Tom Petch

Thomas Petch (born Hornsea, Yorkshire, 11 March 1870; died King's Lynn, Norfolk, 24 December 1948) was a prolific English mycologist and plant pathologist best remembered for his work on the interaction between fungi and insects.

Petch had an early interest in natural history, but Charles Plowright, a doctor and mycologist in King's Lynn, encouraged him to study fungi.

Through a friendship with George Massee of the Royal Botanical Gardens Petch was appointed Mycologist to the Government of Ceylon in 1905.

In 1928 he retired to England, where he lived in North Wootton in the house formerly owned by his father-in-law, near King's Lynn.

During his time in Ceylon, Petch studied the fungal diseases of rubber, cocoanut palm, tea, pepper, tobacco, and other crops grown there.