Litchfield Church - St Cecilia's Prayer

The little church of St James the Less, Litchfield, on a summer's morning. My parents, Patrick and Annette, are buried here and I was christened here.

Fortunately, the vicar, Hamilton Lloyd, is very much of the old school and uses the Book of Common Prayer and King James's Bible in his erudite and amusing services.

This poem deals gently with the pain caused to the older generation by the adoption of modern forms of service

St Cecilia's
They have brought you up to date, Lord, down at St Cecilia's
They have pensioned off the organ and they are praising with guitars
They have done it for the young ones, we want to draw them in
But I do wish they could worship without making such a din

For I am growing rather deaf, Lord, and when there's all that noise
It gets so very hard, Lord, to hear your loving voice
They have written brand new hymns, Lord, with tunes I do not know
So I hardly ever sing now, though I did love singing so

They are very go-ahead, Lord - they are doing Series 3
But the words are not so beautiful as the others used to be
They have modernised the Bible, the Lord's Prayer and the Creed
When the old ones were so perfect that they filled my every need

My mind's not quite so agile as it was some years ago
And I miss the age-old beauty of the words I used to know
It's very clear to me, Lord - I've overstayed my time
I don't take to change so kindly I did when in my prime

But it can't be very long before I'm called above
And I know I'll find you there Lord and glory in your love
Till then I'll stick it out here, though it's not the same for me
But while others call you 'You' Lord, do you mind if I say 'Thee'

Mavis Clark

A more recent song takes aim at evangelicals and 'The Peace' to good effect 

Thomas Miller Carol Service 2010

Thomas Miller's annual carol service at St Katherine Cree Church on 14th December was attended by some 60 people - both current members of the firm as well as a significant number of those who had retired. The fine Jacobean church, said to have been built after a design by Inigo Jones (who was also concurrently building the Mansion House) is is the process of being restored. Much ugly wooden partitioning has been taken out and both the organ and the peal of eight bells reinstated (with assistance from the firm). The west door, closed for over 200 years and through which its consecrating prelate, Archbishop Laud once passed, probably on his way to the Tower...now opens again into Creechurch Lane.

Click here for a links to some favourite carols.

Thomas Miller Carol Service 2008
Thomas Miller Carol Service 2009

United Guilds' Service at St Paul's

The City Livery Companies come together once a year to commemorate their origins as religious as well as commercial fraternities at a service at St Paul's Cathedral known as the United Guilds' Service. The ceremony itself dates from the Second World War as described in an earlier post, and brings together the Masters, Prime Wardens, Bailiffs and members of the now 108 Livery Companies together with a representative of the Queen (this year the Princess Royal), the Church, represented by the Bishop of London, and the City Corporation in the shape of the Lord Mayor and his Sheriffs. The Dean of St Paul's leads the service and the sermon is given by a distinguished clergyman, this year the Dean of Westminster. On no other occasion do the Monarchy, the Church, and the commercial and charitable sides of the City come together in such a splendid display of pageantry. Click the heading for some photos of St Paul's, though not of the service itself.

St Martin in the Fields

This beautiful church on the edge of Trafalgar Square is justly famous for its lunchtime (free) and evening concerts and for the excellent food served in the crypt. But having been renovated over the past three years and a special lift entrance to the crypt installed beside the church, it's even more lovely. Click the heading to hear a rehearsal for an evening concert recorded on my last visit.

Favourite Gardens - Hinton Ampner

'At Hinton, I am inclined to believe that the most attractive area is the sward of plain grass between the church and the house with the tall jade-green stems of beech trees rising beyond it. There is a spaciousness and tranquillity here which my more elaborate efforts elsewhere have not achieved.' - Ralph Dutton.

Although much of the garden is lovely, I agree with Dutton that the best part is the 'ungardened' view between the house and the church where the ancient beeches preside over the smooth sweeps of lawn. Much of the garden is on clay which is easily dried out by the wind, so that topiary and areas such as the Dell, full of mature trees and shrubs, are more successful.

I do agree with Dutton, though, when he writes: 'I have learnt during the past years what above all I want from a garden and that is tranquillity.'

The view from the terrace in June.

The house is wonderful, having relatively few perfectly proportioned principal rooms, all beautifully decorated in Dutton's precise neo-Georgian style.

The Entrance Hall

The South Drawing Room

The Dining Room

Breakfast laid out in Ralph Dutton's bedroom

For more photos, click here

Commander Colin Balfour 1924 - 2009

Cmdr Colin Balfour, RN, DL, who died last week after suffering an eight-year illness brought on by a fall, was a most charming and amusing man and, with his wife Prue, one of my parents' closest friends. He was brought up in Oxfordshire and was an early friend of Bill Birch Reynardson's and was with him at Eton. Both of them went to war in 1942, Colin joining the navy and Bill the army, and saw a great deal of action (and Bill was wounded). Colin retired from the navy in 1952 and took up farming on his family's estate at Wintershill and in Scotland, which he loved. He was for many years chairman of the govenors of the local school, chairman and treasurer of the Parish Council and a church warden at Durley Church for 24 years. An excellent shot, a superb mimic and story-teller (and mathematician) and a kind and generous man, he and Prue maintained a wonderful social life in Hampshire and in Scotland. Among my parents' fondest memories (apart from many hilarious dinner parties) were when they visited them in the South of France and the annual cricket matches against the village, played on the pitch at Wintershill.  Prue, the daughter of an admiral, who died in 2016 was as charming and gregarious as he was and both enhanced the lives of all those around them.
I have a particular reason to be grateful to Colin and Prue as it was when my father was shooting at Wintershill that he met Bill Birch Reynardson who offered me a job at Thomas Miller where I happily remained for 39 years. 

