A life in gardens
From the age of eight, Graham Thomas set his heart on a gardening career - it was to be a long and illustrious one. He left school at 16, becoming a student at Cambridge University's botanic garden, then moved to T. Hilling & Co., a nursery near Woking in Surrey, where he eventually became manager.
By the early 1950s the National Trust was in need of a gardens adviser, having acquired some of the greatest gardens in Britain: Blickling, Stourhead, Cliveden, Powis, Hidcote and Bodnant among them. Many were in decline after the war years and following his appointment in 1955, Graham had to find a way of maintaining and improving them with few resources and funds. His intuitive understanding of historic gardens and the need for their planned conservation saved many from further decline and saw the restoration or recreation of others.
During his 94 years, he published 20 books, often featuring his own botanical illustrations. He also introduced or rediscovered many garden plants, that without his intervention, might have been lost to cultivation. The history of British gardens and their plant collections would not have been the same without him.