John Holmes OBE helped found farmers' co-operative Fram Farmers - as well as serving as chairman of the Suffolk branch of the National Farmers' Union (NFU) in 1965/66.

He was also involved in the founding years of Suffolk Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) and later notched up conservation awards for work on his own farm.

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He grew up in a prominent shoe-making dynasty in Norwich - but despite being the eldest son and therefore in line to run the Edward and Holmes shoe factory he rejected that path in favour of a career in farming.

He was the son of Geoffrey and Noel Holmes and grandson of Sir Henry Holmes, a former Mayor of Norwich. He had a brother, Peter, who would go on to run the shoe business, and a sister, Judy, and they grew up in Hethersett then Shotesham.

From an early age, he developed a passion for botany, the outdoors and the natural world.

He attended Orwell Park near Ipswich then Rugby School. He studied history briefly at Cambridge before joining the Royal Navy towards the end of the war.

He was headed to Japan when victory was declared and his ship diverted to the Mediterranean to help refugees travelling to Palestine. While stationed in the Mediterranean he was part of the liberation of Malta.

After completing his National Service, he returned to Cambridge - swapping to an agricultural degree - and was encouraged by his family to follow his passion during what was an exciting and innovative time for the sector.

Food scarcity was a huge problem in the immediate post-war era and rationing remained in force.

Bodies like the East Suffolk War Agricultural Committee were making urgent appeals to engage farmers and farmworkers in a national effort to increase food production as rapidly as possible.

He regarded it as a calling - and was one a generation of pioneering post-war farmers who helped develop a "new age" in agriculture - taking a small 350-acre farm bought by his father at Frostenden, near Wrentham, and striving to maximise its potential both for food growing and for conservation.

He settled at White House Farm, expanding it to 800 acres and improving its relatively poor Grade 3 soils using broiler muck over the next five decades to take it........

© Eastern Daily Press