Stockbridge Christmas Evening 2016

St Peter's Church and the Christmas tree after lighting

Stockbridge holds a Christmas shopping evening at the beginning of December every year. Each year the town looks prettier and prettier as more lighting is added, and more and more people attend. This year the tree on the church lawn was beautifully lit as was the Town Hall, and Sally Taylor of South Today came to help Alex Lewis (and his son Sam) switch on the lights.

Alex Lewis, Sam and Sally Taylor switching on the light

Prior to this, a horse-drawn coach carried the local MP, the Lord of the Manor and the mayor of Test Valley from Old St Peter's to new St Peter's, proceeded by the Town Crier.  

Stockbridge Town Hall. The horse-drawn carriage can be seen approaching 

Middle Wallop Military Wives Choir

The Heaver Estate, Balham

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Much of 18C Balham was owned by the Duke of Bedford, including 150 acres of prime farmland known as 'Charringtons'. A century later, with farming in decline, the Bedford family sold the land to Richardson Borradaile, a wealthily merchant and MP, who built Bedford Hill House - a beautiful ivy-clad mansion situated where Veronica Road is now, roughly between Nos 12 and 18.

1i 1843 the house and its estate were sold to William Cubitt, brother of the builder Thomas Cubitt. Together they improved the house and grounds, adding an ornamental lake which lay by Elmbourne Road - between Manville and Huron. The family enjoyed uninterrupted views towards Balham until 1855 when a railway embankment was built along Balham High Road and Bedford Hill. A year later Balham Station opened and landowners were put under pressurev to release land for much-needed homes.

Alfred Heaver was an ambitious and visionary house builder when he acquired the now empty house and parkland. Ritherdon Road was the first to be laid out in 1888 and was to be the main access to the estate. That same year Heaver applied to construct Streathbourne, Drakefield and Louisville Roads across the grounds of Elms Farm and the nearby mansion Streatham Elms, and by the time they were completed in 1892, he was already building more roads running north off Ritherdon Road. With around twelve different styles of property, the Heaver Estate had now reached the neglected gardens around Bedford Hill House and when Veronica Road was built in 1897, it was demolished.

On 4th August 1901, at the age of 60, Alfred Heaver was shot in the back and head as he walked to church with his wife in the village of Wescott near Dorking. The assailant, who turned the gun on himself, was his sisters's husband James Young. The inquest stated that had had a grudge against his brother-in-law for many years and had even filed down the ends of the bullets to cause him maximum injury.

Although Heaver did not live to see the completion of his estate, it is considered to be one of the finest examples of 19C suburban development and was made a conservation area in 1978.


Sullivan Thomas

Spitalfields Life Book Launch

Christ Church, Spitalfields

The launch of the book of Spitalfields Life was a magical evening; unique in publishing terms and probably the largest gathering of notable locals and far-flung well-wishers ever assembled in Spitalfields for any purpose.

We were bound together by the vision of the unnamed Gentle Author who has penned his daily stories of a place and its people in the most sensitive and yet enlivening way, and which, through the power of the internet, have instantly reached people across the world.

The book itself is a triumph of design and deserves to be the godfather of many other collections of blog pieces that one hopes could sometimes be opened on one's knee.

Some photos from the event can be found here 

The Gentle Author's own piece about the event and many more photos can be seen here 

Adwell Fair

Adwell House and St Mary's Church

Adwell Fair was held to raise money for the Footsteps Foundation, which provides intensive physiotherapy for children with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, other neuro-motor and undiagnosed genetic disorders. The gardens at Adwell have long been the joy of the family that has lived there for many generations, and although the weather was very changeable, the changing light and skies provided a fine dramatic backdrop to the walled gardens, river walks, woodland, lakes and beautiful trees.  Click the heading for a selection of photos. 

Litchfield

Litchfield, North Hampshire.

Litchfield, where I was born. on an early spring morning. I was christened in the village church of St James the Less where the vicar, the Rev Hamilton Lloyd, holds a well-attended traditional service twice a month.

Giles Wingate-Saul 1945 - 2021

 

Gules Wingate-Saul (right) with Julian Avery, John Collard and Richard Smith. Anglesea Arms, London 2026 Photo by Herry.

Giles Wingate Wingate-Saul was a friend from my schooldays when we were contemporaries at Winchester. We subsequently attended university together and for our last year at Southampton (where we both read law) we shared a cottage with Julian Avery (3rd from the left) on the edge of the New Forest outside Romsey.  

Julian, John, Richard, Giles and Herry at Blue Hayes in 2011

At university and subsequently we were both members of the 'Gentleman of Wessex' cricket team, and we met at cricket matches and events such as the reunion organised by Julian Avery at the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1995. We both retired in 2006, but the both attended the reunion organised by tbe Law Faculty in 2007 where Giles was called upon to reply on behalf of the students.

