Hugh Brammer, O.B.E., Oct 22 1925 - Jan 13 2021

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:

I think that I have inherited my Mother’s genes. I tried a cigarette at 8 which deterred me for life. My father didn’t smoke, and he would only take a glass of sherry at Christmas and the New Year. He died of a stroke at 79. I occasionally drank more beer than was good for me with friends in college, but rarely afterwards, although both beer-drinking (and smoking) were common in the Gold Coast: my first boss was a heavy smoker and liked several beers in an evening – and died of liver cancer at 51. Pre-Covid, I would occasionally meet friends for a half-pint of beer or a glass of wine if we met for dinner, but on my own I can go days without drinking any alcohol. It isn’t worthwhile opening a bottle of wine to drink alone; if I take a drink, it is gin with a fruit juice. I get my kicks out of responding – almost daily – to ignorant articles on Bangladesh!

As he said (email, 7 December 2020):

I had jaundice (hepatitis) as a boy aged about eight, so subsequently lived on a low-fat diet. As I wrote yesterday, I have generally lived on a low-alcohol diet. I developed gout in my late-50s – inherited from my father – and chose to limit it by diet rather than chemistry, but I still have attacks two or three times a year. The list of things to avoid or reduce eating has grown over time: acid fruits; red meat (especially liver and kidneys); legumes (peas and beans); and items including oxalic acid (strawberries, rhubarb, spinach). If I have a curry, I have to avoid eating dhal made from lentils or chickpeas. It is a simple diet really: if I like it, it’s off! In fact, I eat a lot of fish and salads – and bake my own bread. Live well!

On 7 December 2016, Brammer looked ahead with apprehension:

Homo partisapiens hasn’t changed (and the education system that we hoped would do so failed to do so). But, at 91, I recognise that I’m out-dated and must accept history as it develops, nervously and incompetently apprehensive like an ancient Roman ca 450 A.D.

Interestingly, I have just been reading Jared Diamond’s latest book The world until yesterday in which he reviews what he thinks that we could usefully learn from some of the social practices of “primitive” people such as the New Guineans he worked with for many years and similar, small, isolated people in the Kalahari, Amazonia and Arctic. Interesting – but the sapientia that sufficed for their small groups didn’t grow commensurately with multi-ethnic population growth!

And on 6 March 2017: ‘Anti-science is a form of ignorance: fear of the unknown; unwillingness to accept what is beyond one’s capacity to understand. It doesn’t only relate to low intelligence. Many educated “arts” people fear or misunderstand science.

Brammer wrote with plainness in a factual, exact manner. He spoke without ostentation. He had great good humour. Hugh Brammer’s eleven books on Bangladesh, his other publications, endowment of a Brammer Fellowship at Downing College, Cambridge, and creative friendship with so many people have ensured that he will have a continued influence for good. In a degraded world, he maintained his values, and lived with creative effect for Bangladesh. May his memory be eternal!