FARMERS ARE THE ORIGINAL FIRST RESPONDERS
A view from the farm
Across the country, a secret army is at work, coming to the rescue at times of crisis and springing into action when their communities are in danger.
They don’t have the instantly recognisable blue lights and loud sirens of the caring, hardworking individuals who serve in the police, fire or ambulance services, and you’ll never see them in standard issue uniforms, either. But this unofficial emergency crew come in to their own in the winter months when the British weather is at its worst – and it’s often the power of a modern tractor and the force of a 4x4 that saves the day.
I take my hat off to the legion of farmers who go the extra mile for their neighbours and rarely get the recognition they deserve. People such as Suffolk arable farmer Angus Hamilton. In October last year, when parts of East Anglia saw two months’ rainfall in just four days, it was Angus and his farming friends who spotted potential peril and took action. Dozens of children were stranded in their schools by deep floods in Debenham and faced the prospect of spending the night in their classrooms, until Angus and other local farmers drove their tractors through the floodwater to get the pupils safely home.
Another unsung hero of that flood is agricultural mechanic Will Lawrence; he spent 12 hours in his tractor ferrying people from their flooded homes and pulling submerged cars to dry land in a selfless operation, alongside his workmates Mick Copping, Mark Farrington and Kai Burch. It was dark in the Suffolk village of Cretingham when Will made the most dramatic rescue of the day, though, helping a driver get out of his stranded car through the door window. It was a similar story in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, on New Year’s Eve when the River Ritec burst its banks and surged through a caravan park. Holidaymakers Paul and Betsy Morgan, their son Josh and dog Lottie had to abandon their car and be rescued by tractor.
But the generosity of farm folk to lend their vehicles for the g