Southampton Law Faculty Reunion 2007 - with Giles, Julian, John, Richard and others including some of tbe professors.

I think it was at that event that we determined to have an annual reunion consisting of Giles, Julian, John  Collard and me, and later Richard Smith. Thereafter we met annually in London or in Hampshire for lunch or dinner, often at one of the London Clubs (Julian was a member of Boodles). I also began to see Giles on other occasions as he came down from Cumbria to visit his daughter Lucinda, who was working as a doctor at Winchester Hospital. He came to stay at Old Swan House on occasion and we enjoyed long discussions, having similar views on life and the world. He also came with me to Litchfield, and amazed the congregation with his beautiful baritone voice. I hope we would always be able to meet, but that was not to be, as Giles fell ill in about 2017 and was unwell until he died in September 2021

At Gile's Thanksgiving Service in his home village of Rusland on a friend, David Allan QC gave a fine eulogy that appears here:

'I met and got to know Giles in the mid 1970s, not through meeting in Court or in chambers but through Giles being the organiser and captain of the Manchester Bar football team. A team that under Giles’s captaincy played regularly and met with much success. Giles was a solid centre back but if the truth be told he was a little susceptible to the high ball. As a high ball came towards him it was not unknown to hear a cry from Giles “over” and as the ball sailed over his head that was the signal for Giles’s fellow centre back to provide some rapid cover. Those who played for that team got enormous enjoyment from doing so and are grateful to Giles for creating and running the team.

Giles’s school was Winchester College, his university was Southampton where he read law . Giles was rather dismissive of his achievements as a student. I have chatted to Herry Lawford who was at school and university with Giles. Herry is here today. What Herry emphasised was not so much Giles’s academic abilities but the value of his friendship which lasted  a lifetime. Giles was a loyal and entertaining friend, he was a great storyteller.

Giles was called to the Bar in 1967 and joined Royal Exchange chambers in Manchester. He rapidly developed a very busy civil practice but was never too busy to help a fellow member of chambers. A few days ago I bumped into Keith Armitage who was also a member of Royal Exchange. Giles was some 2 or 3 years senior to Keith and when Keith was a pupil and in his second six months and so able to appear in Court it happened that late  one day he received instructions to go to Warrington County Court on an undefended divorce. The petitioner was seeking a divorce on the grounds of adultery. This caused Keith some consternation Not because of the adultery but the prospect of the journey to Warrington. There was no M56 or M62 to take you to the wilds of Warrington. So Keith approached Giles and suggested that Giles might like to take over this weighty undefended divorce. Giles’s response was to say no this is your case and you must do it but I will drive you to Warrington County Court and I will drive you back again to Manchester. Giles did just that. Keith got his lift but sadly did not get his divorce. Undefended it may have been but he could not prove adultery. What struck me on hearing this story from some 50 years ago how like Giles and how he never changed. Kindness and doing the right thing were so much a part of his character.

I forgot to ask Keith what car Giles was driving. Was it his splendid and beloved Lotus.

Giles’s abilities as a barrister, his talent and hard work were recognised and he achieved silk in 1983 becoming a Queen’s Counsel just after his 38^th birthday, an unusually young age to achieve . He joined Byrom Street Chambers  in Manchester and London. The head of Chambers was Ben Hytner. Taking silk at the same time as Giles and joining Byrom Street with him was Giles’s friend David Clarke. I’m reminded of David’s description of Giles: intellectually principled, rigorous, focused but also warm in friendship and very good company.

 As a silk Giles was always in demand. He combined meticulous preparation  and fine judgment with an unerring grasp of legal principle. Giles was the master at drilling down into a case  to reveal its key points. His practice covered both claims for catastrophic injury and weighty commercial matters.  When acting for a claimant if the defendant was not prepared to pay the  value of the case as assessed by Giles then he  was always ready to fight the case. In Court  he was a formidable presence. He advanced his arguments cogently and forcefully.  

 

You’ll know that Giles had a strong sense of fairness. In the conduct of his cases at whatever level whatever the eminence of the tribunal Giles would stand up to what he saw as an unfair approach. He felt his nemesis was a particular law lord of brilliant intellect but with a tendency to make up his mind before coming into court. I know you are thinking that couldn’t possibly happen but it did. And then displaying a reluctance to listen to the argument he had already in his own mind rejected. This infuriated Giles.

What gave Giles great satisfaction was to receive instructions in an unpromising case and then having mastered the detail, analysed the issues he would fashion an argument that provided the route to success. This was never better illustrated than in the environmental asbestos case Margereson where the citizens of Armley Leeds were subjected through the 1930s, 40s and 50s to an asbestos factory pumping out asbestos dust into their homes, into the school yard and onto the loading bays where the children played. During 6 weeks of evidence and argument I was privileged to watch  Giles construct  an unanswerable case. His dedication to the case was total. 

I had the good fortune to be led by Giles many times. It was an education. Those of us who shared chambers with Giles benefited enormously from his wise advice.

Giles’s energies were not confined to the conduct of his own cases. Giles was the founding Chairman of the Northern Circuit Commercial Bar Association. He was always keen to assist law students and young members of the Bar and he did that through his role as a Bencher of the Inner Temple.

