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REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN) 143
He was also a passionate gardener and his advice regarding “the war on moles” appeared in The Daily Telegraph Readers’ Tips in 2003.
Wright’s second marriage, to Christiane Drewes, a German art- ist and jeweller, took him, latterly, to live in Germany. He spent the last three months of his life in the wine-growing village of Gimmeldingen, where he was popular locally, despite never hav- ing bothered to learn German, preferring instead to keep talking English and smile a lot.
He was appointed MBE in 1973 and CBE in 1991. John Wright married Anstice Hervey in 1967. The marriage was later dis- solved. He married Christiane Drewes in 2003. She survives him with a son and two daughters from his first marriage.
Brigadier John Wright, born October 10 1940, died May 4 2016.
Daily Telegraph
Captain J Stanford OBE
James Stanford, who has died aged 79, combined a career in business with a lifelong passion for the countryside that drove him to organise the Liberty and Livelihood Countryside March in 2002 to protest against the proposed ban on fox hunting; he also played a key role in help- ing to resurrect the family firm, Stanfords the mapmakers.
James Stanford was born in Winchester on April 12 1937, and his early childhood was spent near Kingsclere and later in the Woodford Valley north of Salisbury.
His father, Lieutenant Colonel John Keith “JK” Stanford MC, was a keen ornithologist and sporting shot and a prolific author of books on country topics. James displayed an intrepid nature as a child, once riding his sister’s pony from Kingsclere to Durn- ford School (a distance of some 40 miles) so that she could ride him in the term time. The journey took him four days and when he arrived his sister later recalled that he was greeted “like a national hero”.
After Rugby, Stanford went into the 17th/21st Lancers in 1954, serving for 10 years and rising to the rank of captain. Various roles in business and the City followed and in 1991 he became director general of the Leonard Cheshire Foundation. In 1999 he was appointed OBE for services to the disabled.
The family business, Stanfords, had been started up by James’s great-grandfather, Edward Stanford, in 1853 and was sold by his father in 1947. The world’s largest map and travel bookshop, it has been the first port of call for maps of anywhere in the world for adventurers and travellers including Florence Nightingale, Shackleton, Captain Scott, Sherlock Holmes and Watson (in The Hound of the Baskervilles) and more recently Michael Pa- lin, who launched his television travels Around the World in 80 Days from Stanfords.
However, by 2001 the business had shrunk to its shop in Long Acre – and directors appealed to members of the Stanford fam- ily with a rights issue. James Stanford led the charge, enthusing other members of the family to follow him, and subsequently served on the board and as chairman between 2009 and 2011.
He was a passionate supporter of the business at a time when electronic books and digital maps were threatening the tradi- tional books and maps sold by Stanfords. Whenever he visited the shop he would speak to every member of staff, remembering
each of them by name. Stanfords is still the world’s largest map retailer.
Stanford had a lifelong love of fox hunting. A bold and occasion- ally reckless rider in need of a big, brave horse (one of which was christened “Business” so that Stanford could be honestly said to be “out on Business” if anyone rang), he hunted with numerous packs, as the family relocated from Derbyshire to Northampton- shire, Dorset and finally Wiltshire.
He was not particularly interested in the politics of fox hunt- ing, but his passion for the sport, and a sense of outrage, led him to agree to organise the 2002 Countryside March for the Countryside Alliance. Not only did he want his grandchildren to continue to enjoy hunting, he felt that both his father, and father-in-law, killed at El Alamein, “did not do what they did to see such intolerant legislation introduced”.
He was following in his father’s footsteps: when two private member’s bills to ban or restrict foxhunting were brought in in 1949, a number of JK’s books at the time made the case for hunt- ing and shooting to his readers.
After being called off once because of the foot-and-mouth out- break the march finally went ahead in 2002. The Labour Party had been elected to a second term in 2001, with a manifesto pledge to bring a free vote on fox hunting.
The Hunting with Dogs Bill became a political football, con- suming some 700 hours of parliamentary time. Despite the vast numbers who had turned out in London to oppose it, the bill was ultimately passed into law via the rarely used Parliament Act in late 2004.
The Countryside March brought more than 400,000 people to London, the largest demonstration ever seen in the capital. Stan- ford’s boundless energy, planning and attention to detail allowed him to move mountains, working with a largely volunteer team coordinating hundreds of organisations and the civil authorities.
Between 2009 and 2014 Stanford was chairman of the Cranborne Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In this role he would appear at the Cranborne Chase Woodfair, which he always sup- ported, with two black labs at heel, leaning on his stick and con- stantly chatting to the countless people he knew from his wide circle of friends.
He also served as a governor and later chairman of the Gover- nors at Milton Abbey School, Dorset, helping to take the school Commanding Officer-educational.
He married Carol Harbord in 1964. She survives him with a son and a daughter.
James Stanford, born on April 12 1937, died September 14 2016.
Daily Telegraph