British berry pioneer Hugh Lowe has passed away.
Lowe, who built up Hugh Lowe Farms, and who was one of the original founders of the business now known as Berry Gardens, was well-known and well-respected across the fresh produce industry.
He died on 20 December following a short illness.
Born in Wiltshire in 1933, and brought up in the village of Box, Hugh was the son of Frances Marjorie Lowe, the daughter of a Kent fruit grower.
Attending Dauntseys School, he met many scions of farming families, and left at the age of 15 to learn the farming ropes under his grandfather Bernard Champion at Barons Place, Mereworth.
Lowe subsequently became an apprentice at Court Lodge Farm, West Peckham, in Kent - a site he later bought himself.
Hugh spent his national service in the Royal Artillery, and later joined the Territorial Kent Yeomanry. He made firm and lasting friends there, particularly Hugh Kelsey, a fellow Kent fruit grower.
Lowe's daughter, Marion Regan, said: 'He loved and benefitted from his army years. For example, he would later tell his family how he fell asleep during a key lecture on how to discipline a junior, such that he decided he must always manage people so that disciplinary action was never necessary. His fairness and clarity in managing people throughout his life owes much to this moment of somnolence in his young officer days.'
Lowe had to leave his National Service early due to the ill health of his grandfather, and he took over the farm in his early 20s.
In 1958, he married Alison Fife, the daughter of a local farmer he met out beagling. They had two daughters, Fiona and the aforementioned Marion, both of whom followed family tradition studying agriculture or horticulture and becoming fruit growers themselves.
The 1960s and 1970s were productive years for Lowe, as he built the farm into a respected and innovative fruit growing business, specialising in strawberries. However he also found time to chair a local grain co-operative, and was always interested in all aspects of farming.
Lowe was an innovator on the marketing front too. He initiated some market research in 1971 into soft fruit marketing. Then, together with Don Goodwin - who sadly died in the same week as Lowe - and other eminent Kent soft fruit growers, he set up Kentish Garden, the grower-owned cooperative which is now the leading marketing group, Berry Gardens.
Lowe was its first secretary, and marvelled that he once kept it all in 'one box file'. He later became its second chairman, and promoted its expansion beyond Kent into the national organisation we know today.
In the 1980s, Regan joined her father in the family business, and it was incorporated as Hugh Lowe Farms Ltd in 1990. Retiring in 1995, he moved to Dorset, and began 20 happy years living in Cerne Abbas. Later, he married Angela, his second wife, and enjoyed helping to bring up another pair of step-daughters, Catriona and Cindy.
A grandfather to five, Lowe was particularly pleased to attend Fiona's son William's passing out parade at Sandhurst this year, when he was commissioned into his grandfather's old regiment, the Royal Artillery.
After handing over the reins of Hugh Lowe Farms, Lowe did not stop working, and became the first chairman of East Malling Research when it was privatised, and he stayed on as chairman of Hugh Lowe Farms until his death.
Outside of fruit, Lowe became the youngest county chairman of Kent, and also took roles such as district councillor. Later, he also served as a JP.His NFU service, meanwhile, was long and varied. Lowe served on the Agricultural Wages Board, the Horticulture Board, and chaired many committees. He also served on the Board of Assured Produce, and the Horticultural Development Council, and was a Governor of Wye College (continuing when it became part of Imperial College). He had a lifelong passion for research and development, highlighted in his many writings on the subject.
Regan added: 'Hugh is also fondly remembered by many young and now not so young people from diverse Eastern European countries who came to Britain under the HOPS seasonal workers scheme (SAWS), as he was a founder member of the steering committee for HOPS, the labour provider owned by the Young Farmers (NFYFC).
'He championed the mutual benefits of this from the very start of glasnost, believing that the mobility of bright young people willing to work hard and simultaneously learn about our culture would only help international relations as well as our great British soft fruit industry.'
In 2011, Lowe was awarded the Ridley Medal by the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers in recognition of his major contribution to the fruit industry.
A memorial service is set to take place at noon on 22 January at St Mary's Church, Cerne Abbas, Dorset.
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