My Father in His Suitcase

John (Kay) Corner left home in 1960, aged 19. He would never see his father, E. J. H. Corner, again. Edred John Henry Corner was one of the most colourful and productive biologists and mycologists of the 20th century. His career began in 1929 as Assistant Director of the Straits Settlements Singapore Botanic Gardens, where he trained monkeys to collect specimens from the treetops of the rainforest, and published Wayside Trees of Malaya, a classic field guide interspersed with his delightful and idiosyncratic observations on plant life. He was key in the creation of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, a 163- hectare plot that contains more tree species than the whole of North America. When war came, he considered it his responsibilty to safeguard the scientific and cultural collections of Singapore during the Japanese Occupation, but was branded by some as a collaborator. Post-war, after heading the ambitious UNESCO Hylean Amazon Project, he returned to Cambridge University and was appointed Professor of Tropical Botany in 1965. There he propounded his theory that the Durian represented an ancestral type of angiosperm tree. He was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society, where he promoted the conservation of tropical forests and led expeditions to the British Solomon Islands and Mount Kinabalu. For the latter, he proposed Kinabalu Park which led to its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. After 46 years, John Corner faces his estranged father in a suitcase marked: 'For Kay, wherever he might be.' The letters, pictures and other memorabilia that spill out led him to search for the father he hardly knew, resulting in an engaging and frank biography of an eminent scientist who put science above all, including his family. Two things inspired me to write my book. The 'arrival' of a suitcase, after my father's passing, and one of my (Australian) granddaughters asking me if I had a Dad...   After much thought I decided that I had to write my father's story for the family, but how, when I knew so little? My father was a botanist who specialised in mycology but whose expertise soon developed into evolution and conservation. In Malaya he 'collected' using the help of (his) trained monkeys, the berok... Thus came about his most widely known publication Wayside Trees of Malaya.   Research began and it was not long before some, and they were people of position, one later to be awarded a Nobel Prize, suggested I write it as a book and not just for my family. As these were good friends of my father and they knew the thrust of the story I listened and followed their advice. My Father in his Suitcase followed after six or seven years of research...   I had to find out what was behind the acrimonious divorce (1952) which split the family. Was my father a collaborator (with the Japanese in Singapore) during the occupation as had been suggested and what happened to his housekeeper and Carer after his passing in 1996, being alerted to that by the same people?   These were difficult matters in all senses of that word and there were times when I wanted to walk away from it all... There were times when I almost threw away the suitcase which I named Pandora...