Ben Perkins who lived in Liston for some twenty years from about 1980, passed away in early December.
Born in Turkey, but educated at Sherbourne School in England, Ben served in The Queen’s Bays during his National Service. He subsequently spent a year at Trinity College, Oxford, where he read History, before deciding on a career in Land Management. Following a year’s practical farming on a traditional, mixed farm in Oxfordshire, he entered the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester.
After qualifying, he spent twenty years at Great Maplestead, managing the Dynes Hall Estate. With the latter’s sale in the mid 1970’s, Ben became a full-time artist, specialising in painting wildlife subjects.
In 1984 his pioneering work, Trees was published, and graced with a foreword by the Duke of Edinburgh. Other books followed, notably At the Water’s Edge and A Secret Landscape. The latter is of especial interest being based on wildlife-rich meadows in Foxearth.
In addition to numerous botanical and ornithological commissions, Ben also undertook paintings of pets and favourite views, together with a series of historical pictures, some of which were shown at Borley Church, in October 2021.
A true gentleman, who by his own confession might have fitted more easily into the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, Ben will be remembered for his encyclopaedic knowledge of wildlife, his love of the countryside, his dogs, literature, history and classical music. As recently as last September, he sponsored a concert, in aid of Liston Church, by the Elgin String Quartet.
A genuine countryman, Ben was also a cultural polymath. He enriched our lives through his artistic skills, knowledge of rural life, gift for wide-ranging conversation and friendship.
Ashley Cooper.