Thomas Wallace

Thomas Wallace (5 September 1891 – 1 February 1965) was a British professor of horticultural chemistry. He gained fame as one of the world's leading experts on mineral deficiencies in plants.

Early life and education Thomas Wallace had five older sisters, one younger sister, and two older brothers. Their father Thomas Sr. was a blacksmith and agricultural mechanic. As a boy, Thomas Jr. worked as a farm hand and attended a local primary school in Burradon until 1905 when he won a County of Northumberland scholarship to Rutherford College of Technology in Newcastle. In 1910 he matriculated at Armstrong College, University of Durham. There he had a brilliant academic career, studying principally chemistry, but also physics, mathematics, botany, and zoology. He was College Prizeman in inorganic, organic and analytical chemistry and Alder Scholar in zoology. In 1913 he graduated with a BSc degree in chemistry. Wallace's first research was done on the chemistry of gases used in WW I. Wallace became in May 1919 a research chemist at the Long Ashton Research Station (part of the University of Bristol). Simultaneously, he was the Advisory Officer in Agricultural Chemistry for the Bristol Province. At the Long Ashton Research Station, he was from 1923 to 1943 the deputy director and from 1943 to 1957 the Director. After previously holding appointments as Lecturer and Reader, Wallace was appointed Professor of Horticultural Chemistry in the University of Bristol in 1943 and retained his professorship until 1957 when he retired as professor emeritus.

Wallace was the author or co-author of about 100 scientific articles. From 1943 to 1958 he was joint editor of the Journal of Horticultural Science. While he was in the United States in 1948, he gave a series of lectures at Cornell University and elsewhere. In 1949 he travelled extensively in Australia and New Zealand to observe different soil types in various climates and to lecture. In 1950 he visited the Netherlands to participate in the International Soil Congress, to lecture, and to visit agricultural research centres and areas of special agricultural importance. In 1951 he went to Spain and lectured in the Universities of Madrid, Zaragossa, Valencia and Granada and, later in the year, went to Rome, where he attended the 2nd International Fertilizer Conference. In 1954 in Paris, he attended the 8th International Botanical Congress. In 1958, at the request of the UK's Colonial Office, he went to Jamaica to chair a scientific team appointed to investigate what research might be needed for the British Caribbean's citrus industry. Two other prominent members of the team were Dr Arthur Forrest Camp, director emeritus of the University of Florida Citrus Experiment Station, and Mr H. R. Hinton of the UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. After visiting Jamaica, British Honduras, Trinidad, and Florida, the scientific team wrote a report, enabling citrus planters in Jamaica to improve the quality and productivity. Later in 1958, Wallace attended to Madrid to attend the 6th Congress of the International Potash Institute. and eventually elected him a Fellow. He was appointed in 1946 a corresponding member of the French Academy of Science (Section IX — l'economie rurale) and in 1957 a foreign member of the French Academy of Agriculture. In 1951 he was appointed Honorary Councillor of Spain's Higher Council for Research. The Royal Horticultural Society awarded him the Veitch Memorial Medal and in 1952 the Victoria Medal of Honour. The Worshipful Company of Fruiterers awarded him the Ridley Gold Medal for research in fruit growing. For his work during WW II, Wallace was created in 1947 Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In 1953 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. There was one sone, Nigel, from Thomas Wallace's second marriage. Alan Wallace was wounded in WW II, qualified in medicine, and went to New Zealand as Medical Officer of Health in the District of Taranaki. Eventually Alan Wallace left New Zealand to work for the World Health Organization. On a mission in Africa in 1963, he and his young wife were killed in an aeroplane crash, leaving their two young children as orphans. Thomas and Elsie Wallace took responsibility for Thomas's two orphaned grandchildren.