Roddy Loder-Symonds

Roddy LoderSymonds

Club Chairman in 1976

“Generous with his time…. Roddy was a distinguished member of the Farmers Club and immensely fond of its camaraderie and mixing with people with whom he had a natural interest.”

IN November 1938 Roddy was born into the family that had owned the Hinton Waldrist estate near Faringdon for several generations. After his father died, on the last day of the Second World War, his mother married again and the family moved to Lower Pertwood in Wiltshire. It was here that Roddy’s interest in farming flourished.

After completing his education at Radley College, Roddy wanted to follow his father’s footsteps into the Army, but was rejected on medical grounds, and so, undeterred, he took a boat out to Australia and New Zealand where he spent 3 years working on various farms.

He returned to the UK whereupon his stepfather, Colonel Jack Houghton Brown, a former Farmers Club Chairman, persuaded Roddy to go to the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, rather than returning abroad. Upon graduating from Cirencester, Roddy set about his first venture into agriculture taking over a 500 acre hill farm on Exmoor where he managed an extensive reclamation programme and built up a flock of 1000 breeding ewes.

Chartered Surveyor

Never a man to let the grass grow under his feet, in 1967 he joined Knight Frank & Rutley and qualified as a Chartered Surveyor specialising in property development in Australia and leisure development in the UK.

In 1973, Roddy joined the team at Strutt and Parker and indeed opened the Canterbury office which he ran becoming an equity partner in the company, ultimately heading up the Farming Department and later the Marketing Department to boot, before retiring in 1999.

Outside his professional farming and surveying life Roddy was involved with numerous organisations and charities in and around Kent, including being a former Governor of Canterbury Christ Church University for 14 years, former Chairman of the Canterbury Festival, a role he undertook for seven years and acting as High Sheriff of Kent in 2000/2001.

Generous with his time, in addition to these many commitments, Roddy was a distinguished member of the Farmers Club, having joined in October 1959, and was one of the Club’s longeststanding members. He was immensely fond of the Club, its camaraderie and mixing with people with whom he had a natural interest.

Youngest Chairman

Sitting on many committees in his early years, Roddy was elected as Club President and Chairman in 1976, the youngest ever Chairman at 37 years of age, and readily recognisable by his striking resemblance to the DC Comics hero, Superman, as he was affectionately referred to by his close friends.

During his year he was very proud to have as the Guest of Honour at the Farmers Club Annual Ball, His Grace, The Archbishop of Canterbury Donald Coggan. Roddy became a Trustee and Director of the Farmers Club Leasehold Company in 1993, which amongst other duties assists the management of the Club’s long term financial assets.

Roddy was instrumental in moving the Club’s assets from poorly performing endowment policies (which collectively came to a sad end a few years later) to a better managed and profitable equity portfolio. He was Chairman of Trustees 2003-2006 and until his death was a Club Honorary Vice President.

A true gentleman in every sense of the word, having time for everyone and a fantastic person just to sit and listen to, he will be sorely missed by his wife, Caroline, his three children Sacha, Robert and James and his seven grandchildren.

Andrei Spence

Club Chief Executive