Former FUW president dies

A former farm labourer who became president of the Farmers Union of Wales has died, aged 85.

Huw Robert Mon Hughes, normally known as HRM, served seven years in the union’s top job from 1984.

He was born in Y Ffôr, near Pwllheli. His parents moved to a 25-acre smallholding at Bodedern, Anglesey, when he was four years old.

Mr Hughes left the farm to work as a labourer and farm bailiff in Carmarthenshire.

It was during his  tenure as farm bailiff to a family doctor in Creunant, near Neath, that he developed an appreciation for Ayrshire cattle.

He then returned to run Bodedern in 1951. In the following 33 years he added more than 300 acres of land to the business and built an award-winning 112-cow Ayrshire herd.

Gareth Vaughan, current FUW president, described Mr Hughes, who walked out of merger talks with NFU Cymru in 1989, as a passionate advocate for Welsh farming, who would “not give one inch” when he knew he was right.

Mr Hughes leaves a wife, two daughters and three sons, who are all farmers. Eifion, one of his sons, is an FUW vice-president and chair of the union’s milk and dairy produce committee.