Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Sir Godfrey Palmer
Scotland’s first black professor, who discovered a key brewing process and has been a powerful voice in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Sir Godfrey Palmer, known as Geoff, was born in Jamaica but moved to the UK at the age of 15. His dressmaker single mum Ivy Larmond-palmer was part of the Windrush generation and saved up for four years to get the £86 for his ticket.
She would later become a victim of the Windrush scandal and faced deportation. Her son had a plaque placed in George Square Garden at Edinburgh
University to commemorate her life.
Despite being assessed as educationally subnormal at his first school, Sir Geoff’s cricket skills earned him a place at Highbury County Grammar School. He went on to achieve a degree in botany at the University of Leicester.
He discovered the barley abrasion process, subsequently adopted by the UK’S biggest breweries, and became Scotland’s first black professor in 1988. He is now emeritus professor in the School of Life Sciences at Heriotwatt University as well as their new chancellor. He won the equivalent of a Nobel prize for brewing in 1998. During the last year Sir Geoff has been a powerful voice in the movement for change prompted by Black Lives Matter, after many years as a human rights activist including campaigning for a reinterpretation of the Melville Monument in Edinburgh honouring Henry Dundas.
Sir Geoff says of his award: “I consider this award a great honour, not just for me but for all the people who supported me throughout my life. It means so much and it feels fantastic to be recognised for all my work.”
One of the most poignant moments of the night was when Sir Godfrey was honoured by Sir Trevor Mcdonald and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered Stephen Lawrence.
Sir Trevor said: “I’d like to congratulate you most warmly on your Pride of Scotland Lifetime Achievement Award. You’ve done immense work in so many fields – the brewing industry, botany, as an educator and in the important field of community relations.
“You have worked so hard to achieve all you have done and are such a great inspiration
to us all.”