Humphrey Morrison Burkill OBE (8 December 1914 - 12 July 2006), was a director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens from 1957 to 1969.
[1] After getting a job from Dunlop Malayan Estates, Burkill returned to British Malaya to become a rubber planter, and learnt Malay and Tamil, which was expected of him, as well as Telugu and Thai.
[2] As the Japanese invaded Malaya during World War II, Burkill became part of the retreat to Singapore, after which he seconded to the Royal Engineers.
He was sent to a labour camp in Thailand, where he collected wood cut in the countryside and transported it down a river.
[4] He was offered work at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew to revise Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa, which was written by J. M. Dalziel and published in 1937.