Giles retired from the Bar aged 60. He had been a deputy High Court Judge and a Deputy Judge of the Technology and Construction Court. He could undoubtedly have become a High Court Judge and given the combination of his first class legal mind and his humanity he would have been a fine judge. But he and Katherine had agreed many years ago that he would retire at 60 and he never wavered from that decision.

Despite the demands of work and family Giles found time to assist certain charities whose work he regarded as important. He was a trustee for some 20 years of Spirit, the charity for those sustaining spinal cord injury, and he was also a trustee of the Bendrigg Trust based in Cumbria which provides outside adventure activities for the disabled and disadvantaged. 

 

At the Bar Giles was regarded with huge respect and admiration. This was in part due to his abilities as a barrister but also in part because of the person he was. There was nobody else quite like him. He was no follower of popular fashion. He never owned a television. He was very much his own man- a singular man and he was fortunate to meet a singular woman in Katherine and unsurprisingly they produced two wonderful children in Lucinda and Rupert. He was immensely proud of both of them. I’ll finish with some words written by his lifelong friend Herry Lawford:

“A lovely, kind man and a generous friend; the kind you hope to grow old with”

GILES WINGATE-SAUL  Called to the Bar November 1967 (Inner Temple). Practice as barrister 1967-1983. General Common Law work from chambers in Manchester (mainly civil). Queen’s Counsel (QC) Appointed April 1983. Practice as Queen’s Counsel 1983-2005 from chambers in Manchester and London. Areas of work - catastrophic personal injury (brain damage and spinal injury)\, Mercantile/Commercial/ and Construction. Mediator (trained by CEDR) Arbitrator Retired 31st July 2005 Appointments. Deputy High Court Judge (ceased July 2005) Deputy Judge of Technology and Construction Court (ceased July 2005). Governing Bencher of the Inner Temple. Specialist Bar Associations (until 2005) Personal Injury Bar Association. Northern Circuit Commercial Bar Association (Founding chairman and chairman 1996-2002).  Professional Negligence Bar Association.Technology and Construction Bar Association. Society of Construction Law. Bar European Group. European Circuit.

Divided time between the Lake District and Manchester. Governing Bencher of the Inner Temple. Trustee of SPIRIT (spinal injury charity based on Midland Spinal Injury Centre. Oswestry) Trustee of Bendrigg Trust (residential activities for disabled young people. Founding Trustee/Administrator of Rusland Valley Community Trust. Churchwarden / Treasurer Rusland Church, Cumbria.Vice-chairman Rusland Show. Treasurer Rusland Reading Room Member Carlisle Diocesan Synod. Deputy groundsman Leven Valley Cricket Club. Cricket/tennis

Family: wife Kathrine (died 2015) Daughter Lucinda attended Leeds University and is now a doctor at Royal County Hospital, Winchester, married to Tom with a son. Son Rupert was at Cambridge (Engineering) and is marrying Laura in Rusland. 

Photos from the Thanksgiving Service can be seen here 

For some more photos of Giles though the years, click here 

  

  

Harvest Festival at Litchfield

                  Parishioners arrive for Harvest Festival in Litchfield on a fine early autumn day 

Harvest Festival at Litchfield is especially important as the community is entirely based on the Litchfield Estate. We celebrate the end of harvest and the start of autumn in traditional fashion, and the church is decorated with vegetables, fruit and flowers as well as sheaves of corn and a woven loaf of bread in the shape of a stook. The foods are auctioned off afterwards in the village hall.

In 2020, because of the pandemic, we held the Harvest Festival on the village green

Padre Mark Christian taking the service flanked by farm machinery. 

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S. Venkiteswaran 1941 - 2013

Venky in Stockbridge High St 2013

My dear friend 'Venky' Venkiteswaran died on 21st December 2013 following several years of increasing ill health. His ashes were scattered in the Ganges at Rishikesh by his sons Kumar and Anand on 23rd December and prayer meetings have been being held before his funeral on 1st January.

Venky was an exceptional man; a brilliant advocate who passed early though university and law school and argued his first case before the Supreme Court when he was only 21. Most of his long career was spent in the Commercial Court where he specialised in shipping matters, founding the Chambers which bear his name and training many of India's leading shipping lawyers and judges.
Venky was the best kind of lawyer - a 'consigliere' - who was sought out as much for his worldly counsel as for his legal skills. He acted for many of India's shipowners, transport operators, agents, and port owners and was frequently called upon to advise the Government and the Director-General of Shipping as well as the Indian Register. Venky also headed Pandi Correspondents, set up at the request of three P&I Clubs to advise their Indian and foreign shipowners, and much of his time was spent in dealing with their more complex cases. He maintained exceptionally strong links with the Clubs in London as well as the insurance market. In 2004 his services to the shipping community were acknowledged when he was presented with the Varuna Award. He also acted for the Indian Commercial Pilots Association, and Indian Pilots Guild and defended their pilots in several notable crash investigations. He was even retained by the Indian Wrestlers Association! He served on the boards of the National Stock Exchange, SICIC and Gujarat Adani Port and other commercial organisations.

