Roy Hay

Roy Hay MBE, VMH was a British horticulturist, journalist and broadcaster. Roy Hay was born on the estate of Lord Linlithgow where his gardener father Thomas Hay managed the gardens (he eventually became superintendent of the Royal Parks of London). In 1924, Hay’s father took him to the Chelsea Flower Show for the first time "to start his proper education." Roy didn’t attend University and joined Watkins and Simpson, a wholesale seed company, working on the breeding side and taking pictures for the catalogue and writing short pieces to go with them. Having written those short pieces, Roy began to contribute frequently on horticultural matters.

In 1936 he became assistant editor for the Gardeners' Chronicle. When the Chronicle moved after the outbreak of WWII, Roy began to edit for Royal Horticultural Society publications. In 1940 the Ministry of Agriculture recruited him to work on their "Dig for Victory" campaign to persuade people to cultivate their own gardens and plots to combat food shortages. In 1942 when the Siege of Malta began, he was appointed the horticultural officer to Malta. In 1945 Roy became controller of the horticulture and seeds division for the British zone in occupied Germany.

He returned to the Gardeners' Chronicle and was editor from 1956-64. During this time, David Bowes-Lyon set up the British Committee for Overseas Flower Shows, made Roy its secretary, and instructed Roy to set up a new organization because of Roy’s successes at the Ghent Floralies and in Paris. Thus was born the Federation of British Horticultural Exporters. In 1956 the Gardeners' Sunday Organisation was formed at the suggestion of Roy. In 1963 he was instrumental in setting up a committee, together with the British Tourist Authority, to run the "Britain in Bloom" campaign, which became a phenomenon and has since eclipsed all similar events in Europe in terms of its scale. Roy also presented the BBC radio programmes Home Grown and the Gardener's Question Time.

Source: Wikipedia