Joseph Leslie "Joe" Henson,
MBE Mbe may refer to:
* Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo
* Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria
* Mbe language, a language of Nigeria
* Mbe' language, language of Cameroon
* ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language
Molal ...
(16 October 1932 – 5 October 2015) was a farmer who founded the
Rare Breeds Survival Trust and appeared as a presenter on
BBC shows such as ''
Animal Magic''.
Biography
Joe Henson was born in
London. His father,
Leslie Henson, was a well-known comedy actor and his mother Harriet Collins was also a stage performer, using the name "Billie Dell". Joe's younger brother was the actor
Nicky Henson
Nicky Henson ( Nicholas Victor Leslie Henson; 12 May 1945 – 15 December 2019) was a British actor.
Early life
Nicholas Victor Leslie Henson was born in London, the son of Harriet Martha ( Collins) and comedian Leslie Henson. Adam Henson, a fa ...
; Joe's nephew is composer
Christian Henson
Christian Henson (born 25 December 1971) is a British composer, primarily working on television and film soundtracks. He has also soundtracked video games, and is the co-founder of Spitfire Audio with fellow composer Paul Thomson. Henson has been ...
. The family moved to
Northwood, where as a child he enjoyed visiting a nearby farm where they still used working horses and milked the cows by hand. Attended Follyfield House at Felsted School from 1946 to 1950.
After work as a herdsman in
Somerset he attended the Royal Agricultural College,
Cirencester (now the
Royal Agricultural University). He worked for Earl Bathurst, then managed Salperton Park Estate near
Cheltenham
Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...
, before taking over the tenancy of Bemborough Farm from
Corpus Christi College, Oxford with a former schoolfriend, John Neave.
He started to keep rare breeds, including
Gloucestershire Old Spot
The Gloucestershire Old Spots (also "Gloucester, Gloucester Old Spot, Gloucestershire Old Spot" or simply "Old Spots") is an English breed of pig which is predominantly white with black spots. It is named after the county of Gloucestershire. T ...
pigs, and in 1971 opened the Cotswold Farm Park to the public.
[Joe Henson at Royal Agricultural University Alumni]
Retrieved 26 October 2015 He was the founder-chairman of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, and received an MBE in the
2011 Queen's Birthday Honours
The Birthday Honours 2011 for the Commonwealth realms were announced on 11 June 2011 in the United Kingdom,United Kingdom: New Zealand,[Adam
Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...]
, who took over the running of the farm in 1999, is now a presenter on the weekly BBC countryside show ''
Countryfile''.
[Cotswold Farm Park Site]
Retrieved 26 October 2015 Joe Henson also occasionally appeared on ''Countryfile'', usually as a specialist adviser on items relating to rare breeds.
References
1932 births
2015 deaths
Alumni of the Royal Agricultural University
English conservationists
English farmers
Members of the Order of the British Empire
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