trinidad. having worked for two years in uganda as an agriculture officer, hopkins was appointed in 1926 as mycologist in southern rhodesia, and from 1946 to 1954 as chief botanist and plant pathologist. he published numerous papers on the diseases afflicting tobacco and other crops. in 1954 he returned to england as assistant director of the commonwealth mycological institute, kew, and two years later he followed s.p. wiltshire as director. on his retirement in 1964 he moved first to hastings, and then to the isle of man where he assembled a collection of fungi. his "tobacco diseases with special reference to africa" (1956) became the standard text on the subject. hopkins' expertise was much sought after and in consequence he travelled widely. in 1963 he returned to salisbury to attend the 3rd world tobacco scientific congress arranged by the tobacco research board of rhodesia and nyasaland. in 1962 he was made a companion of the order of st michael and st george.