The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has announced that Professor John MacLeod, RHS vice chairman of Council, passed away on June 18, aged 70.
Professor MacLeod had been a member of Council for 10 years, and was also a member of the Business Committee and a garden advisor for RHS Garden Hyde Hall. He also served on and chaired the RHS Science and Horticultural Advice Committee, of which Charles Darwin was a founder member, for a number of years.

A statement from the RHS said: "John, as RHS Professor of Horticulture, was the most consistent and powerful advocate for horticultural science in recent years."

Professor MacLeod was also involved with many other organisations, as director (and more recently as trustee) of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, chairman of the British Beet Research Organisation, vice president of the International Institute for Beet Research and a board member and director of the National Non-Food Crops Centre.

RHS president Giles Coode-Adams said: "Council was planning to honour John at the AGM on July 1 for his commitment to excellence in horticulture by making him a vice president of the Royal Horticultural Society. John has been a tremendous support to me during my presidency and we all appreciated his wise counsel. We are really saddened by the death of this outstanding man and our sympathies go out to his family."