Henry J. Bunker

He was born in London, 27 April 1897, and educated at St Olave’s Grammar School. He attended St Catharine’s College, Cambridge in 1919, to take a degree with botany as his principal subject. On leaving Cambridge he took up his first professional position, as assistant bacteriologist in an Admiralty research organisation, the Royal Naval Cordite Factory at Holton Heath in Dorset. There he studied topics in applied microbiology and the microbiological breakdown of textiles, including cellulosic materials.

He had the opportunity of examining samples of the wrappings of Tutankhamun, dust and other materials from the king’s sarcophagus, and showed that, as far as modern microbiological methods could detect, no micro-organisms at all survived.

He died 8 August 1975.