Sir Geoff Palmer

Godfrey Henry Oliver 'Geoff' Palmer was born in St Elizabeth, Jamaica, in 1940. His mother travelled ahead to England during the early Windrush years, and Geoff followed at fourteen, boarding the MV Ascania to join her in a post-war Britain that offered little welcome to Caribbean migrants. He built his education from those difficult beginnings, eventually earning degrees from the University of Leicester and the University of Edinburgh.

Palmer's scientific career centred on grain science and brewing, where he discovered the barley abrasion process while researching at Heriot-Watt University — a technique that became internationally significant to the malting and brewing industry. In 1989, he was appointed professor at Heriot-Watt, becoming Scotland's first Black professor in the country's history.

Alongside his scientific work, Palmer became one of Britain's most prominent public voices on historical justice and racial equality, chairing Edinburgh's Slavery and Colonialism Legacy Review, which examined the city's historical ties to the slave trade and recommended honest public acknowledgement of that history, including through contextual plaques on monuments linked to slavery.

Palmer was knighted for his services to human rights, science and charity, and remained an outspoken, sometimes controversial figure to the end of his life, unafraid to challenge fellow academics and public institutions on how Britain's colonial history should be told. He died in Edinburgh in June 2025, at the age of 85, remembered as a pioneering scientist and an ardent, tireless champion of equality and justice.