John Atkinson NDA 51/53

Course News

John Atkinson NDA 51/53

John was born in Goldington Bedford in 1932. At the age of ten he won a scholarship to Bedford School and started there in September 1942.

After leaving school in 1950 he decided he wanted to do something in agriculture and he secured a place at Shuttleworth College. As he was not a farmer’s son and had no background in agriculture he had to complete a year of practical experience on a farm. He spent the year on two different farms, one in Bedfordshire and the other in Cambridgeshire.

During his first year at Shuttleworth he was accommodated at a former farm house called Hill House about a mile from the main building. There were four to a room which were allocated in alphabetical order.

In his second year he moved to the main building where the rooms were larger and more airy, accommodating up to five at a time. All these rooms were named after early aircraft. At that time Mrs. Shuttleworth still lived in part of the main building and in the course of each term she would entertain groups of three or four students at a time before the evening meal providing sherry and cigarettes. These occasions were known as “sherry with the Duchess”.

After leaving Shuttleworth he returned to the farm in Cambridgeshire to gain more experience. In the autumn of 1954 he moved on and worked on farms in Herts and Beds.

In the autumn of 1955 he saw an advertisement in the Farmers Weekly for Field Officers with the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food. He was successful and joined MAFF in December 1955 as a Field Officer to work on grantaided land improvement operations – mainly land drainage. After four months training in London and the Home Counties it emerged that he had not done his National Service as he had been exempt while working on the land. Working for MAFF he no longer qualified for exemption so at the age of twenty four in April 1956 he had to go to do his National Service.

After National Service he was posted to Peterborough. He married Jennifer Childerley (Jane) who he had met while working in Cambridgeshire in 1959.

After five years at Peterborough he moved to the Huntingdon office. Over the next 15 years he did work in Cambs, Hunts, Beds, Suffolk, Essex and South Lincs. In 1972 he was promoted to Divisional Drainage and Water Supplies Officer at Huntingdon becoming responsible for a team of about a dozen colleagues.

After restructuring in MAFF he was moved to Devon in 1978 to do similar work. As time went on, after more restructuring his title changed to Soil and Water Engineer with ADAS and then Senior Surveyor. At this time he was responsible for both Devon and Cornwall. He retired at the age of sixty in 1992. Retirement was spent generally enjoying life with gardening, holidays and family. He said that working for MAFF wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea but he considered it a privilege to have a working life that gave him access to so many farms and fields and opportunities to meet and help so many people. He leaves a widow, son and daughter and six grandchildren.