OBITUARY
C. B. PALMER
Cyril Bryan Palmer, a former president and one of the links with the very earliest years of the Club, died on March 4, 1961. He was born on October 18, 1893, at Folkestone, Kent, England and came to Western Australia in 1911. He took up land at Tenindewa, near Mullewa, where he was joined a couple of years later first by his father and then by his mother and three sisters. Here Cyril remained as a farmer for 15 years. However, he had an ingrained feeling for scientific matters and at the farm developed interests which, gave him a reputation in Perth and interstate.
Another brother, who had remained in England when the rest of the family immigrated, also had the same natural inclination. He was P. Chetwynd Palmer, a London civil servant, who developed into a skilled microscopist and eventually became editor of The Journal, of the Quekett Microscopical Club.
At the farm Cyril became interested in pedigree goat breeding and in 1926 he was a judge in the goat section at the Sydney Royal Show. He also judged at the Perth Royal Show and regularly judged at country agricultural shows. He was foundation president of the Goat Breeders’ Association of Western Australia, of which he was later made an honorary life member. He also developed a great interest in the grasses, their speciation and genetics. He conducted wheat-breeding experiments and was a keen collector of grasses for herbaria, recording the first occurrence in Western Australia of several naturalized species. One of his discoveries was a new species of native grass, Eragrostis lanipes, originally collected at Tenindewa and which was. subsequently found to be a widespread Murchison form. It was described by Dr. C. E. Hubbard, of Kew, in 1934.
Cyril joined the Naturalists’ CIub shortly after its foundation.
Very soon afterwards, following the sale of the Tenindewa farm and after his father’s death, he moved to the metropolitan area and lived for some years at Beechboro. Whilst here he established many scientific contacts, became active in the Naturalists’ Club, joined the Royal Society of Western Australia and thought seriously of taking up a degree course in science at the University of Western Australia. He entered into correspondence with his brother in London on the subject and he, in advising him, at his mature age, against devoting “what should be your leisure to a rather exhausting grind for five or six years,” offered some sage advice on how to capitalize his practical knowledge and make some useful
contribution to scientific knowledge whilst working in co-operation with knowledgeable experts. Cyril did, however, take part-time in courses in botany (genetics) at the University of Western Australia in 1927 and was invited to lecture to the other undergraduates on aspects of his own work in grass-breeding techniques.
From his brother Cyril gained valuable advice on microscopes and microscopical methods, He continued experiments with grasses and did some genetical work on finches in captivity. Genetics became an ever-absorbing study, and he developed some interesting views on the nature of species formation. Years later he summarized these in a lecture he gave to the Royal Society of Western Australia in May, I942. He was a regular attendant at the society’s meetings’ and was a member of its council between 1947 and 1949. In 1960 he was made an honorary associate member of the society.
However, it was with the Naturalists’ Club that he was most active and with whose members he developed close ties of friendship.
He was elected to the council of the Club in 1928 and was president in 1945. In 1951 he was made an honorary life member for his services. During a critical period in the Club’s affairs, in 1932-33, when the organization almost dissolved, he was one of the stalwarts who held it together and steered it to better times. He was consistent in attending meetings, a regular lecturer and exhibitor of plant specimens.
In October 1932 he married Miss Evelyn Reynolds, from the Isle of Wight, England, and the two moved from Perth to Parkerville where Cyril became superintendent of the children’s homes there. In 1938 he transferred to the management of a similar home at Werribee, Victoria. In 1944 he returned to Perth and became assistant editor of Elder’s Weekly, contributing agricultural articles under the nom de plume of “Coningsby”. Some of these were republished in book form in 1945 under the title of The Interest of Farming. In 1947 he joined the staff of Westralian Farmers Ltd., as the firm’s agronomist and contributed numerous articles to the weekly Wesfarmers News.
Like all naturalists he gave much thought to conservation problems, and as an agriculturist he was keenly interested in that aspect of conservation where wildlife was encouraged to exist on land that was actively farmed, citing rural England as an example.
When The Tree Society of Western Australia was being formed, he served as its foundation secretary. He was a sympathetic animal lover and was active in societies concerned with animal welfare, including the R.S.P.C.A., the Dog’s Refuge Home and the Animal Welfare League, of which he was a founder and president.
He encouraged young members in their natural history pursuits and bequeathed to his fellow Club members who had need of them, his scientific equipment and volumes and journal series
from his carefully selected library. The remainder of his books were left to the Club’s library.
Associated Articles
Geraldton Guardian
12 June 1924
WHERE ARE THE ANGORAS?
TENINDEWA RESIDENT’S INQUIRY.
A well-known Tenindewa farmer, in handing us the attached clipping from the correspondence columns of his ‘Sunday Times, says it is a case of going from home to hear news, as he has never seen or heard of any four legged’ Angora goats, in that locality. He says that he is acquainted with Mr. C. B. Palmer and feels rather hurt because he has never been invited to inspect the State’s only Angora breeding establishment. The Wool and Sheep Inspector -will no doubt be surprised to hear the real facts of the Tenindewa Angora herd, from Mr. M. F. Troy, the Minister for Agriculture, who has lived and labored alongside the Coningsby stud farm. However, the subject of mohair is an. interesting one, so we reproduce the query and answer from the ‘Sunday Times’ in full as follows:
Question. ‘Billjini’ [sic] (Claremount) writes: Could you give me some information relative to mohair and its production? This is my second year as a cocky, growing only wheat so far; but I believe that sheep should also accompany wheat. I am deterred from touching them owing to their present high price. I have a lot of good country — forest and sandplain — and was wondering if the Angora was worthwhile. Is there any great demand for the product? Are the prices profitable? Do they require dipping, etc., as do sheep? Also how do they fare with wild dogs? Can good, reliable sires be procured in this State? Has any serious attempt been made to prove this industry?
Answer. ‘I am quite in accord with the suggestion that sheep should be pastured on the wheat farm. I do not think that any farmer should be without sheep, as this gives him two sources of revenue per annum — one from the grain, and one from wool’ says Mr. Hugh M’Callum, Wool and Sheep Inspector. ‘You state that you have a lot of good country — forest and sandplain — but no reference is made to the situation. Regarding the contemplated entrance into the mohair industry. I have to advise that there is a big demand for Australian mohair, and the latest reports from London show a good market, and the product realized about is 4d. per 1b. — finer the grades of hair, higher the prices. I do not think the goats would require dipping, but the wild dogs would play havoc with the goat flocks just as with sheep, especially with the young goats. I know of only one established breeder of Angoras in West Australia, and that is Mr. C. B. Palmer, of ‘Coningsby,’ Tenindewa, from whom reliable sires may be obtained. It would be advisable to communicate with Mr. Palmer, who would be only too pleased to get in touch with anyone interested. in the industry and obtain information from one who is fully conversant with goat breeding, etc., as he had previous experience with Angoras in South Africa. Personally, I think that there is every possibility of mohair producing becoming a successful industry in West Australia”.
Once there was a young fellow who went to take his girl to the theatre.
She was ready when he called for her.
And he was so surprised that he went and fainted, so they were late anyway.