Abstract
THE above accounts of the loss which science in general, and East African science in particular, has sustained in the untimely deaths of Mr. Swynnerton and Mr. Burtt, have come from two writers who are in a far better position than I to appraise the magnitude of that loss. As one who has worked for the last thirteen years under the direction of the one and in constant close association with the other, I am glad of this opportunity to add a few words about them in their capacities as leader and colleague. Mr. Swynnerton, in addition to displaying the qualities which have been described above, so treated his staff that they one and all looked to him more as guide, philosopher and friend than as to an official superior ; he was an inspiration to greater and ever greater efforts to achieve the objects for which his Department was created, and by his kindly appreciation of all efforts, even the smallest, made each feel that his contribution formed a vital part of the general scheme. He never asked from anyone more than he was prepared to perform himself, and his visits to lonely workers were like an invigorating tonic, difficulties which had previously seemed insuperable disappearing, for the time at least, under his magic touch. His work was inspired by a genuine love for the Africans in whose country he spent so much of his life and his treatment of them was characterized by a patriarchal attitude in the best sense of that word.
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POTTS, W. [Obituaries]. Nature 142, 199–200 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142199b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142199b0