Geoff Lawson, the former machinery editor of the Grower magazine, has died. He was 81.
Geoff was appointed in the 1970s by the then editor, the late John Bloom, and he held the post until his retirement some 20 years later.
The two men were natural allies in a mission to bring the latest horticultural technology to the country’s growers and Geoff proved ideally suited to his new role. He had an ability to evaluate each new development and see its potential from a grower’s point of view, and he quickly acquired the skill to convey the essentials to the reader in words and pictures.
A trained engineer, he had an eye for good design and when appraising a new machine would often say: “If it looks good, it probably is good”.
He soon gained a reputation for fair and accurate reporting that served him and the magazine well. Manufacturers and agents regarded a Lawson ‘write-up’ as a seal of approval and he had a string of ‘firsts’ in reporting innovations. These included things like the automated transplanters that revolutionised the bedding plant industry and the mobile harvest rigs that transformed field vegetable production.
His remit extended to protected cropping and he acquired an enviable understanding of glasshouse design. During his time he covered all the groundbreaking changes in that sector, from integrated heating to environmental control by computer, from nutrient film culture to the beginnings of robotic handling.
Thanks to the magazine’s overseas circulation he had an international following and was frequently canvassed by foreign companies and institutions for his opinion and advice.
Geoff was a thoroughly likeable individual as well as a valued colleague and friend. He spent his entire career involved with horticultural machinery, starting his working life on a Kent farm after being evacuated to Tunbridge Wells during the Second World War. Later he lectured on machinery at Plumpton Agricultural College, East Sussex, which no doubt contributed to the communication skills he brought to journalism. He was a member of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers and for almost 10 years sat on its Horticultural Engineering Technical Group. He was also a member of the Guild of Agricultural Journalists.
He leaves a wife, Barbara, and two sons. The funeral will take place at 12 noon on Tuesday, April 24, at Salisbury Crematorium, Wiltshire, and afterwards in Shaftesbury.