Patrick H B Evans, or ‘Pat’, studied Agriculture at Cambridge University, and on graduating went straight into wartime work as an advisor with the British Ministry of Agriculture.
Later, after short spells in France and in Suffolk (at Hill Farm in Lavenham, working under Peter Howard), in which he gained hands-on experience, he returned to his family’s estate in Herefordshire and started to apply modern farming methods.
He was one of a generation of post-World War II farmers motivated by the idea that farming communities and the industry itself could shake off their more stifling traditions, and build a new future, helping to feed a growing world population. Building on his French links, and the worldwide network of MRA, he worked to develop an international group of farmers who shared these aims, while still working long hours on his own farm and chairing the local branch of the National Farmers Union.
In 1962 he married Kristin Squire, daughter of a former UK Ambassador in Afghanistan.
His ability to combine the hard work of running a farm while being in constant touch with farmers in other countries brought him an extraordinary range of international contacts. The Farmers' Dialogue, which he helped to develop after his retirement in 1988, grew out of this. He took part in Farmers' Dialogues in Thailand, Cambodia, India, Poland and the US as well as visiting Ukraine, Kenya, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
He believed firmly that there is a common way of looking at the world and at faith, shared by people who work the soil wherever they come from.
He spelled out his wide-ranging ideas in two books, “Farming for Ever” and “A Hand to the Plough”, and also wrote poems, some of which are published in “Seeking the Source”.
