Peter Whiteman RIP

Peter Whiteman
OP 1960
August 1942 – December 2025

With our thanks to Peter's brother, David Whiteman (OP 1962)

Peter joined the upper school in 1954. He took his academic studies seriously, was a keen member of Ernie Wells’ Field Club and won a scholarship to study Botany at Oxford University. He was also an excellent athlete, holding the school long jump record for several years. He was a useful winger on the rugby pitch and at times we played together, as a fly half my job was to whip the ball out to him for the inevitable try.

Before Oxford, Peter went to Israel to work in a Kibbutz engaging in agriculture, a useful experience for his later career. Oxford was followed by a post-grad at Bristol then work on a small Welsh dairy farm and a vegetable farm in Kent. He decided he wanted to help farmers in third world countries and was accepted by the Ministry of Overseas Development. They sent him to Cambridge University to study agriculture then Trinidad University to learn tropical agriculture.

After six years of study, at last a job! His first assignment was to Botswana where he spent a very happy six years using a horse as transport. He encountered the Bushmen of the Kalahari and on one camping trip discovered lion pug marks outside his tent in the morning! He decided to drive home as an adventure going via India and Afghanistan. It took him six months and on the way he did some trekking around Pokhara in Nepal and in the Hindu Kush in Pakistan. He arrived back at Dover with just sixpence in his pocket and many stories to tell.

The Food and Agricultural Organisation approached him to go to Ethiopia where he operated on behalf of the government travelling around farms, devising, testing and demonstrating dryland farming alternatives. He was evacuated when Ethiopian liberation fronts began kidnapping people and was offered a post in mountain agriculture in Nepal. Whilst there he had the opportunity to trek to the Kingdom of Mustang where he was given a meal by the King and tea by the Queen whilst still wearing his grubby trekking clothes!

In the late 1970s Peter invited me to join him on a seven-day trek following the Jomsom Trail setting off from Pokhara, a most spectacular journey following the Kali Gandaki Gorge. We stayed at small farm lodgings costing less than £3 per night for bed, breakfast and evening meal and Peter, of course, didn’t believe in having Sherpas carrying our backpacks. I enjoyed that time with Peter, our paths didn’t cross that often and I realised what an interesting life he was leading, albeit it perhaps a rather lonely one.

Peter had a passion for snow leopards. To his regret he never encountered a live one but once, after swimming in a remote lake, found pug marks all around his clothes. Sadly our father died in 1977 and Peter, approaching his 40s and still a bachelor, considered a return to Portsmouth. Having been in the wilderness for 17 years presented him with a challenge in finding a wife to share his dream of putting his agricultural experience to use on a small farm. He solved this by placing an advert in a rural magazine: ‘single Christian gentleman, 40yrs old, seeking a Christian lady with similar interests’. By pure chance it worked and he met a kindred spirit in Maggie who brought two charming daughters into the family. I was honoured to be Peter’s best man when they married in 1986.

Peter and Maggie found the 22-acre Lower Turley Farm in Tiverton, Devon and set about converting it to organic status, something they achieved after two years. They remained there for 27 years and their daughter Sally grew up on the farm - Peter recalled how she played with the goats and rode the rams. He grew vegetables for flavour and quality and started a veg box scheme, the first in the area. He won many awards and was courted by numerous chefs and food writers, including Rick Stein and Heston Blumenthal. Tamsin Day Lewis wrote several articles about him and even filmed an episode of her cooking programme in his garden using the clay oven he had built. The farm also appeared on Songs of Praise.

Twenty years after leaving Pakistan, Peter was informed that he had been nominated for the World Food Prize for transforming farmers’ lives by significantly increasing their potato crops.

Although Peter was incredibly busy running the farm tending the cattle, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, geese, guinea fowl, soft fruits, apples, bees and walnuts, he still found time to make excellent furniture from the oak trees on his land, taking after our father, a carpenter. He also found time to make English Long Bows from yew branches he collected and Mongolian style yurts using timber from his small wood. He had many customers who appreciated his craftmanship and attended the Denmead Summer Show and Butser Hill Woodman’s Craft Show from time to time to give demonstrations.

Sadly as he entered his 70s, Peter thought it wise to slow down so he and Maggie sold the farm and moved to a cosy bungalow in Axminster called ‘The Secret Garden’. The move allowed him to spend more time with family – grandchildren were now appearing and living nearby. He still had trekking in his blood and at the age of 76 invited me to make a swansong trek with him along the Hebridean Way. We were so lucky with the 2018 May weather – there was not a cloud in the sky as we reminisced on seven decades of disparate lives. I look back with fondness on those two treks we shared.

Not long afterwards Peter was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease which sadly began to restrict his mobility and eventually he became wheelchair bound. With the amazing support of Maggie, daughters Meena, Natalie and Sally, plus extended family he soldiered on with fortitude, helped by his strong Christian faith which had sustained him throughout his busy life. He died peacefully in his sleep on 19th December 2025.

His body was interred in a place of his choosing on the edge of Exmoor, amongst peaceful scenery with the soil and worms that were so much of his life. Three OPs were in attendance at a service with family and friends in Axminster that same day.

Peter will be remembered as a hard working, humble and pious man who left the world in a better place. He will be sorely missed by all of his family and friends.