• IT was sad news to learn that Tony Allan, who had lived for 15 or more years directly opposite my wife and myself in Woodsome Road, NW5, has died, (Tony never lost thirst for science, Obituary, April 29).

He and his partner Mary were good friends and neighbours; nothing was too much for them.

For many months they stored about 5,000 books of mine which were stock for a second-hand shop I was about to open in Ireland.

A Geordie by origin but once in London an academic at the School of Oriental and African Studies and then at King’s College, he was an extremely modest man with a powerful intellect. He spoke with quiet determination.

And he prompted a major rethink in me when he patiently explained how much more detrimental to the resources of our planet was the rearing of a single cow than the planting of an acre of cereal.

That, and the advice from a heart surgeon, made me switch to vegetarianism almost immediately.

His pioneering study of water resources in the Middle East led to the results of his research being accepted across the world.

In 2008 he was awarded the Stockholm Water Prize, described as the equivalent of an environmental Nobel Prize. Little of this was known in Woodsome Road.

Tony was most humble about his achievements. At his universities he was a loyal trade unionist.

He joined the Labour Party in the early 1980s at a time when many people were deserting for the Social Democratic Party, and remained an old-school and hard-working party member, rarely missing a meeting.

He and Mary are now fondly remembered for driving around the neighbourhood together in their ancient green Citroën 2CV.

Our thoughts are now with Mary and her daughter.

GERRY & ELLIE HARRISON
Church Lane
Laughton, Sussex