Clive Francis (51-55)

Dr Clive Francis attended Wesley College from 1951 to 1955. He would go on to be a celebrated scientist, described by his peers as having ‘changed the face of Australian agriculture’. His two sons, Douglas (82–86) and Gordon (85–89), were also students at Wesley.

He obtained first-class honours in Agriculturefrom The University of Western Australia, which was followed by a PhD and then a post doctoral Fellowship.

Clive was pre-eminent in all phases of the development of subterranean clover. The clover cultivars he bred improved a range of farming issues including sheep loss through fertility issues, disease tolerance, waterlogging, and seed harvesting. His cultivars of clover are still grown on millions of hectares of land across southern Australia.

Clive recognised the need to systematically collect, document, and store plant material from of a wide array of pasture and crop species to ensure their ongoing availability to improvement programs.

During his career he directly or indirectly collected over 14,000 plant samples from around the Mediterranean basin, Eastern Africa, and Central and South Asia.

Seeing the benefit of global information sharing, Clive also recruited and led an international network of prominent scientists, all dedicated to sharing and collecting plant genetic resources.

Clive earned a reputation as an innovative scientist and influential leader. The practical application of his work assisted with modern farming pressures, and he was beloved by farmers as a result.

His agricultural legacy lives on through his research on crop and pasture legumes, which are still used today as the basis for breeding initiatives in Australia and internationally.

Awards:
Australian Institute of Agricultural Science Medal, 1982
Farrer Medal, 1985
Australian Institute of Agricultural Science Fellowship, 1994
Vavilov Institute Memorial Medal, 1999
Agriculture Hall of Fame, 2014