Roy Hay (horticulturist)

Roy passed up the opportunity to attend University and instead joined Watkins and Simpson, a wholesale seed company, working on the breeding side and taking pictures for the catalogue.

[1] Having written short pieces for the Watkins and Simpson seed catalogue, Roy began to contribute frequently on horticultural matters.

The Chronicle moved to Reading after the outbreak of the Second World War and Roy began to edit for various publications of the Royal Horticultural Society.

David Bowes-Lyon set up the British Committee for Overseas Flower Shows and made Roy its secretary, during his time as editor of the Gardeners' Chronicle.

Roy was instrumental in raising the funds in 1955 to set up the British woodland garden at the second Ghent Floralies which won the Grand Prix d'Honneur.

This was essentially a "make-France-more-beautiful campaign", initiated by the French Tourist Authority in 1959 on the instructions of General Charles de Gaulle to brighten the country up.

He was also honoured with the title Officier du Merite Agricole by both Belgium (in 1956) and France (in 1959) for his work in Europe in the years following the war.

[7] Roy Hay married Frances Perry in 1977, a fellow winner of the Victoria Medal of Honour, who survived him after his death in 1989.