Landmark Issue 19 2021 SINGLE PAGES

56 LANDMARK RAU ALUMNI What is the mark of an outstanding lecturer? Perhaps it is the number of students who pass examinations and go on to succeed in the life they choose, illustrating that someone provided inspiration at the right time. Then again, it might be those who flog through huge quantities of notes, hoping that will lead to quality in answers able to be regurgitated at will. Or possibly dedication to a particular subject with research expertise and enthusiasm, leaving the student in awe of the lecturer, and remembered for the way in which they were taught, even when the detail may be a distant memory. Put simply it is the memory of the lectures throughout your life; such a person was Dai Barling. The Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE) recognised Dai Barling with an ‘Outstanding Lecturer’ award in 1991. Appointed lecturer in 1946 when the College opened again after the Second WorldWar, by 1951 Dai’s talent made him the natural choice to be promoted to Head of the Department of Agricultural Sciences, a post he was to hold until 1989. This was a glorious time for RAC in which Dai played a great part, with students influenced by him going on to play leading roles in agriculture around Great Britain, and increasingly around the world. Dai maintained throughout his life the interest in grasses that had begun in his student days at Aberystwyth. He wrote papers on the genus Poa and maintained a lifelong interest in grassland ecology. With the setting up of the Cirencester Cereal Study Group in 1977, Dai became an instant supporter. This Farmers’ Study Group is still going in 2020 and is now called the Cotswold Arable Study Group (CASG). Those of his colleagues who held him in the highest esteem included Vic Hughes who succeeded to the position of Principal, who was delighted when it was announced that Dai had been chosen to be an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Agricultural University (FRAU), a very rare honour for a lecturer and richly deserved for this son of a Welsh miner who scaled the heights of his profession and remained personally modest and undemanding. Farewell Dai Barling Dai Barling at a Cotswold Cereal Study Group field meeting c.1986 1924 - 2020