Sad passing of Lord Kitchener, past President of HDRA and Garden Organic
Posted Thursday 5th January 2012
Lord Kitchener at his final Garden Organic AGM in 2008
Committed to the organic cause
It is with great sadness that we report the death of Lord Kitchener, our past President, who passed away on 16 December 2011, aged 92.
Below is a tribute to him from Jackie and Alan Gear who ran the organisation back in the 1970s when Lord Kitchener first got involved with Garden Organic's work (then HDRA).
"Henry Kitchener was a wonderful supporter of the organisation, having joined Lawrence Hills’ band of enthusiasts in July 1958, as member number 171, and became its president in 1973, a position he was to occupy for the next thirty-five years.
Jackie and I first met him when we started working for HDRA in the spring of 1974. We were housed in a small caravan, at the far end of the Trial Ground among the comfrey and chickens; our new home provided by Lawrence as a perk of the job, in lieu of wages! Lord Kitchener, or Henry, as he preferred to be known, launched a fundraising appeal to build a bungalow for the Hills, so that we could move into their old house. HDRA members rallied to the cause and the required sum was raised in record time, to our immense gratitude.
Over the years we got to know him well, as he was HDRA’s chairman from 1973 through to 1992. Thankfully, Henry was nothing like his famous and fearsome, moustachioed - Your Country Needs YOU! - great-uncle. His working life was spent as a physicist with ICI, and he was a major in a signalling regiment during World War Two. He was mild-mannered, gentle, courteous and totally reliable, hardly ever missing a meeting. However, he could be firm when required, especially in 1985, during HDRA’s transition to Ryton Gardens from its original base in Essex, when a small but vocal group of Council members argued that it should stay put.
His involvement with the organic movement was wider than his work with HDRA. He was a founder member of the Soil Association and, in 1960, he provided financial backing for ‘Wholefood of Baker Street’ – the first shop in London to sell organic food. It did well, with support from luminaries such as Yehudi Menuhin, but proved to be commercially unviable, despite repeated financial interventions from Henry, and closed in 2001.
Like many organic pioneers, he was firmly convinced of the relationship between food and health, and was an early opponent of food colourings, flavourings and other synthetic additives, believing that they were potentially harmful.
A man who was far ahead of his time, he will be greatly missed. We extend his sister, Lady Kenya, our sincerest condolences at this difficult time."
Alan & Jackie Gear
"I was saddened to hear of Henry's death, not least because he was about the last link to Garden Organic's early days with Lawrence Hills. Henry was a staunch supporter and his extensive personal connections, not least with the House of Lords, were immensely useful. I was never too sure where Henry's interests in organic gardening stemmed from because most of the discussions I had with him in my early days with Garden Organic (then HDRA) revolved around the medicinal benefits of comfrey, upon which he was very keen, but he was very committed to the organisation and had to be seriously poorly to miss a meeting. He was held in very high regard by all who knew him and will be greatly missed."
Past trustee and Chair, Dr Bill Bourne.
"I went to many Council meetings that were chaired by Henry, and he was always very supportive of HDRA and the move to Garden Organic.
One meeting I remember was when we went to Yalding for the first time and had a meeting in Congelow House. The area for the new gardens was just a field and we were taken around in a trailer on the back of a tractor with mud flying everywhere. Some of us had come by train and we sat together on the way back with Henry spending the journey picking lumps of dried mud off his suit, but without a single word of complaint!"
Trustee, Bob Haskins
"For all those who knew him Henry was a source of wisdom and support. The HDRA, now Garden Organic, was privileged to have his guidance as President for many years and I for one am greatly saddened by his death."
Sally Bucknall, past Chair and Trustee
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Garden Organic is the working name of the Henry Doubleday Research Association (HDRA).
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