Moray Cameron Taylor

I am heartbroken to hear my dear friend has passed away far to early my memories as us all having such a great time and also our special time together leave me desolated with what has happened, rip my dear dear friend xxxx

A memory of Moray
One of our memories of Moray is from our regular Burn’s night celebrations on the Sunday afternoon nearest 25 January at our house. Moray was always the first to arrive by bus to Shipton (Yes, we had Sunday buses in those days!!), bearing a bottle of single malt. As a routine he quoted Burns’ The Selkirk Grace:
Some hae meat an’ canna eat
Some wad eat that want it
We hae meat we can eat
An’ sae the Lord be thank it
After a social afternoon with many friends, he then made the return journey into York on the last bus (about 5.30).
With fond memories of Moray.
Rita and Peter

I was on 'the other side' at Fera. I was 'corporate' and decidedly unscientific. I did however like real ale (still do!) and, given the opportunity to find out more about how the other 'alf (the scientists!) worked (via the time-honoured medium of a pub-crawl), I seized the opportunity to be initiated into the world of the Stumble and never looked back.

To be fair, I couldn't, because Moray was always in front. His leadership skills had me amazed from the first. How was it that this quietly-spoken chap merely had to hold his hand up and his willing disciples knew - without a word being spoken! - that they had five minutes or three minutes or two minutes or whatever to sup up because the next pub beckoned?

And what pubs he selected! He was a true master of finding good beer in pleasing, interesting, and historic surroundings, devising routes with scientific precision, enabling us to sample the best of the best and still make it back to the train station in perfect time for the return journey. I have no idea how he did it; I was usually hopelessly lost by pub number 3.

Latterly, I realised that his knowledge of good pubs was also matched by his ability to choose great cafes in York. Ill health meant that he couldn’t drink but he unerringly guided me to some excellent coffee shops and eateries when I dropped into York for Sunday breakfast with him en route to visiting my Dad. I always felt comfortable and warm in his company.

We had lately discovered a shared appreciation of Blake's Seven. We’d both watched the series as kids and, over coffee and cake, we discussed the characters and the spaceships, and of course the last ever episode when the characters that we’d loved and followed for so many series - who had prevailed against all the odds, battling the Federation and Servalan, week in, week out - fell at the last.

I’m not a scientist. I’m sure that, on the next Stumble in honour of our fallen Stumblemeister, after several pints someone may well take me kindly to one side and tell me that this is not what Einstein meant when he said that energy is never destroyed. But nevertheless I like Aaron Freeman’s take on Why You Want a Physicist to Speak at Your Funeral: “…all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you… the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are.”

Oh Moray, I'm going to miss you so much.

I will be forever grateful to Moray for the many wonderful trips (aka Stumbles) that he organised to visit unique pubs throughout the country; many of these would have heritage interiors and all were guaranteed to provide excellent ales. The Maundy Thursday trips in particular became legendary and were not be missed. Perhaps most importantly these events fostered tremendous camaraderie between all those who were lucky enough to attend. I was delighted to join him for his 50th Birthday weekend in Edinburgh and will always remember the walk across the Forth Bridge in wonderful weather with Moray of course sporting his latest idiosyncratic headgear and sunglasses. I find it so hard to believe that he won’t be joining us on our next outing. Farewell Stumble-meister

I first met Moray in 1995 when I joined PSD and started going out with Paul.
He was always kind and polite as well as keen to party! We shared some musical tastes including Spear of Destiny. He was a cheese cake aficionado and brought some amazing ones to parties that we had over the years. He will be sadly missed. Josie

Having tried to catch up with Moray first in August and then again last month, like everyone else, I am very saddened by his passing. My thoughts, prayers and condolences.

Though I cannot claim to have known him WELL, it is definitely more than 20 years. Perhaps it began over a beer somewhere at York(?); I certainly tested a µbrewery he recommended at Beverley. On one occasion we chatted about the late, great R V Jones; later he visited the Professor's resting place in Scotland and sent me a photo.

In recent years we exchanged messages from afar at Christmas. I will remember our final meeting, on the edge of a pub orchard, in 2022.

Moray's contribution to the increase of human knowledge will be one memorial, and I hope that others may enable the following page to remain extant: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Moray-Taylor

My friendship with Moray began a few years back as regulars in the Oak. Before long the regular curry nights, along with Gareth and John David, were a welcome addition to the calendar..I imagine anyone reading this will smile at their own recollections of enjoying Morays company in similar situations, he was always a good listener with a gentle sense of humour..
I recall once teasing Moray by saying that he was too modest to ever use his title of Doctor, he replied, with that twinkle in his eye, saying that he was "saving it for the right moment" ,later when pressed on this it transpired that in Morayland this moment would involve a medical emergency, a damsel in distress and the call of "is there a Doctor in the House?!"
I never did get to drag you to the cricket Moray and you never got me to a Brian Cox talk but the Royal Oak Derby will go on (Aberdeen v Hibs) minus the teasing.
Rest in peace my friend
Tony