I first met Venky in 1972 and maintained a close relationship with him and his family - his wife Lakshmi, his sons Kumar and Anand and their wives Hema and Ranjini and his grandchildren - ever since. We visited several places in India and Europe together and while travelling often enjoyed his fine cooking skills. He attended the weddings of two of my children in Australia and he and Kumar even attended church with me in Litchfield. Fortunately, he was well enough in May to visit Stockbridge with some of the family and in July I visited him in Mumbai as one of those helping him gain accession of the Indian Maritime Law organisation which he had founded to gain membership of the CMI.

Venky was a great friend to many and an exceptionally loving father and grandfather. His death at only 73 leaves a great void and great sadness.

Many prayers have been offered at the ceremonies around his funeral. A lovely eulogy was given here

I have also created a small terrace in my garden in his memory - known as 'Venky's Terrace' where I can imagine his still taking a whisky with me in the evening.

 

 

Favourite Gardens - Adwell

Adwell gardens are open each year for charity, this time supporting Tikkli Bottom School and St Mary's Church, Adwell.  For more photos, click here

See also Adwell Fair 2011

Ruskin on Pugin's Roman Catholic Conversion

Augustus Pugin converted to Roman Catholicism in 1850, perhaps somewhat unwisely describing the experience thus:

'Oh! Then, what delight! What joy unspeakable! .... the stoups are filled to the brim; the rood is raised on high; the screen glows with sacred imagery and rich device; the niches are filled; the altar is replaced, sustained with sculpted shafts, the relics of saints repose beneath, the Body of Our Lord is enshrined on its consecrated stone; the lamps of the sanctuary burn bright; the saintly portraitures in the glass windows shine all gloriously; and the albs hang in the oaken ambries, and the cope chests are filled with orphreyed baudekins; and pix and pax and chrismatory are there, and thurible and cross......

Perhaps he deserved it, but John Ruskin responded with some fine invective:

'But of all these fatuities, the basest is being lured into the Romanist Church by the glitter of it, like larks into a trap by broken glass; to be blown into a change of religion by the whine of an organ-pipe; stitched into a new creed by gold threads on priests' petticoats; jangled into a change of conscience by the chimes of a belfry. I know nothing in the shape of error so dark as this, no imbecility so absolute, no treachery so contemptible.'

Shortly afterwards Pugin went mad and was confined to Bedlam, and died the following year.

The Lucky Parrot

Ginny at the Luck Parrot in 2005.


Ginny Moore, the owner of the Lucky Parrot on Bellevue Road, bordering Wandsworth Common, has died after a long illness. Ginny made her shop a treasure trove for children and their parents for 30 years.

A memorial service was held for her at St Mary Magdalene Church, Trinity Road on 9th April 2010. Click the heading for some photos of The Lucky Parrot and the crowd at her memorial service and here for video of a choir singing 'Once In Royal David's City' outside in the winter of 2006.

on form at Ashtall Manor

I visited Ashtall Manor for the on form sculpture exhibition two years ago and found it and the Bannerman-designed garden beautiful. Visiting again this year (the exhibition is biennial) was an even better experience. The weather was near perfect and the light wonderful. And there was a concert in the church and supper provided in the 'Potting Shed' to round off a perfect day.

For more photos, click here  

Nick Duke 1945 - 2013

Nick in his favourite Irish tweed cap

My dear old friend Nick Duke died on 29th January 2013 after suffering for years from MS and other health problems. A memorial service was held for him at St Peter' Church, Bishops Waltham on 19th February attended by over 200 family and friends. This is his Eulogy.

                                          
                                           Nick Duke 1945 – 2013

Thomas James Nicholas Duke – ‘Nick’ – was born at home in Fisher’s Pond to Tom and Ann Duke on 26^th June 1945, following his sisters Jenny and Georgie. Tom was then working in the family milling business that had been started by his father James Duke in 1895 when he bought the Abbey Mill at Bishop’s Waltham on one of the Nine Great Ponds which once provided fish for the Bishop’s Palace.

Hope House, Bishops Waltham

Nick’s grandparents lived at Hope House, the beautiful Georgian house on the lane leading to this church, but retired to Worthing, while Tom and Ann – and the children - moved to Curdridge Croft in 1946, and lived there throughout Nick’s childhood. The estate next door was bought by the Tufnells soon afterwards and Wynn Tufnell actually lived at Curdridge Croft for two years while his parents were abroad, resulting in Nick sometimes referring to Wynn as his ‘elder brother’.  Wynn himself must indeed have felt like one as in later life, as he says that whenever he met Nick on a racecourse, Nick would touch him for a fiver! 

Nick and Wynne Tufnell

Nick followed Wynn to Lysses, the local pre-prep school in Fareham, and then to Twyford, where he became a useful cricketer and tennis player and took up the trumpet – an instrument that he was prone to whip out at parties until quite recently.  As a teenager he also began – as we all did in those days – an immensely happy round of spending a great deal of time in each other’s houses and having parties and dances. Charlie Skipwith says that it was regarded as a poor winter holiday if one wasn’t out at some party or other at least every other night. It was probably around that time that Trevor Trigg, a regular visitor to the Duke house, tells of Georgie getting fed up with her younger brother and locking him in the drinks cupboard before chasing Trevor round the sofa. Trevor says that he was too young to realize that the object of the game was for him to stop running! And when they eventually let Nick out, they found that he had been at his mother’s gin!

