John Hamer (1910-1990) was educated at the University of Leeds. His war service was varied, ranging from work with the Free French to Combined Operations, and culminated in his appointment as Controller of Supplies, Singapore, in 1945. After the war, he joined the Malayan (Malaysian) Civil Service, first as District Officer in Jasin and Klang and later as British Adviser in Perlis (1956). On Malayan (Malaysian) independence, he became Deputy Chairman of the Malayan Federation's Rural Industrial Development Authority, moving to the Ministry of Agriculture in 1958. He served as State Secretary, Penang, 1958-1961. He held the position of Secretary, Royal Horticultural Society, 1962-1975, and was awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire). In 1940, he married Marjorie Agnes Martin, with whom he had one son and one daughter. She died in 1970, and in 1980, he married Joan Edith MacKinley, who died in 1988.