Stuart Creasey, RIP

[moomin]

Last Thursday I attended the funeral of that great icon of the Dexter breed, Stuart Creasey. It was a lovely sunny day and was held in the beautiful church in the village of Kimbolton, with in walking distance of his home. The church was packed for the service. It was not a sombre occasion and was a real celebration of Stuart’s life. Many newer members may not have met Stuart, he was a stalwart of the Dexter breed, President, Trustee, Judge, Breed inspector and seller of raffle tickets! I remember him at the Royal Show selling one to Prince Charles who , if my memory serves me correctly, had to borrow the money off one of his aides! Stuart and Rosemary raised a lot of money for the society in those days. Stuart was President in 1998 and helped to organise the First World Dexter Congress at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. Some of you may have the Proceedings of the Congress book but I will quote some of Stuart’s opening address which is very relevant today. One of the reasons Stuart gave for holding the congress was the following-
“A small cow from Southern Ireland which was often called the poor man’s cow because of its size, but it had the ability to supply the owner with milk and feed a good calf for beef or to sell on as a heifer.
I believe we should never stray too far from this original formula, and any attempt radically to alter the breed in size or its ability to rear extra calves and supply extra milk for other purposes, together with the succulent meat from the steers would ultimately destroy the breed as we know it and put it into just another beef breed category (and a very small one at that). “
The only real sadness of the day was that the Dexter Cattle Society was not formally represented . It is no good thinking that regional groups should do this job, this is not enough recognition for such prominent and long standing members like Stuart was. I know Rosemary and her family were very hurt. When I served my time as President I felt it my duty to attend such events as funerals of members and travelled many miles to do so, a lot at my own expense, as did other presidents at the time. Maybe there is a solution to this? I believe we should re-instate the roles of Vice- Presidents again. When I first joined the Society over forty -five years ago we had four Vice-Presidents who could deputise if the president was unwell or lived a very long way away. I hate to be critical but please let us make sure this doesn’t happen again.
However we had a good number of Dexter members there representing their herds and to support the family. The East Anglia group was there in force. Forgive me if I have left anybody out.
KNOTTING, (Jane Paynter); SEDGEFEN, (Kelvin and Lottie James); LITTLEBONES, (Dr. and Mrs. Guppy;) WHEATSHEAF, (Kate Thorogood); NEEDLES HALL, (Munn and Bottura}; AUDLEY (Vic Mortimore); FOWLMERE, (Ted Neal) and MOOMIN (Di Smith).
It was a bit like a Royal Show reunion!

[Louisa Gidney]

Very sad news but I do feel DCS should have sent out a round robin email about this to all members before the funeral. I do hope the next Yearbook will have a proper valediction for Stuart and a long overdue one for Philippa. I felt that not enough tribute was paid at the time to David Key and his family. Valerie Roberts' passing was barely commemorated by DCS. I only heard of her funeral on the day it took place, when I was at work and couldn't have got there in time. Without the work of people like these, we would not have the breed we have today.
Met Stuart & Rosemary several times in the 90's, both as exhibitors at East of England and as judge at more local shows. Super people with gorgeous cattle. I'm delighted that my newest bull has a Langley End dam, so I will have some of their breeding in my herd in the future.
In the best tradion of the Golden Age thriller novel, I may reconsider my will if I think I will not receive a suitable encomium from DCS when I pass on.
Edited to add that the Bulletin is sadly missed, both for obituaries of Stuart and Phillipa and for articles like that of Saffy on Petrel. Surely DCS should be embarrassed that this is to be published by another Dexter Soc.