Nick went on to Charterhouse, where his closest friend was Andrew Ward, later his best man at his wedding to Jay Jay, and a good friend to Nick for the rest of his life. Nick wasn’t a particularly outstanding student, but these were the days when one’s sporting and social achievements counted for more than academic prizes.  In fact I don’t think that A levels were even graded then. Nick studied modern languages, played the trumpet in the school band and cricket and tennis in school teams and greatly enjoyed his time there. Andrew’s younger brother Toby was his fag, and Andrew made Nick godfather to his own son James, so he can’t have made Toby’s life too awful. Nick always said that if he had one, he would send a son to Charterhouse.

Curdridge Croft

Nick was always in great demand at the parties and dances such as the Hunt Balls – and indeed the Dukes gave marvelous parties themselves, helped by their housekeeper 'Pad' (Mrs Padwick), who looked after them for many years. Friends like Giles Rowsell recall dancing at Curdridge Croft until the small hours in a marquee so large that it appeared to be two-storied! Parties often included really quite innocent games of sardines, and I well remember one such party at the Smalley’s when all the lights were out and we were hiding all over the place when a huge figure loomed in the doorway and demanded to know where Nick was. It was his father Tom, coming to collect him; and the party broke up pretty quickly after that! 

And of course girls did in time begin to play an increasing part in Nick’s life. In those days teenagers really didn’t pair off until quite late; we enjoyed – as Annie Ommaney (now Spawton) put it – ‘rushing around in a heap’ too much. But Nick was definitely something of a magnet for girls and I can well remember some who shall remain nameless coming up and asking me to introduce them to him.  Nick and I never had exactly the same taste in girls, in which I count myself fortunate, as I would almost certainly have lost out! Those who Nick went out with included all the most attractive and interesting of the time, including Janet Stokes, Sally Farmiloe, Sarah Keen (known to us all as ‘Weemus’), Kristine Holmquist, the legendary ‘Hovis’ (Vivien Holt), Rosie Bryans and Nicky Boyle. And of course he later married, in 1975, Jay Jay Syms, the most attractive of all the girls in his orbit. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.

Sally Farmiloe's Coming Out Party - She is second girl from the left. Herry (who has changed out of his musketeers outfit) is on the left with Penny Hitchcock, talking to Charlie Skipwith (back to the camera) with Nick half-hidden by a chap pulling on his trousers. Photo by Tom Husler

Nick, Charlie Skipwith and I were in the 60’s the self-styled ‘Three Musketeers’, and for one famous party – Sally Farmiloe’s Coming Out party – we dressed appropriately in costumes from Nathan’s.  Fortunately Sally even then had an eye to publicity, and had hired Tom Hustler to take the photos, so some good ones exist with Nick looking every inch a D’Artagnan.

Herry and Nick as Musketeers

In our spare time, we met at The White Horse in Droxford, co-incidentally only a few yards from Stedham Lodge which became Nick and Jay Jay’s home some twenty years later, and right next door to Charlie Skipwith’s home, Studwell Lodge. Charlie drank the local brew, Nick preferred Haig and I drank Coke. It was perhaps indicative of our low level of drinking in those days that the pub also played host to another group of regular drinkers known as ‘The Quarterdeck’, which included Charlie’s father, and at that time no one ever came to grief in the ever - sportier cars that we acquired; our skills perhaps being honed on all-night games of Scalectrix that we played on the race-track set up in Charlie’s squash court. Or more to the point, the car treasure hunts, when the clues were invariably a pub name and the real object of the game was not actually to make it to the finish!

The Fort, Roundstone. Lucie Skipwith, Charlie Skipwith, Rosie Bryans and Ann Duke 1972

The Dukes had a house in Ireland – The Fort at Roundstone on the coast of Connemara – that they visited regularly, usually with friends. Andrew Ward remembers going across with Nick when they were both only 17 and having a marvelous time fishing and shooting woodcock at Ballynahinch.  Charlie Skipwith also remembers staying there and being at a ‘lock-in’ at Vaughan’s Bar in the small hours where the local policeman was leading the singing when they were ‘raided’ by the local Garda from Galway armed with the only breathalyser in the district. Everyone hid behind the furniture and when the Garda entered they gave a cursory look around, winked at the landlord and wished him a happy Easter before departing. Nick loved the Irish way of life and was in his element there, and he wore Irish tweed jackets and a multicoloured tweed flat cap for the rest of his life.

When Nick left school, his father, intending him of course to join James Duke & Son, sent him to work on one of the largest local farms, that of Tom Parker, whose main farm happened to border ours under Old Winchester Hill. In fact Tom Parker’s farms probably bordered most people’s farms in that part of Hampshire! In any event, John Parker recalls that Nick wasn’t an ordinary pupil, there to work as a prelude to going farming, but a rather to get a close up view of farming as a business so that he could relate to farmers when he joined his father. But he does remember - and so do I – that he was made to cover a huge new cowshed at Little West End with slurry so that it would blend more quickly into the countryside!

