Sir Henry Plumb

(From the eulogy delivered by John Thorley)

It was a privilege to have been asked by the Plumb family to provide the eulogy for Henry. He was such a remarkable man who has been a close friend for some 50 years.

He was a special friend of incredible ability who left school at the age of 15 and went on to achieve high office in everything he put his hand to, plus his tangible capacity for hard work with a huge sense of care and kindness towards his family and friends.

A natural born diplomat, second to none with a gentle, highly tuned sense of humour and realism, I feel certain that his silent prayer in recent months would have been 'God give me work until my life is done and life till my work is done'.

Henry will have gone to his maker with the quiet satisfaction that he had made the most of his many talents and long life. On the day of Henry's passing Minette Batters, the president of the NFU, said: “Today, British farming lost one of its greatest ever advocates and the NFU has lost its greatest ever president.”

He was a true man of the soil and every farmer in whatever country felt at ease with him and he with them. It might not be unreasonable to say that it is only now, when metaphorically we’ve turned our backs on the EU, that we really appreciate the central thread of its endeavours.

Henry said, in his valedictory speech to the House of Lords in 2017: “In the European Parliament, I had no particular ambition to get involved but found myself chairman of the 50 strong agriculture committee, I then became leader of the Conservative group for Europe which also included members from Northern Ireland, Spain and Denmark. In 1987, I was elected president of the whole Parliament. This was followed by a complimentary letter from Mrs Thatcher and an invitation to become a working peer.”

Henry was a dedicated enthusiast for whatever he put his mind to and never wavered from his belief in the need for good people to work together. He was a committed team player.

His final thoughts on the matter of Britain leaving the EU, he summed up by saying in his final speech to the House of Lords: “We have to admit that it is difficult to imagine precisely what the world, the EU and the UK will look like on the other side of withdrawal. At the end of what we hope will be a successful negotiation, we will pass across the yet-to-be-designed bridge of an implementation stage.

"The media is currently focussing the national gaze on that period of five years or so as our 'future'. As I look back on almost five decades of the European project, I must look far beyond those mere five years.

"My instinct tells me that the future generations in Britain and Europe will favour a convergence." He concluded by saying he hoped to spend much of his time in the future encouraging young people to hone their skills in rural affairs developing policies in business and enterprise and to always remind them that they make a living by what they do but make a life by what they give.

Henry was a deep thinker and a capable wordsmith who had the rare ability to think outside the box and put careful words together on his own or take a brief on a specialist subject. He was blessed with a strong and powerful voice, a true natural orator who presented his subject with conviction and authority and a thoughtful and convincing method of presentation. I was lucky enough to meet him early on in his journey with NFU.

I’d got to know Jim through attending meetings with Government and found that we had a similar down to earth approach to things – perhaps it was the unsung alliance of the Gaelic and Celtic heritage at work. I was introduced to Henry then as the young chap who’d taken on the task of developing the National Sheep Association – I had my leg pulled for being involved in creating something just for sheep and then we settled down to a good discussion about farming and what needed to be done to ensure its success.

Later in life he was to ask me to work with him in Europe as an MEP. It was one of the few asks I didn’t accede to, for my beloved NSA wasn’t ready for me to move on. Later on in life and when he was contemplating retiring from the House of Lords, he’d hit upon the idea of setting up an organisation to help young people get started in farming.

I felt it was an excellent concept and was thrilled to be asked to become a Trustee of what became ‘The Henry Plumb Foundation’. Underlying the idea was a will to create a living legacy to a man who’d started fairly close to the bottom of the pile, done outstanding things in the world of farming and politics and risen to be the only Englishman to have become president of the European Parliament. A source of considerable and justifiable pride.

Henry was in touch with farmers all over the world and used his contacts for the common benefit of farmers and people everywhere seeing food production as a key element of all farming activity. In reply to a question which was put to him during a recent talk which he gave in Coleshill, putting forward the argument that it might not be essential to have livestock in the UK countryside, he responded: "If the countryside is to be retained as an attractive constantly changing environment full of interest and supporting a vibrant and thriving structure of complementary communities delivering high quality natural food for local and global consumption, then he would have no doubt whatsoever that there would be a need for the countryside to carry appropriate numbers of livestock."

Livestock were very close to his’ heart, one of the joys of being chairman of his foundation was the excuse it provided to get out to farms to meet and talk to our scholars. We’d been able to help a young couple in the East Midlands to become tenants of a farm close by where they already had some land and a small steading. It wasn’t a great distance from Coleshill, an important consideration in view of Henry’s health.

Having had an idea that we might pay them a visit, arrangements were made. We were thrilled to find a well-structured set up which had clearly benefitted from a co-operative landlord and spent some time discussing the future, looking at some very well organised buildings before being taken along to see the cattle, a mixed herd of suckler cows and some very attractive Beef Shorthorn heifers, which Henry kept drifting back to look at.

He later confided: “I’ve always fancied having a small herd of Beef Shorthorns.” Thus began an embryonic plan – support had to be gathered from his son, John and grandson in law, Ben Symons, and some two years later Henry was delighted to see the beginning of the first crop of calves from his new herd of Beef Shorthorns. What an approach to life even at the great age of 95, as he was when the idea was formed.

Central to so much of Henry’s life was his love of people and his inner warmth which reflected in all sorts of ways. He really could and did mix with Kings and Queens and yet retain an unparalleled common touch. Nor did it matter that they had a different view of politics.

Lord Whitty of Camberwell (Larry Whitty), the former head of the Trades Union Congress recalled the time he was first introduced to Henry at the European Parliament, at the time when he was about to become Secretary General of the Labour Party. Introductions were made by Janey Buchan (at the time MEP for Glasgow) described by Larry as a formidable and unyielding anti-conservative left winger and secretary of a British Labour Group, which at the time was largely anti-EEC.

Larry said she went on to recommend Henry to him describing him as one of the nicest and straightest men in Parliament. An accolade she was never known to have bestowed on any of her colleagues.

Yet it was always his availability which, with hindsight, was the most remarkable. While he was President of Europe he also took the chair of the National Cattle Breeders Association which I also ran and he always made time to discuss matters and would go the second mile always to ensure his constituencies were content.

You will have gathered, I had a huge regard and respect for Henry for a long time – 50 years of friendship and association culminating in a virtually daily contact for the last six years or so embedded our mutual understanding in a relationship of trust which would be impossible to describe but which I know I will miss.

Henry Plumb was that rare man of stature and greatness who had a deep and abiding care for his fellows. He left the means behind him for his care of others, particularly the young to be helped as they find their way in this incredible world.

The Henry Plumb Foundation is and will be a living legacy to one of the greatest men most of us have been blessed to know. Henry was its greatest guiding light and trustees will need to have a constant regard to what he would have thought in any discussions.

He will never be forgotten and will go down in history alongside the other greats of farming, Coke of Norfolk, Jethro Tull, McCormick, Turnip Townsend, Robert Bakewell, the Luing Brothers, Bobby Boutflour and now Henry Plumb – what a man to have known.