Prof W.S. Richards, a mentor and friend, died in 2016 aged 96. Known affectionately by many as just 'Prof', he was a remarkable man who spent the last 30 years of his life in Maiduguri, North East Nigeria. His obituary appears in an edited form in The Queen's College Record, December 2017, and is reproduced in full below.
William Styan Richards 1920-2016
The doctors told William Richards’ mother that he wouldn’t live to adulthood: but, as he liked to recall, “She was a very obstinate Yorkshire woman”. Indeed, he made it to 96. Most of his life was spent researching pest-control measures that directly improved the livelihoods of North and West African farmers. Bugs that earnt his attention included: trombicular mites; the sesame seed bug; the Sudan plague grasshopper in the great plains between the Valley of the White Nile and the Ethiopian Massif; the shoot fly; and the defoliating coccid of neem. I know nothing about such beasties beyond the sometimes improbably and always hilarious stories that ‘Prof’ told about his life spent pursuing them. ...
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