Spafford, Walter John (1884 - 1962)

Born at Adelaide, S.A., on 13 April 1884 and was living there when he retired in 1949 and died on 31 May 1962.  

He commenced his studies at the Roseworthy Agricultural College and gained his Diploma in 1903.  In 1905 he was appointed Assistant Experimentalist at the College and commenced a career of 44 years with the Department of Agriculture of South Australia, rising to Director (1936-49).  For a period of 10 years he was Superintendent of Experimental Work and subsequently Chief Agricultural Adviser (1924-36). 

Mr Spafford served on a large number of important commissions and committees, including the Rural Settlement Committee, the Agricultural Settlement Committee, the Commonwealth Board of Inquiry on Wheat Harvest Costs, and the Advisory Committee on Soil Conservation. He wrote and lectured extensively on agriculture in South Australia and in 1934 travelled in New Zealand, South America and South Africa, inquiring into agricultural activities which could be of interest to his State. He recorded his impressions in Agriculture in the Temperate and Sub-tropical Climates of the South (1936).

He is honoured in the name Eucalyptus calycogona var. spaffordii Blakely (1934), for which he was collector of the type.