William Trefor Griffiths, was born 15^th December 1938 into a Welsh mining family in Camarthenshire, north of Llanelli. He adopted the anglicised version Trevor even though his family spoke Welsh, and did not learn English until he was eight years old. He was educated at Gwendreath Grammar School, again taught in Welsh. He briefly overlapped with Barry John, the legendary Welsh fly half.

From Gwendreath, Trevor went to Aberystwyth University to read Biochemistry and after gaining his first Degree, Trevor was accepted for a research studentship, funded by the Agricultural Research Council and supervised by Trevor Goodwin again at Aberystwyth. During his Graduate studies, Trevor met and fell in love with June, an undergraduate, and they were married in 1963.

Goodwin’s laboratory was large by the standards of the day, and a senior postdoctoral fellow, David Threlfall, was a key collaborator for Trevor’s work. His PhD looked at the presence, structure and distribution of plastoquinones. He was awarded his Doctorate in October 1965. David Threlfall moved to Hull, and Trevor took up an assistant lectureship at Liverpool working with Professor RA Morton.

In 1966 the Department of Biochemistry at Bristol advertised two posts to strengthen research and teaching in plant biochemistry, and the successful applicants were Trevor Griffiths and Owen Jones. Plant biochemistry was a difficult field in which to attract grants at that time. He shared laboratory space with Owen Jones for many years, but developed contacts in Botany, in particular with Keith Stobart, as well as other biochemists.

Trevor’s chosen field of study was the terminal stages of chlorophyll biosynthesis. It had long been known that when flowering plants grew in the dark, they did not form chlorophyll. Darwin’s grandfather Erasmus was the first to coin the term etiolated for the dark grown plants. By 1970, it was known that dark grown flowering plants accumulated small amounts of protochlorophyllide (pchlide), more if they were fed aminolevulinic acid, the first committed precursor of all tetrapyrroles. Pchlide differed from chlorophyll by the lack of a phytol chain, and by an extra double bond at C17-18. Illumination of dark grown plants led to the formation of chlorophyllide which subsequently became esterified. Plants then became green and photosynthetically competent.

The requirement for light in the reaction from pchlide to chlide was intriguing on many levels. It is one of only two enzymes known in nature to use light.  Trevor’s goal was to characterise the process of pchlide photoreduction. Previous workers had used whole plants and etiolated plants to study the process. Electron micrographs showed that the precursors of chloroplasts, called etioplasts, contained a paracrystalline array called the prolamellar body (PLB). Illumination of dark grown leaves converted the pchlide to chlide which then underwent a mysterious series of spectral changes called the Shibata shift.

Trevor was aided in his studies by his colleagues on D-Floor, especially Owen Jones and the bespoke equipment designed and built in the Department such as dual wavelength and split beam spectrophotometers. Trevor’s approach was to study the process using techniques of protein biochemistry and enzymology. His first paper in 1974 on this topic showed that NADPH was the source of the reducing equivalents. The reaction could not be sustained, however until he developed the technique of purifying pchlide and solubilising it in cholate micelles. Now the reaction could be studied like any other dehydrogenase enzyme.

A 1978 paper used semi purified enzyme from isolated etioplasts, and an NADPH regeneration system. Using inhibitors, he postulated that these formed a ternary complex with an enzyme called protochlorophyllide reductase, in a complex with NADPH and juxtaposed pchlide. It took another 20 years of research to complete the proof of this model, which is now fully accepted. Trevor’s research resulted in more than 117 publications, and he was well respected on the international scene as a leader in the field. A paper published in 1985 with Keith Stobart on the effect of Cadmium on the biosynthesis of Chlorophyll received over 840 citations.

The success of this work required meticulous organic chemistry, which was Trevor’s forte. He was undoubtedly a skilled experimentalist, and as the laboratory never had much money, it meant that Trevor made sure that every experiment would be run as economically as possible. His catchphrase, “Let’s have a coffee first” was his way of checking that all the controls were in place and the experiment would not need to be repeated.

Trevor supervised a number of research students many of whom have gone on to senior posts in academia. Several of his former students have commented on Trevor’s special brand of mentorship. He had a sparkling mind, big heart and wonderful sense of humour. There were apparently only two things he disliked, poorly designed experiments, and the wildlife that decimated the crops in his well-tended garden in Combe Dingle.

Trevor’s special gift was to make good research interesting and fun, and this applied just as much to his undergraduate teaching and tutorials. He was a sympathetic and encouraging tutor, always several jumps ahead of his students.

Shortly before Trevor retired, the then Department of Biochemistry underwent a teaching assessment by TQA, which required a mountain of paperwork to back up our claim to be a centre of excellence for teaching. Trevor worked steadily to amass the required filing cabinet full of dozens of protocols, risk assessments and all the course descriptors, necessary to back up our claim. Trevor’s input was a major contributor to our 24/24 teaching assessment score, for which we should all be grateful!

Trevor’s life outside Biochemistry was also colourful. He was a loving husband to June, and a loving father to his three children, Adrian, Mark and Julian. He was an avid supporter of Welsh Rugby, with special interest in Llanelli his old club. He would go with his colleague, Keith Stobart and they would meet the team at Llanelli, and get tickets for the International games at Cardiff Arms Park. Trevor was also an excellent swimmer, and joined the University sub-aqua club, becoming a BSCA instructor diver. He dived off the Manacles in Cornwall, treacherous waters that hold many shipwrecks, and told tales of encounters with sizeable conger eels. He was also an avid 5 a side football player in the biochemistry league and played squash with colleagues in the lab. Trevor was also a member of the Bristol police underwater call out team.

Trevor’s war upbringing was doubtless influential in his “make do and mend” strategy, both in the laboratory, and in his home life. Coffee time discussions would return to his three lawn mowers, all giving some trouble, and his three cars, all similarly needing tender loving care, gardening was also discussed and young plants and gardening expertise shared with his colleagues.

Trevor retired in 2000, and in 2013, he and June moved to an apartment in Bath where they were nearer the family, and had no gardening responsibilities, but he and June delighted in spending time with their children, their families and three grandchildren. His passing will leave a big hole in all of their lives, but he will be remembered with great fondness by all those who knew