Outstanding Seale-Haynians

BOOK REVIEW: Outstanding Seale-Haynians (2020) edited by Fred Harper – ISBN 979-1-5272-6588-2 (The Seale-Haynians Club. 137 pp.).

This beautifully produced and well-illustrated hard-back book celebrates Seale-Hayne Agricultural College, which gained a strong international reputation. Based strategically at the heart of SW England, it covered agricultural, food technological, and environmental studies/research at diploma, degree and postgraduate levels – from field to plate and beyond into catering and tourism management. No other UK agricultural education provider covered that whole range at the time. SW England produces some 25% of the output of British Agriculture and thus many, including those in rival establishments of agricultural education provision, were much saddened by the ‘merger’ of Seale-Hayne into what became the University of Plymouth – and its subsequent sale. Its alumni and those awarded its honorary degrees continue to represent the sound foundations for their careers gained at Seale-Hayne. This book celebrates some of them and is edited by Dr Fred Harper, the last Principal of Seale-Hayne College and First Dean of Faculty at Plymouth. He was ably assisted by a small panel, and by two stalwart supporters of their alma mater, Raymond (Ray) Bartlett, Chairman of The Seale-Haynians, and Ian Goodwin, Chairman of the Seale-Hayne Future Group; both rightly persuaded to feature in the book.

The first sixteen pages are devoted to a brief history of the college and two key figures in its establishment – Rt Hon Charles Seale-Hayne (whose £100,000 bequest in 1903 seeded the project) and Viscount Lambert as the first Chairman of Governors from 1909, who continued his active support until his death in 1958. After WW1, the College began teaching agricultural courses in 1920. Dr H. Ian Moore CBE, Seale-Hayne’s long-serving Principal from 1948-71 features in the book, as does S-H alumnus Dr A.G. (Tony) Harris CBE who was the distinguished Principal and CEO at rival Harper Adams Agricultural College from 1977-94.

In all, illustrated portraits of thirty outstanding alumni are presented in alphabetical order. In addition, there follows a chronological presentation of the citations used for twenty recipients of honorary degrees at Seale-Hayne from 1993-2004. From page 126-130 is a reflection on the wide range of people and disciplines described, which is followed by acknowledgements and a piece on the Seale-Hayne Educational Trust charity. With a profile of the editor, Professor Fred Harper, who resigned his Plymouth professorship in protest at the sale of Seale-Hayne, the book ends with a list of references and some more photographs.

I am aware of some outstanding Seale-Hayne alumni who declined to feature, and others who perhaps were not approached. I count among my friends a number of those featured, but that bias apart, my academic links are with rival institutions who relished past competition with this great College whose alumni continue to do it credit. Anyone associated with Seale-Hayne will find this book a fascinating record, as will all those interested in agricultural education worldwide. The compilers are to be congratulated for their initiative, ably edited by Fred Harper.

John Wibberley

Professor John Wibberley PhD, NSch, FRAgS, FIAgrM was previously Head of Agriculture at the Royal Agricultural College Cirencester. He is now a visiting professor at RAU Cirencester and also at The University of Reading. John is Chairman of the Tropical Agriculture Association (TAA). From 1990-96, he lectured part-time at Seale-Hayne, and from 2003-09, on returning to Devon, he served ex-officio on the Seale-Hayne Future Group.