He was also sent on a number of courses; one, a business leadership course at Newcastle University, set up by the Kellogg Foundation, he attended part time over a period of three years, driving up for two weeks at a time with Giles Rowsell in his Triumph Stag and attending week-long events in Brussels and London. Giles remembers Nick as being very bright and focused and clearly loving the business environment.  In fact at that time the two of them quickly became leading lights at the Farmers’ Club, starting the Under 30s section when Nick was only 24, and then joining the main committee where they reduced the average age by twenty years at a stroke! Nick often stayed with me on his visits to the Farmers’ Club, and it became our habit to go out early to find the best breakfast in London. I think our favourite was the Carlton Tower! But Nick loved business, and I well remember him being at dinner with my parents and a friend of theirs, Dennis Bulman, who was at the time managing director of Texaco, and the two of them having a long business conversation well into the small hours. Dennis Bulman later told my father that he found Nick most interesting and impressive.   

Nick spent a few months working in Leith, which he hated, and he was also sent to run one of their businesses Chipping Norton for a couple of years. It might have been their revolutionary ‘Evenlode’ business, one of the first complete dry dog foods and for a while very successful, and which might have made Duke’s fortune all over again, had not the mighty Mars brought out a competing version, and the firm was slow to put the feed into garden centers and the like. Chipping Norton wasn’t far from Moreton-in-the-Marsh where my cousin Mike Lawford lived training to become a farm manager, and they saw quite a lot of each other there and on runs up to London; in fact Nick gave up his flat in Chipping Norton and lived in the week with Mike’s parents until he returned to Hampshire.  He was later to be best man at Mike and Penny’s wedding when they were living in Hampshire and Mike was working for Neil Fairey.

Nick of course loved cars, as we all did. His father had Aston Martins and his great uncle had raced at Brooklands.  Nick also had the resources of the firm’s garage with a mechanic, Stan, who understood not just lorries, of which the firm had a great many, but also the desire of young men to get the maximum out of whatever they drove. His first car was a very meaty Ford Anglia into which Stan dropped a hot 1500cc engine. Then came an MGB GT, a Triumph Stag, which was always overheating, a Tickford Capri and a Scimitar. In the days of the Capri, he and Ian Hay, who had The Rod Box in Winchester, used to meet for a bit of a burn-up on the Winchester by-pass, the idea being to reach the ‘Shawford narrows’ before the other. His cars were nominally works cars, insured for anyone to drive - and we did. We were even sometimes lent Tom’s Aston Martins, though I’m not sure if he actually knew. I remember taking the DB5 up to London. Incredible to think of that degree of licence today. Nick did have one or two accidents, one on the dangerous crossroads which also nearly claimed Nicky Boyle’s mother, and another when he went ‘all agricultural’ near Hartley Whitney. He also managed to overturn my commuter car, an ancient Austin A30, trying to do a handbrake turn at the end of the farm lane at Harvestgate, but otherwise we all escaped lightly.

Nick as best man to Herry at his wedding to Prue in Sydney in 1971

Nick was never happier than when telling and hearing a good joke and Ian Hay’s rendition of ‘The Dumb Flautist’ would reduce Nick to tears. Nick was my best man and accompanied me to Sydney for my wedding to Prue in 1971, and he was totally in his element there. Not only were Charlie Skipwith and his wife Lucie working in Melbourne, but his cousin Frances - who had married Arthur Johnson a year or so earlier – was able to put him up in Hunter’s Hill. Every night there seemed to be a party, and at all the parties there were new jokes – like the famous ‘Martin Place’ joke - that reduced the company to tears. And Prue’s brother-in-law Peter Crittle, a barrister who was later president of the Australian Rugby Union, and who is probably the best story-teller in the southern hemisphere, gave a speech at my wedding which reduced the entire company to helpless laughter. Forever afterwards, the jokes themselves didn’t need to be told; to the end of Nick’s days punch lines such as ‘You’s a-going to die…’ and ‘Why don’t you? He’s not a dangerous dog’ would crease him up. And, speaking of dogs, Nick’s love of a good line lives on in the name of his English setter, Cranston, which comes from a 1960’s advertisement for Blue Nun drawn by John Glashan – where the squire is fishing on his lake and his butler is standing beside him with the distinctive bottle and a glass on a silver salver. ‘I’ve just brought you a glass of Blue Nun, sir’. ‘Good thinking, Cranston. Just hold it there while I land this killer pike!’ 

Nick in Curdridge Croft garden with a salmon

Nick too loved fishing, and in addition to Ireland, he fished in Hampshire, often with Ian Hay. They used to get up early and go down to a beat just north of Eastleigh, and usually returned with three or four good-sized salmon, which we ate at dinner parties. Those were the days! His shooting was less successful. Andrew Ward remembers inviting him to shoot grouse on the glorious 12^th on the Big Moor outside Sheffield. They started walking at ten and completed sweep after sweep of the heather without so much as seeing a bird. Six hours later and exhausted, a solitary grouse took flight in front of Nick, which he missed with both barrels!

Nick was also a good athlete and apart from cricket, he excelled at tennis which we played endlessly, particularly at weekends, on the courts of friends like Johnny Cooke, Nicky Boyle, Belin and Will Martin, Sally and David Wilson-Young and our own. He was also a useful squash player, competing on the ladder that Charlie Skipwith maintained in his squash court at Studwell.

