Botanist and principal of Edinburgh University

Born: May 21, 1930;

Died: June 29, 2018

SIR David Smith, who has died aged 88, was an eminent botanist who served as principal and vice-chancellor of Edinburgh University from 1987-1994 during some of the university's most challenging times, financially and otherwise. It was a period of radical change within the university system throughout the UK, some of it triggered by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who wanted more state control over universities and schools.

To his credit, Sir David fought Mrs Thatcher and pushed for the independence not only of universities but of all levels of education from primary schools up. His leadership helped Edinburgh reorganise to keep up with, even push ahead of the times. He went on to become president of Wolfson College at Oxford University from 1994-2000.

During his time at Edinburgh, where, although Welsh-born, Sir David would later settle with his wife in Morningside, he faced challenges over staff-student ratios, assessments, funding and not least financial policy. Some of those challenges came from Mrs Thatcher's policies, others simply from the changing times. His tenure at Edinburgh took the university out of a sort of depression - students may not notice it but administrators certainly do - and the university is now back to its status as one of the best in the UK, indeed the world.

A passionate humanist, Sir David was opposed to religious schools and the teaching of Creationism. Despite his beliefs, however, Sir David, himself brought up reading the Bible as a boy in South Wales, always showed respect to people of faith.

Although he became best-known for his academic achievements at Edinburgh and Oxford, Sir David was essentially a botanist. His expertise was in the biology of symbiosis, how different species not only co-exist but work together, naturally for their own self-preservation but ultimately and unwittingly preserve nature as a whole. Bees with flowers, hummingbirds on plants, the associations between algae and fungi and between algae and animals; Sir David knew natural inter-action and cooperation was beneficial, indeed vital, to all species, not least human beings who, he believed, should cooperate with each other, and other species during their lifetime, rather than waiting for an afterlife.

David Cecil Smith was born in Port Talbot, on May 21, 1930, the younger son of William Smith, a mining engineer in the manganese industry, and his wife Elva, a local teacher. He attended Colston's School in Bristol until his parents moved to Hatch End, north-west London, and he went to St. Paul's (public) School by the river Thames at Barnes. He then went up to Queen's College, Oxford, where he gained an MA in botany and later a DPhil (Oxford's term for a doctorate of philosophy, equivalent to a PhD).

After national service after the war, where he served with the British army's Intelligence Corps, he returned to Queen's College, Oxford, as a lecturer and research Fellow in botany and had a a year as visiting fellow at the University of California, Berkeley before returning to Oxford in 1960 as a lecturer in agricultural science and later as a tutorial fellow at Oxford's Wadham College. After a six-year spell at Bristol University, he again came back to Oxford as professor of rural economy and head of agricultural science. He was knighted by the Queen in 1986, a year before he was appointed principal at Edinburgh.

Early in his tenure at Edinburgh, Sir David faced a crisis when the University Grants Committee (UGC, an advisory committee to the UK government) imposed a penalty on the university for the malfunction of its financial management system. Cuts are always controversial and Sir David realised a change in structures was vital to make savings equitable.

"Through the changes, he maintained a calm demeanour and tried to smooth ruffled feelings where he could," according to Professor Emeritus Malcolm Anderson, former dean of social sciences, who worked with Sir David. "He knew how to take difficult decisions and accept responsibility for them. This was not only the case for matters of general policy but also in personal issues affecting staff.

"One of David's special talents was to make degree ceremonies worthwhile and useful occasions. He delivered interesting orations about the purpose of a university education, the state of the university, government policy and other matters which could all be very tedious but David talked about them with charm, lightness of touch and authority."

Sir David became a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and was made an Honorary Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, in 1987. He received the Gold Medal for Botany from the Linnean Society of London, which is dedicated to the study of, and the dissemination of information concerning, natural history, evolution and taxonomy. He also served as the society's president from 2000-2003.

In July 2001, he was one of the signatories to a letter published in The Independent which urged the Government to reconsider its support for the expansion of maintained religious schools. He also signed a letter to Tony Blair and relevant government departments, deploring the teaching of Creationism in schools. In 1994, Sir David had his portrait painted by the great Falkirk-born painter and printmaker Dame Elizabeth Blackadder. The portrait is now part of Edinburgh University's art collection.

In 1987, Sir David, along with Dr Angela E Douglas of Cornell University, New York, published the book The Biology of Symbiosis.

The current president of Wolfson College, Oxford, Sir Tim Hitchens, said that those who had worked with Sir David had benefited from his "humane, generous and admirable nature. Although Sir David’s eminent appointments and honours were impressive, they could not evoke the benevolence, dedication, integrity and sweetness of nature that made him such a remarkable man."

Sir David Smith died on June 29, 2018, in his Edinburgh home. He is survived by his wife Lesley (née Mutch, a doctor and epidemiologist), their children Bryony, Adam and Cameron and grandchildren Matthew, Jack, Ryuki, Sachika and Taiho.

PHIL DAVISON