Sir John Hammond CBE, FRS, PhD, was the Head for the School of Physiology of Animal Reproduction of the University of Cambridge.
At Cambridge he took the Natural Sciences Tripos followed by the Diploma at the School of Agriculture in 1911. He started his research career under Dr F. H. A. Marshall and his interest in all aspects of animal reproduction was lifelong.
He joined the School of Agriculture in 1920, having served in the 1914-18 War, and devoted himself to research in a wide range of problems relating to the physiology of farm animals until his retirement in 1954. He became a great authority on breeds of livestock and on their breeding.
Cambridge recognized his distinction by electing him to a Readership in Agricultural Physiology in 1943, while his College - Downing - made him a Fellow in 1936.
He also later headed the School of Physiology of Animal Reproduction of the University of Cambridge and was a founder of the Cambridge Animal Research Station.
He was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of London as early as 1933, he received an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1956, an Honorary Associateship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 1959, and he was made a Knight Bachelor in 1960. He held honorary degrees from Leeds, Durham, Iowa, Copenhagen, Cracow, Louvain and Vienna Universities and was a foreign member of a number of agricultural and veterinary academies and societies outside this country.
It was inevitable also that he should serve on a number of important government committees and commissions with particular reference to animal production, and his services were enlisted by the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (U.N.R.R.A), the UN and the FAO, as well as by scientific councils and bodies globally. He had been president of the British Society of Animal Production, the Nutrition Society, the 2nd International Congress of Physiology and Pathology of Animal Reproduction and Artificial Insemination, and Section M (Agriculture) of the British Association.