John Pilkington Hudson
John Pilkington Hudson, CBE, GM & Bar, VMH (1910–2007) was an English horticultural scientist who helped make kiwifruit easier to transport long distances and, at the same time, became a celebrated bomb disposal expert during World War II.
Hudson was born on 24 July 1910 in Buxton, Derbyshire, to William Arthur Hudson and Bertha Pilkington. He had a younger sister, Margaret. He left school at 16 to work in his father’s garden nursery but stayed curious about physics. After a year studying horticulture, he earned an external degree in horticulture from the University of London and even lectured briefly in 1935. In 1936 he married Mary Gretta Heath; they had two sons, Colin and Richard.
Before the war, Hudson worked as a horticultural adviser in East Sussex. He joined the Territorial Army and soon saw action in France, being evacuated from Dunkirk. He then joined the Royal Engineers as a bomb disposal expert, rising to the rank of major. He worked in London developing new ways to defuse bombs and also spent time in the United States sharing knowledge with others in the field. He was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his wartime work. In 1943 he earned the George Medal for disabling the first anti-tamper Y bomb fuse. The story of his courage continued in 1944 when he received a Bar to his George Medal for defusing the first V1 flying bomb to land intact near London. His wartime efforts remained largely private until a Channel 4 documentary in 2001 brought his work to public attention.
After the war, Hudson worked for the government on the transportability of kiwifruit in Wellington, New Zealand. The Chinese gooseberry, later known as kiwifruit, had been introduced to New Zealand earlier in the century, and Hudson helped study how best to move it around. He also helped set up a research station at Levin, New Zealand. In 1948 he returned to England and became a lecturer in horticulture at Sutton Bonington, part of the University of Nottingham. He earned a PhD in 1954 and became the university’s first chair of horticulture in 1958, later serving as dean of the faculty of agriculture and horticulture in 1965. He spent six months each year from 1961 to 1963 as a visiting professor at the University of Khartoum.
Hudson left Nottingham in 1967 to lead the Long Ashton Research Station and held a chair of horticultural science at the University of Bristol. He was also editor of Experimental Agriculture from 1965 to 1982 and was known for his clear teaching. He received several honours, including an associateship of honour from the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture (1948), leadership roles in horticultural organizations, the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1975), and the Victoria Medal of Honour from the Royal Horticultural Society (1976).
In retirement, he and his wife Gretta lived at Wrington, Somerset, where he tended a large garden and pursued interests such as choral singing, gliding, volunteering for the Samaritans, and fell-walking. He cared for his wife after her stroke in 1986. His son Colin died in 2004; he is survived by his other son, Richard, a linguistics professor at University College London. John Pilkington Hudson died on 6 December 2007 from kidney failure at the age of 97.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 08:26 (CET).