrance.Philip Bernard Tinker was born in Lancashire in the north of England. Shortlyafterwards the family moved to Norway where his father was engaged to manage acotton mill. Come the war Bernard’s father was sent to a prison camp in Germany,and the family endured hardship under German occupation. The family moved back toEngland, and Bernard completed his schooling in Rochdale, Lancashire, before headingto Sheffield University. He graduated with a first-class honours degree in chemistry,and then studied aspects of tropolones for his doctorate under R.D. Howarth, a leadingnatural-product chemist at the time. Bernard successfully applied for a post in the theColonial Service and was assigned to the West African Institute for Oil Palm Research(WAIFOR) in Nigeria. In preparation for work there he was awarded a Colonial Officescholarship to learn techniques in the design of field experiments and the subsequentstatistical analysis with G.W. Cooke at Rothamsted.Bernard spent 7 years at WAIFOR as soil chemist under the directorship of C.W.S.Hartley where he investigated the responses of oil palm to varied regimes of soil fertility.He then returned to Britain to join the Rothamsted staff at Broom’s Barn ExperimentalStation in Suffolk to work similarly on the nutrition of sugar beet in the field. In 1965 heleft Broom’s Barn to become lecturer in the soil science at Oxford University. Therehe collaborated with Peter Nye, then Reader in Soil Science and head of the SoilScience Laboratory, on the movement of plant nutrients in the soil. The fruits of theirwork together culminated in their influential book: Solute Movements in the Soil–RootSystem, published in 1977, and up-dated in 2000 with a new title: Solute Movementsin the Rhizosphere. Bernard’s next step in 1971 was to Leeds University as Professorof Agricultural Botany where, in addition to his teaching, he focused his researchon the role of mycorrhizas in plant nutrition. Six years later he was back in a majorrestructuring of Rothamsted as head of the new Soils and Plant Nutrition Department.He rebuilt the department with new staff to work on plant nutrition, mycorrhizas andcrop roots; within 3 years had a staff of more than 60. Shortly afterwards the smallDepartment of Soil Microbiology was incorporated into his domain to become thelogical place for his continuing research on mycorrhizas.Rothamsted’s research stemmed originally from the agricultural interests of itsfounder, Sir John Lawes. In the first half of the 20th century the research broad-ened over an ever-widening field of science and technology. Soil science itself embracedphysics and physical chemistry, agronomy, X-ray diffraction and clay mineralogy, Qua-ternary geology, microbiology, organic matter, mathematical modelling and the emerg-ing pedometrics. These all had bearing on agriculture and the understanding of plantnutrition. Bernard set to work with vigour to give these separate lines of research1greater coherency. In the 1980s, however, the institute’s budget shrunk year on year,and Tinker reluctantly had to close some of these lines and focus narrowly on the needsof farmers, and specifically British farmers. At the same time both scientists and thepublic at large were becoming increasingly concerned with the natural environment.Bernard Tinker was one of those scientists. He saw the Natural Environment ResearchCouncil (NERC) as the most appropriate organization in which to pursue what heforesaw as necessary for environmental protection and management, and so in 1986he left Rothamsted to become the Council’s Director of Terrestrial and FreshwaterSciences until his retirement in 1992. He had, nevertheless, appreciated the valueof Rothamsted’s long-term experiments in revealing slow but significant impacts onland management and their causes. This appreciation accorded with that of ecologistswithin the NERC and ones in universities funded by it. Bernard played a leading rolein establishing the Environmental Change Network of the United Kingdom with 11terrestrial sites. Data on soil, water quality, plant growth, and populations of birdsand insects continue to be recorded there. He also set up the Terrestrial Initiative inGlobal Environmental Research to study the effects of climate on the terrestrial car-bon cycle, greenhouse gases, and energy and water budgets, matters which 30 years onare taxing environmental scientists and politicians in a warming world. Bernard alsohelped to plan and then lead projects within the Global Change in Terrestrial Ecosys-tems Initiative, a part of the International Geosphere–Biosphere Programme launchedby the International Council of Scientific Unions.Bernard remained busy as ever in the early years of his ‘retirement’. He collaboratedwith R.H.V. Corley to revise and up-date Hartley’s standard reference book on oil palm,and was a member of the Programme Advisory Committee of the Malaysian PalmOil Board for 12 years. He advised the Indonesian Institute of Applied AgriculturalResources on oil-palm research. He steered the International Society of Soil Scienceto a new constitution that would be compatible with the demands of what is now theInternational Science Council and to become the International Union of Soil Sciences.In 2002 the Union recognized Bernard’s drive with honorary membership, only thefifth Briton to be so honoured in its 100 years. Other awards included the Order of theBritish Empire (OBE) in 2000 for ‘services to science’, and D.Sc. by the Universityof Oxford. He was president of the British Society of Soil Science from 1983 to ’84and was made an honorary member of the society in 2020. He became a fellow of theNorwegian Academy of Science in 1987, where he used his knowledge of the languageand agriculture to advise the academy on its research programmes. Bernard’s lateryears were dogged by ill health and frailty, and he died of a stroke in the John RadcliffeHospital in Oxford in January 2021.Bernard Tinker was serious in his dedication to science with a deep understanding.He worked hard, and he expected others to do the same. He was both critical andencouraging. Our own scientific achievement and careers owe much to his influence.S.P. McGrath, D.S. Powlson & R. WebsterApril 20252

In memoriam Bernard Tinker (1930-2021)

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In memoriam Bernard Tinker (1930-2021)

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