International Journal of Environmental Studies | 2021
Hugh Brammer, O.B.E., Oct 22 1925 - Jan 13 2021
Abstract
Hugh Brammer was probably the single most important source for information on the problems and probable solutions for Bangladesh’s environmental resources; and beyond question in regard to soils and agriculture. Brammer’s last publication was in this journal [1]. He made his usual exceptional efforts to get things right. He worked in Bangladesh with FAO from 1961 to 1987. From 1972 to 1974, he worked in soil exploration in Zambia. Bangladesh gained from his first-hand knowledge of its soils and his advice on agricultural development. He was sceptical about many opinions on the problems of Bangladesh, because he knew the country very well and had done a great deal to help it. Statements about its problems and possibilities frequently annoyed him [2–5]. When I met him at a conference on polders of the world, 1982, in Lelystad, he struck me as a strong-minded puritan, detached from the two Bangladeshi representatives, who seemed to be unconcerned at the spread of shrimp farms. That may be partly why Brammer seemed somewhat aggressive. He was an adviser to the UNDP, World Bank and the Ford Foundation, 1988–1992. Yet such ability and temperament would have been better employed in work in London to advise British governments on development in South Asia and elsewhere, instead of the cacophonous ineptitude of what passes for policy in recent years. Brammer’s work in West Africa (Gold Coast) in Colonial Service days brought him in touch with ordinary problems measured with methods and equipment that lacked all the contemporary improvements. His direct approach to East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, justified his statements. He knew what he talked about. He loved problems and had an invigorating capacity to solve them. He considered that his longevity came from his mother, who died at 104. On 6 December 2020, Brammer wrote in an email: