‘Kiwi farmer’ is now British peer

Press, 17 December 1982, Page 1

‘Kiwi farmer’ is now British peer

PA Hamilton The newest member of the British peerage is a fourthgeneration New Zealand farm manager and hot rod, enthusiast, of Kawerau.

. Robert Charles Edgecumibe is the eighth Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. formally addressed as “M’lord” and called “Bob” by his friends. . He has inherited the 300-year-old title on the death in England of his uncle, the seventh earl, and an estate in northern Cornwall. His wife, Joan, becomes the Countess Mount Edgcumbe. and their five daughters become Lady Denise, aged 22, Lady Megan, 20, Lady Tracey, i 6, Lady Vanessa, 13, and Lady Alison, 11.

The peerage was created in the seventeenth century, in recognition of services to the nation by an admiral of the fleet.

The eighth Earl yesterday described himself as “a pretty ordinary Kiwi farmer,” not particularly .looking forward to transplanting his family to their IOOOha Cornish estate. His uncle was also a New Zealand farmer before he moved to England at the request of his cousin, the sixth Earl, from whom he inherited the title in 1965. However, six weeks after his arrival he was quoted in

a newspaper interview as saying: “Frankly, I never cared much for the title. I never wanted it. I wish I was back in New Zealand again.”

The new Earl said he had to “keep the family tradition. It's nasty, but we must do it.”

The family estate includes two big farms, a lot of tenant housing, mineral interests; and china clay interests.' For those, he will exchange his present job as manager of a Lands and Survey Department block, a 1957 Morris Oxford car, a 1949 Chevrolet truck, and a 1952 Buick car, which he is

restoring. The Buick may eventually to go to England with him.

Curiously, the Lands and Survey Department land he farms is the Edgecumbe Block, named after the family mountain in Cornwall which is the last land seen from ships departing Devon. Somewhere in New Zealand's early history the spelling changed, but the name' is the same. r

“Bob" Edgecumbe has made four trips to the family estate in recent years, in preparation for the inevitable inheritance. He is reasonably familiar with what is involved, and what lies ahead.

He has met his neighbours and people on the land, and described them as “basically the same as New Zealanders.”

“Basically. I will be taking over the farming and running of the estate. There is some social life that goes with: the position although I am riot really that way inclined,” he said. The family, apart from Lady Denise who may stay, plan to move to England some time next year when commitments in New Zealand are settled and details of the estate finalised.

The new Earl promised he would not become a stranger to his homeland. He would be back often, he said.