STEVEN CHARLES BRUCE BULLOCK OBITUARY

Steven Charles Bruce Bullock, who died in March aged 72, was a quiet unassuming gentle sincere man who during his working life had played a pivotal role in British agriculture. After leaving King Alfred School in Golders Green, he went to Wye College, University of London, achieving a B.Sc in General Agriculture and a National Diploma in Agriculture. Having graduated at Wye he went on to Leeds University where he gained a Post Graduate Diploma in Farm Management, returning to the family farm for next two years, before becoming Managing Director of the Farmers Weekly’s group of nine farms in 1963.

The publishers of The Farmers Weekly had set up these farms, which were spread across the UK and Northern France, with the dual objectives as a test bed for new ideas and innovations, while being able to demonstrate best practice across a wide range of farming types spread across a wide range locations and environments and report back regularly in the periodical on the activities, progress and problems on the farms, warts an-all.

Steven’s role in managing the Farmers Weekly farms from 1963 to 1988 coincided with the era dubbed the Second Agricultural Revolution. It was a period which saw a rapid uptake of science based innovations which revolutionised farming methods and increased productivity by leaps and bounds. It was an era which saw the introduction of new management methods based on financial as well as physical performance and Steven’s reporting back gave farmers an important insight into the rapid changes that were taking place in the agricultural industry.

In 1988 Steven Bullock moved on to take over as Director of the Nuffield Farming Scholarships organisation, a role in which he continued to have a great influence in farming circles. The organisation was originally set up in 1947 with the help, advice and financial assistance of the Nuffield Foundation, with the objective of identifying and giving keen young people the opportunity to study the latest developments in farming methods overseas. Over a period of several years the Nuffield Foundation withdrew their services and the farming industry took over responsibility for financing and running the organisation and the selection of scholars. Steven who received a Nuffield Farming Scholarship in 1976 was to over-see a period of transition and consolidation of the organisation when its two arms, the administration and the Scholars Association, were brought together eventually with the Incorporation of the Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust in 2003. Besides his responsibilities relating to the UK trust and scholars, Steven was also heavily involved with the arrangements for the visiting overseas scholars from the Commonwealth countries, Southern Ireland and France.

Even after Steven Bullock retired as the Director in 2001, he continued to play an active role by undertaking the arduous task of editing, compiling and the publication of the Trust’s Annual Report and over-seeing the publication of the returning scholars’ reports until April 2008. In 2007 Steven and Gill Bullock generously instigated their award for the scholar, who had best demonstrated a change in outlook and activity stimulated by their Nuffield Experience and its application.

Steven Bullock had many links with agricultural industry. He was a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Farmers, a member of the Royal Agricultural Society, The Farmers Club, the Mid-Sussex Farm Management Discussion Group, Secretary of the Ruminators Discussion Group and was a past Chairman of the Sussex Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group and served as a councillor on Wealden District Council, chairing the Area Planning Committees for a period.

His list of leisure activities included reading, stamp collecting, travel, DIY and enjoying the property he and Gill lovingly restored in the South of France.
He is survived by Gillian, a research scientist whom he married in 1963, their two sons and six adored grandchildren