Moray it just hasn’t quite sunk in that you are gone. I shall miss you. At least there are many memories that I can recall and share. Memories help to keep you here, in a way. Some of my very favorite memories are holidays we took with you. Ron and I shared visits with you to Ardnamurchan a couple of times. Once when Ron and I were planning our wedding in Acharacle. You also travelled to Paris with Ron and I. I remember that we walked and walked and we had a lot of fun despite the hotel that you picked! It was a dive! I do remember you disliking my singing in the car whilst on long drives. I also hold some funny memories of you cringing at my very bad O-grade French whilst ordering breakfast for us all in Paris! You were grateful when the food arrived though! I am glad that we had these memories and I am grateful for the friendship we shared. Rest now sweet Moray. Senga

Apologies if this seems a little prosaic, but I feel that some record of Moray's scientific contributions should be included:

Taylor, M.C. (2000). Potato Late Blight. A proposal for a new forecasting system. Ph.D. thesis. (University of Hertfordshire).

Turner, Judith A., Tracey Chantry, Moray C. Taylor, and Marc C. Kennedy. "Changes in agronomic practices and incidence and severity of diseases in winter wheat in England and Wales between 1999 and 2019." Plant Pathology 70, no. 8 (2021): 1759-1778.

Taylor, M. C. "Wheat disease risk forecasts by CropMonitorTM: in-season updates and risk forecasts via the web and mobile devices." (2012): 127-133.

David E. L. Cooke, Liliana M. Cano, Sylvain Raffaele, Ruairidh A. Bain, Louise R. Cooke, …Moray C. Taylor et al. "Genome analyses of an aggressive and invasive lineage of the Irish potato famine pathogen." (2012): PLOS Pathogens e1002940.

A comparison of spatial interpolation methods to estimate continuous wind speed surfaces using irregularly distributed data from England and Wales. Luo, W; Taylor, MC and Parker, SR. Jun 2008. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY 28 (7), pp.947-959

Cooke, D. E. L., A. K. Lees, D. S. Shaw, M. C. Taylor, M. W. C. Prentice, N. J. Bradshaw, and R. A. Bain. "The status of GB blight populations and the threat of oospores." (2008): 217-222.

TAYLOR, MORAY C. "Weather and forecasts of late blight from your local weather station: is it worth doing fancy interpolations or can you just use the nearest one for guidance on your spray decisions?." PPO-Special Report no. 10 (2004): 35.

Gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, outbreak in northeast London, 1995-2003
Cannon, RJC; Koerper, D; … Taylor, MC et al
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PEST MANAGEMENT 50 (4), pp.259-273





Taylor, M. C., N. V. Hardwick, N. J. Bradshaw, and A. M. Hall. "Relative performance of five forecasting schemes for potato late blight (Phytophthora infestans) I. Accuracy of infection warnings and reduction of unnecessary, theoretical, fungicide applications." Crop Protection 22, no. 2 (2003): 275-283.

Biddle, A. J., J. Thomas, D. Kenyon, N. V. Hardwick, and M. C. Taylor. "The effect of downy mildew (Peronospora viciae) on the yield of spring sown field beans (Vicia fabae) and its control." (2003): 947-952.

TAYLOR, MC, NV HARDWICK, and NJ BRADSHAW. "Spatially interpolated Smith Periods and blight outbreak dates in the UK." PPO-Special Report no. 9 (2003): 105.

Taylor, M. C. "Why do cereal diseases occur where they do?." Book chapter (Conference paper): The BCPC Conference: Pests and diseases, Volumes 1 and 2. Proceedings of an international conference held at the Brighton Hilton Metropole Hotel, Brighton, UK, 18-21 November 2002, (2002): 611-616.

Hardwick, N. V., M. C. Taylor, R. F. Leach, and N. J. Bradshaw. "Comparison of Smith Periods recorded in the field with those from synoptic stations for the forecasting of potato late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans." Proceedings of the European network for Development of an integrated control strategy of potato late blight-PAV Special Report 6 (2000): 287-294.

Taylor, M. C., N. V. Hardwick, N. J. Bradshaw, and A. M. Hall. "Are excessive blight sprays detrimental to potato yield?." The BCPC conference: Pests and diseases, Volume 3. (2000): 853-858.

Cannon, R. J. C., R. H. A. Baker, M. C. Taylor, and J. P. Moore. "A review of the status of the New Zealand flatworm in the UK." Annals of Applied Biology 135, no. 3 (1999): 597-614.

Bradshaw, N. J., M. C. Taylor, and N. V. Hardwick. "Problems with forecasting potato late blight in England and Wales, 1994–1997." Proceedings of the European Network for Development of an Integrated Control Strategy of Potato Late Blight—PAV Special Report 3 (1998): 160-166.

