Remembering John Elphick

We were sad to learn of the death of John Elphick earlier this year. John was a great friend to The National Fruit Show and generously gave his time each year.

John always wanted to be a farmer and at the age of five started spending time on the local farm under the watch eye of two land army girls. Don’t you just love 1940’s health and safety!

He spent hours on a Fordson tractor with one of the farmers Fred Arnold who taught him how to drive and with Tom Bassett who cultivated with horses. During harvest he use to help stack the sheaves of corn for which he was paid three old pence per hour as pocket money. He spent many summers helping on the farm, something he enjoyed very much.

In 1956 he left school and started to work for Cyril Philips at Lower Tilton Farm Firle where he gained experience in looking after cattle and helping with the harvest. It was hard work back then the majority of the jobs were still carried out by hand – with none of the luxury of modern machinery.

In 1957/58 he attended Plumpton Agricultural College. After leaving college he continued to gain experience working at Pickers Hill farm Saltdean near Brighton and Cowlese farm in Barcombe.

In 1960, he secured the position of assistant manager at a 2,500 acres farm, Pyecombe with three dairy herds and 1,500 acres of arable.

He loved working and spending time on the south downs. He would always tell tales from the winter of 1963, when it snowed so much that the farm was cut off for a week and he had to spend days looking for the 1,000 sheep buried in the drifts. It wasn’t all work as they used to tow each other on sledges behind the Land Rover.

In 1965 he changed farms and became the manager of Court lodge farm Wartling, a 650 acre farm with 150 dairy herd with cereal and potatoes. He would take his turn milking, getting up at silly o clock.

This would be John’s last job as a farmer due to damaging his back. After spending many months in traction John took the difficult decision to leave practical farming.

In September 1968, he joined the NFU and took the position of assistant NFU secretary in Devises Wiltshire.

In June 1973, he moved again and took the position of senior group secretary of Maidstone and Staplehurst branch.

He purchased a family house in Grace Avenue, Maidstone from his predecessor which came with the front two rooms of the house converted into offices. This is where the business was based until the family moved to Marden High Street in the early eighties.

In those days you had to go and talk to people face to face. This is the part of the job John loved he would come back telling tales of characters he met from the farming community. Many of his clients became lifelong friends, testament to his ability to connect with people.

Before he retired in 1996, John was given a great honour and made president of National association of group secretaries, which gave him the opportunity to travel the country meeting and making friends with yet more people.