Basil Desmond Neame

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(14 October 1921 – 25 February 2010) was a Kentish fruit grower and farmer.

Life and farming

Basil Desmond Neame was a farmer and fruit grower in Kent, and an active figure in the agricultural industry. He was born in Kilburn,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1921 and died in

Tankerton Tankerton (formerly Tankerton-on-Sea) is a suburb of Whitstable in Kent in south-east England. It was designed in the late 19th century as the train network brought holidaymakers to the sea. It gives its name to a ward of Canterbury City Counci ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

in 2010. He was educated at

Cheltenham College ("Work Conquers All") , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent SchoolDay and Boarding School , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Nicola Huggett ...

and the

Royal Agricultural College ;(from Virgil's Georgics)"Caring for the Fieldsand the Beasts" , established = 2013 - University status – College , type = Public , president = King Charles , vice_chancellor = Peter McCaffery , students ...

. He was the first son of Sir Thomas Neame and the British contralto

Astra Desmond Astra Desmond (10 April 1893 – 16 August 1973) was a British contralto of the early and middle twentieth century. Biography Early years Astra Desmond was born Gwendoline Mary Thomson (she would later modify the spelling of her first nam ...

CBE. He was the nephew of Sir

Philip Neame Lieutenant General Sir Philip Neame, (12 December 1888 – 28 April 1978) was a senior British Army officer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Common ...

. Neame was involved in fruit growing activities in

and across the South East for several decades between the late 1940s and the 1990s.

Early career

After studying at Cheltenham and the Royal Agricultural College Basil Neame served in the Royal Engineers and

Madras Sappers and Miners Madras Engineer Group (MEG), informally known as the Madras Sappers, is an engineer group of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army. The Madras Sappers draw their origin from the erstwhile Madras Presidency army of the British Raj. This ...

in India, Burma and Malaysia from 1941 to 1946. He was mentioned in despatches and achieved the rank of Major at

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

Fruit growing activities

Joining the family farming business in 1947, for the next five decades he was engaged in fruit growing, arable farming and hop growing across a number of farms including Macknade and Westwood Farms near

Faversham Faversham is a market town in Kent, England, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2 road (Great Britain), A2, which foll ...

and Harefield in

Selling Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. The seller, or the provider of the goods or services, completes a sale in r ...

. Neame was extensively involved in fruit growing and farming activities beyond his farm, holding a range of key posts in research agricultural training. Former East Kent Fruit Society chairman David Simmons referred to him as godfather to the fruit industry. Key roles included: * Chairman of NFU ( National Farmers Union) Kent branch in 1956 * Governor of

Hadlow College Hadlow College is a further and higher education college in Hadlow, Kent, England, with a satellite site in Greenwich. The curriculum primarily covers land-based subjects including Agriculture, Horticulture, Conservation and Wildlife Managem ...

from 1959 to 1985 * Member of Committee – Further Education for Agriculture (Advisory Council) – 1964 * First Chairman of the Agricultural Training Board in 1966 * Governor of

Wye College bio sciences -> social sciences -> business school Pictures of OLT, Old Hall,Cloister, Parlour --> The College of St Gregory and St Martin at Wye, commonly known as Wye College, was an education and research institution in the village of Wy ...

from 1971 to 1987 * First Chairman of the Kent Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group in 1978 * Member of the APRC (Apple and Pear Research Council) Council and Breeding and Varietal Development Advisory Committee. * Trustee of the East Malling Trust for Horticultural Research/ East Malling Research centre * Director of East Kent Packers Ltd from 1970–1992, being Chairman from 1973 to 1980, and President from 1994. His achievements were acknowledge in 1970 when he was appointed

Other local activities

Basil Neame was the second President of Macknade Cricket Club until his death in 2010. He was also an avid naturalist and a vice-president of the

Kent Wildlife Trust Kent Wildlife Trust (KWT) is a conservation charity in the United Kingdom that was founded in 1958, previously known as the Kent Trust for Nature Conservation. It aims to "work with people to restore, save and improve our natural spaces" and ...

Family

In 1948, Neame married Stella Roe. They had four children. After the death of his wife in 1991 he was remarried in 1997 to Ann Partis. Basil Neame died at the age of eighty-eight on 25 February 2010.

References

* https://web.archive.org/web/20070609130025/http://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/evaluation/aprc/appendix6.pdf

* http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timesonline-uk/obituary.aspx?n=basil-neame&pid=140205525 * http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1966/aug/12/agricultural-horticultural-and-forestry * http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1964/mar/03/further-education-for-agriculture * http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/ScannedAccounts/Ends43%5C0000299743_AC_20050331_E_C.pdf * http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1976/apr/07/training-facilities-for-industry {{DEFAULTSORT:Neame, Basil English farmers 2010 deaths 1921 births