Nick's Stag Party in Botley. Will Martin, Ian Hay, Nick, Charlie Skipwith, Mike Lawford, Andrew Ward. Photo by Herry

Nick’s marriage to Jay Jay in 1975 was a golden June day on which all their friends gathered and the world seemed immutably good. Before the wedding, Nick and Jay Jay had been on holiday to the house in Ireland – on the condition that Nick’s mother Ann accompanied them as chaperone! There was a particularly memorable stag party at Charlie and Lucie Skipwith’s restaurant in Botley, ‘Cobbetts’ for which photos exist showing the company hanging off the war memorial in the High St the small hours in advanced states of inebriation. They moved into a house in Church Lane, Curdridge and the following year Cordelia was born, for whom I was honoured to be a godfather, followed by Felicity in 1978, the year (and the day) they moved to Stedham House in Droxford, where Iona was born in 1982.  They also acquired the first of their English setters, Coon, followed later in the 1980’s, by Luke. Giles Rowsell’s daughter told her parents that he and Jay Jay ‘were the most glamorous couple she had ever seen’.

Nick and Tom Duke

Nick was now managing James Duke & Son, employing about 250 people, and he and Jay Jay travelled quite a bit on business to Royal Shows and Game Fairs here and to farm conferences in Italy, Portugal and Spain. They also attended the Horticultural Trades Association meetings – one in Italy on which they went on a fabulous garden tour.  But their own family holidays were taken mainly at Jay Jay’s family’s house in Cornwall, or on the Isle of Wight, and Nick would come only at weekends, citing the pressure of work. It is perhaps indicative that many people remembered Nick in those days as always wearing a suit. Nick and Jay Jay parted in the early 90’s but remained on good terms and Nick continued to see a lot of his children, ‘The Dukettes’ (so named by Tim Boycott often who used to stay frequently with the family at Stedham) of whom he was very proud, and he delighted in the weddings of Cordelia to Mike Burgess in 2004 and Felicity to Abe Gibbs in 2011 as well as in his lovely granddaughters, Mia, Izzy and Mollie, who he visited in New Zealand in 2007 and who teased him by calling him ‘Grandpanic’. 

Nick on Athassel Abbey winning the Newmarket Town Plate in 1993

In around 1992, Nick was diagnosed as suffering from MS, and as a means of combating the disease he took up riding, which he had learned in his youth but then never much enjoyed. He put himself on a punishing regime by, for instance, riding a bicycle without a saddle, and so fit did he become that in 1993 he famously entered and won the Newmarket Town Plate, the oldest and longest flat race in Britain. In fact, aged 48, he won by ten lengths from of a field of 28 horses!

Nick also rekindled his relationship with Kristine Holmquist (now Yankowsky) in 1993 and visited her for some weeks in California and she also came over the England and travelled with him in France. There was even talk of marriage, but it never materialized. Kristine however kept in touch with Nick, and when he was very ill in April 2011, flew over to see him in hospital, and she’s flown over again to be here today.

Nick and Ann Duke at North Dene

Nick lived the last years of his life at North Dene, Swanmore, the house bought for his mother Ann, who lived there helped by his sister Jenny until her death in 2008. There he managed to go on playing tennis to maintain fitness and mobility until only a few years ago, playing on the local courts. In the last two years he was looked after by his full-time carers – notably Phillip Leboa, who assisted him at Felicity’s wedding - Joey, who is also here today, and Derek.  Phillip describes Nick as being like a father to him. His care required a great deal of organization and coordination, mainly by Felicity, but he was of course visited constantly by Felicity and Iona; Cordelia and the grandchildren coming over from New Zealand whenever they could, which he loved. And of course Cranston was his constant companion.

Nick and Cranston with Cordelia, Izzy, Phillip Leboa, Mia and Mike Burgess at North Dene

Nick was never happier in his latter years than when recalling old stories and of course jokes, for which he had a wonderful memory. Ireland in particular had a powerful fascination for him and it was sad that we were never able to take him back there. It’s at least possible that one of the reasons he loved it so much was that his father relaxed there and was happy and amusing, instead of maintaining the rather stern demeanor he adopted at home. But his love of the old days and the influence of his father did combine to give him some fairly reactionary views; I used to tell him that talking to him was sometimes like listening to the Old Testament, and it was generally pointless arguing with him.

Nick was a charismatic figure, and as Trevor Trigg puts it, had a ‘happy cheerfulness’ about him. Always fun and interesting, he was blessed with good looks, a fine intellect, and sporting and athletic ability as well as a general love of life.  He made many friends – both male and female - and retained them, and although his illness made him necessarily less and less able to socialise, he never complained and stuck doggedly to the conceit that he was ‘fine’ almost to the very end. Even a few weeks ago, he would come out with family and friends, helped by Phillip, to his favourite pub, the Hampshire Bowman, to the Thomas Lord at West Meon and to Stockbridge, and be happy reminiscing about the old days.

I can’t close without, on behalf of Nick’s family, thanking the local community for their great kindness and support. To Cranston’s several walkers of various ages, to the owners and staff in the village shop, who were very supportive, to all those in Swanmore and Bishops Waltham who were thoughtful and helpful in a variety of ways, everything you did was greatly appreciated. 

Cranston

   

Herry Lawford

19^th February 2013