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 Civil Service, first as District Officer in Jasin and Klang and later as British Adviser in Perlis (1956). On Malayan 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. 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 herself in 1988.