Cyril Webster

Cyril Charles Webster CMG (28 December 1909 – 8 August 2007) was a British agriculturalist who served in the Colonial Agricultural Service.

Early life and education Webster was born on 28 December 1909, the son of Ernest Webster. He was educated at Beckenham County School; the South East Agricultural College at Wye College, and Selwyn College, Cambridge. He then pursued further studies at Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, Trinidad. Later, in 1949, he obtained a doctorate from London University.

Career Webster joined the Colonial Agricultural Service, and in 1933 went to central Burma where he worked with a company producing tung oil. An important ingredient in marine paints, he worked on improving methods to increase yields. In 1936, he went to Nigeria and worked on oil palm before moving to Nyasaland (now Malawi) in 1939 where he was involved again with tung oil production, then in great demand due to the outbreak of the Second World War. From 1950 to 1955, he served as Chief Research Officer in Kenya. In 1961, he was involved in a dispute with the government over its acquisition of Rubber Research Institute land for the new Kuala Lumpur airport. In the same year, he organised the first rubber planters' conference in Malaya since 1938 attended by scientists and over 150 planters at which he delivered an address on the growing threat to the rubber industry of synthetic rubber. An important scientific research centre in the region employing over 1,000 people, in recognition of his services, he received the CMG and the Malaysian honour, Johan Mangku Negara. remaining in the post until his retirement in 1980.