Geoffrey Vernon Brooke HerfordCBE (18 November 1905 – 2 February 2000) was a British research entomologist and civil servant.
He worked mainly in the area of insect damage to food supplies. As a result of the Second World War, he became the first director of the new government Pest Infestation Laboratory, and his work continued to be focussed on the control of insects that eat stored food.
After his return from the US, Herford became a research entomologist at Imperial College, London. In 1933, he was described in the Bulletin of the Imperial Institute as "Entomologist, Stored Products Research Laboratories, Imperial College of Science and Technology".[5] In 1938, the British government gave Sir William Beveridge the task of making preparations for securing the national food supply in the case of a major war, and he asked for the help of Professor James Munro at Imperial College. Munro believed a significant problem was insect infestations in grain stores, which were hidden by those in charge of them, and recommended "an intrusive examination of food stores". Herford was then on Munro's staff, and Munro gave him the task of conducting a grain survey. In 1940, the Ministry of Agriculture took over the Imperial College field station at Slough, which became its Pest Infestation Laboratory, and Herford was appointed as its Director.[6]
In February 1949, Herford toured Egypt, lecturing on controlling pest infestations for food storage.[8] Between January and February 1951, he spent three weeks in Portugal, investigating the problem of pest damage to food stored there.[9]
At the time of the 1956 Birthday Honours Herford was Deputy Chief Scientific Officer and was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire.[10]
His later work continued to be focussed on the problem of preventing insects from damaging stored food. He retired in March 1968, when he was congratulated on twenty-eight years in charge of the Pest Infestation Laboratory.[11]
Personal lifeedit
On 27 August 1933, Herford married Evelyn Cicely Lambert[3] at Hampstead.[12] Between 1934 and 1946 they had three daughters, Jean, Rosemary, and Kathleen, and a son, Robin.[1][13]
L. G. Grimmett, G. V. B. Herford, "An Experiment on the Effects of γ-Radiation on the Grain Weevil" in Nature, volume 144, page 939 (2 December 1939)
G. S. Fraenkel, G. V. B. Herford, "The physiological action of abnormally high temperatures on poikilotherm animals—II. The respiration at high sublethal and lethal temperatures" in Journal of Experimental Biology, January 1940[16]
G. V. B. Herford, Report on a visit to Egypt 18.2.49 - 26.2.49 (1949)
G. V. B. Herford, "Some Research Problems in the Field of Stored Products Entomology" in Perspectives in Public Health, November 1950
G. V. B. Herford, "New Developments in the Control of Insects Infesting Foodstuffs" in Perspectives in Public Health, July 1953[17]
G. V. B. Herford, "Recent Developments in the Protection of Foodstuffs from Insect Pests: with special reference to Commonwealth countries" in Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. 110, No. 5070, May 1962, pp. 423–438[18]
^"G V B Herford: 1949 tour to Egypt, lecturing on food storage and pest infestation control" linked from Herford, Geoffrey Vernon Brooke (1905-2000) at nationalarchives.gov.uk
^"Damage to Foodstuffs by Pests" in Gardeners Chronicle & New Horticulturist (Haymarket Publishing, 1951), p. 25: "Problems of damage to food stores by pests in Portugal are being investigated by Mr. G. V. B. Herford, Director of the Pest Infestation Laboratory of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Slough, during a three weeks' visit to that country, which began on Friday, January 19."
^ abThe London Gazette (Supplement) dated 31 May 1956, p. 3110
^Pest Infestation Research (1968), p. 1: "The past year has been marked by the retirement on 31st March of Mr. G. V. B. Herford, C.B.E., M.Sc, F.I.Biol., after 28 years in charge."
^"Herford Geoffrey V B & Lambert Evelyn C." in Register of Marriages for Hampstead Registration District, vol. 1a (1933), p. 1535
^Register of Births for Eton Registration District: vol. 3a, pp. 1648, 1680, 2098; Register of Births for Windsor Registration District: vol. 6a (1946), p. 349
^"HERFORD, Geoffrey Vernon Brooke" in Probate Index for 2000 at probatesearch.service.gov.uk, accessed 11 April 2019
^The Pineapple Bud Moths in Hawaii at wiley.com, accessed 11 April 2019
^ abG V B Herford's research while affiliated with Imperial College London at researchgate.net, accessed 11 April 2019
^New Developments in the Control of Insects Infesting Foodstuffs at sagepub.com, accessed 11 April 2019