Former Guild chairman Ieuan Evans died peacefully on August 3, aged 75 years. Ieuan broadcast the Farmgate programme for BBC Radio Shropshire for many years, provided Welsh language commentary for BBC Wales at agricultural events and wrote as a freelance.
“My father had farming in his veins,” says his son Med. “He and my mother were both from farming families in the Carmarthen area, and my Dad worked for Ciba-Geigy for many before moving to Food from Britain and then taking up a career in journalism.
“He would have appreciated and been very proud of the response from Guild members to news of his passing,” he adds. “It was also a heart-warming and amusing moment when the lady Registrar recording his death recognised his name, remembered that he was a broadcaster and, without thinking, said she had woken many a morning with him!”
Ieuan was Guild chairman in 1992/93. The Guild Year Book of that year says he studied at the Royal Agricultural College and then entered agricultural commerce, technical writing and public relations, joining the BBC in Wales as an agricultural journalist before becoming an agricultural producer with the BBC in Shropshire.
A funeral service will be held at The Congregational Chapel, Swan Hill, Shrewsbury on Wednesday, August 21, at 10.30am, followed by cremation at Emstrey Crematorium, Shrewsbury. Family flowers only.
Donations in Ieuan’s memory to The Stroke Association and Diabetes UK. Enquiries to Rolfes, The Family Funeral Service, Whitchurch. Tel: 01948 662209.
Members and Friends of the Guild who would like to share their memories of Ieuan on this page should email them to website editor Peter Hill.
Joe Watson: That’s sad news. Ieuan was a great character and helped brighten many events. He’d been ill for a long time, having suffered a stroke.
Nick Bond: Ieuan was a great character and staunch supporter of the Guild. He was actively involved with the Midlands branch since it inception and was its chairman when he suffered his very severe stroke. Despite being considerably restricted by the effects of the stroke, Ieuan continued to take an interest in Guild affairs for many years.
David Lloyd: I will always remember Ieuan as a colleague for whom sleep appeared a diversion from living a very full life. Usually one of the last to leave a party, he was always up and around for his early morning radio slot, which I found hard going when filling his BBC Radio Shropshire shoes after he was first taken ill. A talker rather than a writer, he was a natural for radio. He and his late wife Rachel were well regarded on the Shropshire farm scene and back in Wales where Ieuan had a varied career en route to the media. Those of us who served with him on the Guild Council will recall him as a worthy ambassador and fun to work alongside.
Tim Page, Programmes Editor, BBC Radio Shropshire: Ieuan was with BBC Radio Shropshire from its launch in 1985, presenting and producing much of our farming coverage for well over a decade. Colleagues and listeners alike respected him for his encyclopaedic knowledge of life in the county – certainly in agriculture, but in many other spheres too. He knew everyone and everyone knew him. Many of us at the station today still remember his enormous presence with great warmth.
