Page 58 - Old Ratcliffian Magazine 2017

58 OBITUARIES

PETER PALMER

OLD RATCLIFFIAN 1940 - 1942

Peter Palmer was born in the little village of Horninghold, which is
situated on the Leicestershire-Rutland border, next to Hallaton.
The family moved to 350-acre Manor Farm in Rearsby in 1934.
The milk cows were transported by lorry, since they needed to
be milked twice a day, but Peter’s father walked the store cattle
and horses from Horninghold to Rearsby, staying the night with
friends in Loddington.
Peter attended Rearsby School, then Melton Grammar, until he
was thirteen. Following in the footsteps of his father, Bernard
Palmer (11), Peter passed the Common Entrance examination for
Ratcliffe College, and he stayed there until he was fifteen. By
then, it was wartime, and he went to work on the farm.

Peter met his wife, Jean, who also had the surname Palmer, at a
Young Farmers’ Club in 1947. They had five children - two boys
and three girls. Timothy (69) now runs Manor Farm, Angela is
a teacher, Elizabeth lives in Norfolk and is a physiotherapist,
Margaret trained as a teacher and now runs a farm with her more mechanical farming. Peter also saw many changes in dairy
husband in France, and Richard (83) is an accountant. All three farming. Initially, in Rearsby, it was hand milking, with the milk
girls married farmers, and Peter had six grandchildren. being stored in churns. Then came milking machines and bulk
refrigerated tanks on the farm, picked up daily by road tankers.
Glebe Farm on Gaddesby Lane, where Peter lived, was purchased Peter’s father gave up milking in 1949 to focus on arable farming.
in 1960, and now both farms are run as one. When the family first
came to Manor Farm, prior to the war, it was a mixed farm, like Peter loved farming, and it gave him enormous satisfaction. He
many in Leicestershire. Cows were milked and calves fattened. lived through the whole process, from hand labour to complete
They also had sheep and arable land. Before the war, most of mechanisation.
Leicestershire was grass, hedges and wire. When the war came,
the government wanted the land to be ploughed to grow grain, Maggi Litchfield
potatoes and sugar beet. This presaged the development of Rearsby Scene magazine

PETER BINEY

OLD RATCLIFFIAN 1982 - 1985

Peter passed away on September 28th in Accra,
Ghana, from an asthma attack. He was at Ratcliffe
in the early 1980s, where he was a popular member
of his form. He enjoyed rugby and athletics, and he
was a very cheeky fellow with a heart of gold. After
Ratcliffe, Peter lived in London and America, and then
moved back to Ghana in the mid-1990s. He was a very
warm, generous and kind soul. On a personal note, he
was a good friend to me over the years. He had a great
sense of humour and was the life and soul, wherever
he went. He leaves behind a wife (Nana, pictured
with Peter) and two daughters. He will be very sorely
missed.

Rest in peace, Peter.

Michael Basoah (84)

Register online for our new website: www.ratcliffianassociation.co.uk

The Old Ratcliffian 2017.indd 58 07/12/2017 11:17