Patrick Lowry Cole Holwell Rance (18 March 1918 – 22 August 1999) was a cheesemonger who has been considered responsible for saving many British specialist cheeses from extinction. He is known for writing ''The Great British Cheese Book'' (1982) and ''The French Cheese Book'' (1989).

Life and career

Rance was born in

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

, the youngest of five children of the Rev Frederick Ernest Rance, vicar of All Saints Church. Shortly after he was born the family moved to St Margaret's,

Leytonstone Leytonstone () is an area in east London, England, north-east of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, a local authority district of Greater London. It adjoins Wanstead to the north-east, Forest Gate to the south-east, S ...

, where Frederick Rance held a daily early morning service for the local milkmen at 5am. Rance's obituarist in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' comments, "A respect for dairy workers was thus instilled in Rance from his earliest years.""Obituary, Major Patrick Rance", ''The Times'', 27 August 1999, p. 23 He was educated at

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553 ...

from where he went on to the

Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial officer training centre. It is located in the town of ...

in 1936. He was commissioned in the

Northamptonshire Regiment The Northamptonshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1960. In 1960, it was amalgamated with the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment to form the 2nd East Anglian Regiment (Duchess of Gloucester's Ow ...

in 1938. When the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

broke out he was seconded to the

Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), formerly the 3rd Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army traditionally raised in the English county of Kent and garrisoned at Canterbury. It had a history dating back to 1572 and ...

, where he was adjutant of a wartime battalion, and taught a number of his men to read and write. He was promoted to major at the age of 24, and served at the

Battle of Anzio The Battle of Anzio was a battle of the Italian Campaign of World War II that took place from January 22, 1944 (beginning with the Allied amphibious landing known as Operation Shingle) to June 5, 1944 (ending with the capture of Rome). The op ...

in 1944. After the war he was employed in Vienna on intelligence duties. He retired from the Army in 1949 and worked for two years at

Conservative Central Office The Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ), formerly known as Conservative Central Office (CCO), is the headquarters of the British Conservative Party, housing its central staff and committee members, including campaign coordinators and manag ...

in London. In 1951 Rance married a journalist, Janet Maxtone Graham, and in 1954 they took over Wells Stores in

Streatley, Berkshire Streatley is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in Berkshire, England. The village faces Goring-on-Thames. The two places share in their shops, services, leisure, sports and much of their transport. Across the river is railway stat ...

. At first the store sold only three cheeses: Dutch Edam, New Zealand Cheddar, and Danish Blue. Rance gradually extended the size and quality of the range of cheeses on offer. By 1980 he had 150 cheeses for sale. ''The Times'' commented: :A visit to Wells Stores became a Saturday treat for people from all over Berkshire and Oxfordshire, who brought their house guests with them. Radio 3 played in the background, and, with his pint-sized mug of room-temperature tea behind him, his blue stripy apron on, and his monocle nestling under his right eyebrow, Rance would hand out cubes of cheese for customers to try. He was passionate about good cheese, longing to give people a taste, to demonstrate how much more succulent and flavoursome raw-milk cheese is than pasteurised block cheese. The food writer

Egon Ronay Egon Miklos Ronay (24 July 1915 – 12 June 2010) was a Hungarian-born food critic who wrote and published a famous series of guides to British and Irish restaurants and hotels in the 1950s and 1960s. These guidebooks are credited with raisin ...

credits Rance with "the almost single-handed creation of the British farm cheese industry – far beyond the tiny, pre-war cottage industry – through advising, encouraging, pleading, coaxing, writing and broadcasting without any financial reward – a singular act of selflessness". He campaigned for the use of unpasteurised milk in cheeses, and argued that unpasteurised cheese had acidity levels that prevented the growth of harmful bacteria such as

listeria ''Listeria'' is a genus of bacteria that acts as an intracellular parasite in mammals. Until 1992, 17 species were known, each containing two subspecies. By 2020, 21 species had been identified. The genus is named in honour of the British pi ...

. When a scandal erupted about a listeria outbreak that killed some 30 people and was initially blamed on unpasteurised cheese, Rance made much of the fact that the infected cheese had been made from pasteurised milk. Rance's love of British cheese, and concern to promote craft producers inspired ''The Great British Cheese Book'', which was published in 1982, and enthusiastically welcomed by food writers such as Ronay and

Jane Grigson Jane Grigson (born Heather Mabel Jane McIntire; 13 March 1928 – 12 March 1990) was an English cookery writer. In the latter part of the 20th century she was the author of the food column for ''The Observer'' and wrote numerous books about Eu ...

. In 1985 after the book was published in paperback, ''The Times'' said that it was "readable, encyclopaedic, and has justly been described as a ''tour de force'' and a classic". The success of the book led Rance's publishers to ask him to write a companion volume about French cheeses. After six years of research by Rance and his wife all over France ''The French Cheese Book'' was published in 1989. The leading French expert on cheese, Pierre Androuët, rated it the best there had ever been on the subject.Ronay, Egon. "Major Patrick Rance", ''The Guardian'', 31 August 1999, p. 24 Janet Rance died in 1996. Rance died three years later at the age of 81, survived by their seven children.

Publications

* Rance, Patrick. (1982) ''The Great British Cheese Book''. London: Macmillananon. (1983), "Book Reviews." ''International Journal of Dairy Technology''. 36.3: 88-89. * Rance, Patrick. (1989) ''The French Cheese Book''. London: Macmillan

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rance, Patrick 1918 births 1999 deaths Cheese retailers