Sir John Sutherland Medal won by John Dickson in 1938
The above image is of the Sir John Sutherland Medal won by John Dickson in 1938 on his achievement as most highly awarded student in gaining an MA and BSc in forestry at Aberdeen University. The information and image was provided by Anne Dickson, daughter of John Dickson.
Below is an obituary to John Dickson published by George Holmes who was similarly Director General of the Forestry Commission but at a later date.
Obituary – John Dickson
John Abernethy Dickson, a Scottish forester who was Director General of the Forestry Commission for eight years, 1968-76, has died in Edinburgh. He was 78.
Born at Udny in Aberdeenshire, he graduated MA and BSc (Forestry) at the University of Aberdeen in 1938, where he won the Sutherland Gold Medal. During the war years he served in Scotland with the Timber Production Department, whose task it was to provide us much timber as possible from British forests to meet wartime needs. In 1946 he joined the Forestry Commission, with whom he spent the whole of his professional career. He became Conservator of Forests, North Scotland, in Inverness, 1956-63, and Director of Forestry for Scotland, in Edinburgh, 1963-65. In 1965 he was transferred to Forestry Commission headquarters in London, to the new post of Forestry Commissioner with responsibility for timber harvesting and marketing. In 1968 he succeeded the late Sir Henry Beresford-Peirse as Director General. He retired in 1976.
John Dickson was a fine forester, and he was totally single-minded in his efforts to promote the interests of British forestry in general, and the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the Forestry Commission in particular. His career coincided with a period of unprecedented expansion of the forest area in Britain, as the major post war afforestation programme gathered momentum. He was one of the pioneers of the afforestation techniques which enabled the Forestry Commission to meet the ever increasing planting programmes set by government and to do so cost-effectively. He also had to face up to the demands of rapidly changing times. In the 1970s attitudes towards forestry policy, and in particular the economic environmental and conservation issues involved, became the subject of considerable debate as public perceptions of the role of forests began to change. At the same time, as the forests from the earlier plantings began to yield limber, there had to be very active development of the wood processing industry in Britain, based on the increasing availability of wood grown in this country.
As a solid Aberdonian, John Dickson made the Commission into one of the best and most tightly financially managed agencies in the government service, an achievement in which he took great pride. Ahead of many of his contemporaries he appreciated the fact that without a major commitment by private capital to invest in wood processing industries and modernise British sawmilling there could be no justification for and no prosperity in expanding the forest estate. He saw too that the traditional, largely manual, wood harvesting methods must be modernised and mechanised to cope with the demands that the new industries would bring. The initiatives taken in his era helped establish the foundations of the major industry that exists today.
In the wider sphere, he had carried the voice of British forestry abroad as chairman of the Commonwealth Forestry Association, presiding at the 1974 Oxford conference, and leading the British delegation to the World Forestry Congress in 1972 in Buenos Aires.
John Dickson was awarded an honorary doctorate of LL.D. by the University of Aberdeen in 1969, and he became a CB in 1970.
He is survived by his wife, Helen, and Iwo daughters, Anne and Elizabeth.
George Holmes - DG 1976- 1986
The full details of the Sir John Sutherland medal are not known or when it was first awarded by Aberdeen University. It is believed Sir John was the first Directot Scotland when the Forestry Commission was formed in 1919. Any details would be very welcome.
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Groups: Northeast Scotland