Taylor, M. C., N. V. Hardwick, N. J. Bradshaw, and A. M. Hall. "Effect of inaccurate weather sensors on the relative performance of potato late blight forecasting schemes." In Proceedings 7th International Congress of Plant Pathology, vol. 2, no. 6. 1998.

Hims, M. J., M. C. Taylor, R. C. Leach, N. J. Bradshaw, and N. V. Hardwick. "Field testing of blight risk prediction models by remote data collection using cellphone analogue networks." Phytophthora infestans 150 (1995): 220-225.

A few snippets of memory from younger, carefree, times. Moray insisting that we queue all day outside Wembley Stadium so that we could get the best view of U2 onstage; this led to us leaning against the front of the control desk with Bjork watching the gig from over Moray's shoulder. Throwing a die in a pub in Whitehall and a dozen of us then having to troop over to Marylebone Station, etc., etc. (nine survivors in Shepherd's Market, Mayfair). The two of us getting hauled before the beak in the shape of Steve Hill, Head of Plant Health, Harpenden Lab; being warned that there would be dire consequences if another issue of underground parody magazine CSL Downdate appeared because someone at Slough Laboratory was threatening legal action over an item in issue 4 - despite the fact that no such item existed, that issue 4 did not exist, that issue 4 had not even been planned yet; Steve trying to keep a straight face whilst warning us because he knew full well that most of his senior staff were de facto editorial advisors of a Friday night in the Rothamsted Pavilion; Moray's glee outside Steve's office because only one of us was actually a co-editor of Downdate (are you out there Richard Thomas?). Getting absolutely soaked in Roundhay Park at least two hours before U2 stepped onto the stage. At the Manchester Commonwealth Games watching Paula Radcliffe and Jonathon Edwards win gold; oh, and a New Zealand shot putter called Valerie Adams ... Moray's adventures on the Bedford to Brighton line, and where he slept on the train back from a Newcastle stumble.

Rest in Peace, Moray. You were genuinely a one-off.

Dom

To Mozzer rest in peace my dear and loyal friend , will always treasure our great times together including pub crawls and other interesting times xxxxxx

I am very sad to hear that Moray has died - I have known him for well over 30 years.

I met Moray through the South Herts CAMRA branch in the early 1990s. He was working at the Rothamsted research station in Harpenden at the time. So, apart from a love of good beer, we had something in common as I also work in agriculture.

Moray was a regular on the St Albans/Harpenden pub circuit and came on many of the various brewery visits our CAMRA branch organised in those days. He was also involved in our annual St Albans Beer Festival from its start in 1996 – in fact he came back to work at the Festival for several years after he left Hertfordshire.

Since he moved to work at the Central Science Laboratory/FERA in York we saw less of him, but always caught up each year at the annual CAMRA Member Weekends, which are held in a different town or city each year. Many of those years we shared a room. I have a lot of memories of Moray in so many pubs and curry houses in all of those places.

Working in the same industry, meant I also had an appreciation of Moray’s professional life – especially his teams’ work in developing and implementing early disease warning and monitoring systems for crops. I remember he was runner-up in an awards ceremony for transferring this technology to a mobile phone app.

The last time I saw Moray was at the CAMRA AGM in Sheffield in 2023, when he seemed his usual self. I didn’t attend the Dundee AGM this year. Although Moray was there, I heard from others that he was struggling with his health, but it is still a shock to hear that he has died far too young.

I've related this anecdote about Moray a couple of times since the dreadful news. People seem to. Like it and appreciate how "Moray" it is, so here goes...

When he and I did the coast to coast I suggested that after we soaked our boots in the water at St Bees we should each take a pebble and carry it across to the other side. It was a little heard of ritual and Moray was initially scornfull of the idea and took some persuading to finally choose and pack a pebble.

By Day 3 he had named it!
On Day 5 he lost it! A panicked search through every thing in his pack finally located it.
By Day 14 at Robin Hood Bay, Moray was so attached to his pet pebble that it took a good 10 minutes after I'd thrown mine into the North Sea before he could bear to be parted from it and follow suit.
I just wish I could remember the name of the stone.

So many walks with Moray (Dr. Moz} of which our shared experiences on the coast to coast was a highlight and a special sort of shared bond from the trials, tribulations and celebration only that sort of trial can bring. Reinforced on the West Highland Way, Cumbria Way and others. Even tho' for most of those it was a case of watching the super-fit Moray disappearing into the distance and catching up with him later at the campsite (pub).
Those in the walking group are still swapping tall tales of experiences with Moz and always hoped he'd get fit enough to participate again.
It's impossible to express how much he'll be missed by all those of us that have undertaken so many hikes with him. He was not just a member of the group, but a key character that helped make the lasting friendship we all share with each other.
Our next post-walk pub meet will still share our memories of adventures with Moz, but now tinged with a great deal of sadness behind the humorous anecdotes.