Frank Read - 1933 to 2018.
One of the longest
serving secretaries to the country’s oldest farmers’ club, Frank Read, has died
aged 84.
He also managed a
progressive east Norfolk farmers’ co-operative for more than a
quarter of a century.
Born into a
Dereham family nursery business, which was founded more than a century ago
in Cucumber Lane , Brundall, he was popular and respected by the
farming community.
Francis George
Read, who was born on November 15, 1933, was the middle child.
He went to
Hamond’s Grammar School, Swaffham, travelling by steam train. After contracting
polio aged 14, he spent months at Dereham Isolation Hospitalin
bed with an “iron lung” to keep him breathing. His cousin, Peter Witton, in the
adjoining bed, was not so lucky and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
He studied at
Writtle, then the Essex Institute of Agriculture before joining Lowestoft-based
Birds Eye as a fieldsman or adviser to east Norfolk growers.
In the 1950s, peas
were carted to central vining stations, for example, at Upton , near
Acle. Then in the early 1960s the first self-propelled harvesters transformed
the industry as peas were picked and sent for freezing within two hours.
When independent
growers formed a pea co-operative in the late 1960s, he was the natural choice
to run what became Blofield Farmers. Under the leadership of Woodbastwick
farmer Pat Hood, he won contracts to grow new field vegetable crops including
brocolli (calabrese).
As Blofield’s
manager, he masterminded expansion into contracting services and investing in
specialist machinery – for lifting beet, spraying, straw baling and even hedge
cutting.
A keen sportsman,
he played for Norwich Rugby Club as a hooker; and cricket with Dereham and also
hockey too.
In 1987, he became
secretary to Stalham Farmers’ Club, retiring in 2011. When Roger Beck retired
as treasurer, and was elected president in 2000, he took on both roles. But the
Beck-Read combination was a formidable double act.
In 2012, he was
the first to be awarded the EH Wenn President’s Cup for 24 years’
outstanding contribution to the club and was elected an honorary life
vice-president.
He leaves a widow,
Audrey, and daughter Catherine; an older son, Andrew, predeceased. He is
survived by a younger sister, Judy.
A private family
funeral will be held followed by a service of thanksgiving at St Andrew and St
Peter’s Church, Blofield, on Thursday, April 5, 1pm.
Donations for
farming’s charity, the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution.
Michael Pollitt.