My friend Rosemary Walker, who has died aged 71, worked variously as an environmental health officer, a lecturer and a gardener, making her home for more than 40 years in Saddleworth, a community to the east of Manchester.
Her combination of scientific understanding and gracious empathy made her a natural as an environmental health officer, whether dealing with insanitary housing that often had to be condemned, measuring industrial pollution or checking on standards in slaughterhouses.
