Instead of sending flowers, my father wished for donations to be made to his favourite charity.

Sampson David Marriage

8 April 1917 – 30 April 2011

We give thanks for Sam’s life. It is a very long life to give thanks for.  He was born in April 1917 which was before the Russian October Revolution. Born in the family home at Broomfield Mill, his life came full circle 94 years later when he died in April 2011 in his last home in the Broomfield Mill Barn converted by Peter and Angela, when they were a young couple.

He was educated at the Quaker schools at Sidcot (1928 – 1932) and Bootham (1932 – 1935).  Sam may have been destined for the milling industry from an early age. In 1933 his Auntie Mary gave him a book on “Organisation and Management in the Flour Milling Industry”. He wanted to be a chemist so his farther Percy compromised, or was it Sam who compromised and Sam went to work for G. W. Chitty and Co Ltd in Dover. Chitty’s mill was also the home of the pioneers of Cereal Chemistry Dr Kent Jones and Dr Amos where father gained significant knowledge and experience. There began the lifelong passion for cereal chemistry and flour milling. Just before the war, he became a partner in the family flour and feed milling business. He gained a first class in his milling certificate which he studied by correspondence course. 

In January 1940 he joined the Friends Ambulance Unit and registered as a conscientious objector. His tribunal in April 1940 assigned him to “Ambulance work under Civilian control”.  Throughout the war and just afterwards he played a crucial role in humanitarian aid to lessen the suffering caused by war.  In the London blitz he did relief work in bomb shelters and for people bombed out of their homes. When they heard that provincial cities such as Coventry, Plymouth and Southampton were being bombed, they drove through the night with masked lights to be there to help in the morning. They set up field kitchens – a skill that came in handy when he later organised the food stops on the Aldermaston marches.

In Cairo in autumn 1941 he joined the No 1 Mobile Hospital run by the Royal Army Medical Corp. He drove the generator truck to power the tented hospital. They moved backwards and forwards across the North African desert according to the military situation. He was in Benghazi in 1941 and Tripoli and Tunis in 1943.  Writing home, he told his mother, Dorothy not to worry because the German bombers respected the field hospital’s Red Cross pinned out on the desert and the Italian bombers missed! We can’t help feeling that, if he was still able, he would be back there today trying to ameliorate the suffering.

In June 1944 he was sent to Bari in Southern Italy to work with a group of about 600 mid European Jewish refugees. He said they “ were very traumatised by their experiences and situation. I was able to get tools and materials from an army ‘Returned Store Depot ‘.... I had them making beds out of timber and wire , utensils out of tins etc. We got sewing machines and using old canvas made windjammers lined with old blankets. So they cheered up and gave me a splendid supper and testimonial when I left.”  When the British Protectorate allowed a quota of 1000 Jewish refugees to resettle in Palestine, Sam accompanied them on the troopship as a Welfare Officer.

 In 1945 - 46 in Ortona in the Abruzzi in Italy, Sam was in charge of the programme to help the local peasants rebuild their houses destroyed in the war. He managed a fleet of 40 lorries for carrying building materials and the wood the peasants collected to trade for tiles to rebuild their roofs.

When Sam was on leave from Ortona in summer 1945, his brother Stephen asked him to come with him to London to help 2 girls move flats. Stephen was a student on George Eglington’s farm whose daughter Pearl was studying at the Architectural Association in London. The rest is history. Pearl and Sam got married in November 1946. They moved into the flat at Broomfield Mill, as Sam had rejoined W and H Marriage’s and Sons.

Father was for many years a keen participant in the Flour research association at St Albans and latterly the Flour Milling and Baking research Association at Chorleywood. All the research reports from Chorley wood were carefully studied and saved. In 1973 he contacted the Perry Foundation and got them to fund research at Chorleywood on “the effects of fertilizer and nitrogen treatments on wheat”. The goal was to see the relationship between wheat production techniques and consumer requirements. This was very much a forerunner of today’s vogue for localism and “pip to plate”. He developed a system of paying farmers more for growing better quality wheat. He was not just interested in the high tech side of milling and had a close interest in the production of stoneground flour and the early days of organic production or to quote the Farmers weekly in 1974 “Muck and Magic”.

He set the focus of the firm onto quality and technical excellence that has provided us with an enduring foundation for today.

Sam was a lifelong member of the Society of Friends. He was clerk to monthly meeting for many years.  In the 1950’s he oversaw the sale of the large old Chelmsford Meeting House in Duke Street. Then he got 3 for the price of one. The sale of the Duke Street premises financed new Meeting Houses in Billericay (?) and Brentwood (?) as well as this one. For many years he oversaw the management of the building and the maintenance of the garden. He and Pearl arranged the provision of the disabled access and toilet.

He loved swimming. He was in the Bootham School Swimming Team with Richard Branson’s dad.  Not many people know that. In the Dover Swimming Club he was training to swim the channel before war broke out. In the 1950’s and 60’s he was a very active member of Chelmsford Amateur Swimming Club.  He was the Chair from 19(?)to 19(?).  Many people in Chelmsford in their 50’s and 60’s can swim thanks to him. It only cost 4 old pence for children to swim in the large old outdoor pool in Chelmsford. Sam taught any child who turned up on a Saturday morning and any who came to the swimming club on Tuesday nights. No jostling by pushy parents to get their children into paid swimming lessons for the few.  His grandchildren were impressed by Grandpa Sam at Overstrand when he was nearly 70. He swam twice between two breakwaters, got out and said “I’m as weak as a kitten and can’t swim like I used to”. He only gave up swimming when he got too cold in the water and couldn’t warm up afterwards.

Above all Sam was a family man. Pearl and Sam were married for over 64 years and had 4 children: Peter in 1947, Caroline in 1949, George in 1951 and William in 1961.  Sam and Pearl moved to Mashbury in 1948 which had a lovely garden for children to play in. Sam created a very productive vegetable garden when they moved to Windmill Pasture in 1956. He always pressed a cabbage or a cat on visitors before they left. When he moved to the barn in 2003 he carried on gardening until very recently.

All 4 children had 3 children each who loved Grandpa Sam as he was such good fun and told such interesting stories.  In turn their children boasted at school about their Great Grandpa Sam.

After Pearl had her stroke in December 2007, Sam did everything he could to look after her.

In fact everything he did, he did well; everywhere he went he was loved and respected; everyone could rely on him; he left a great mark on the world; and cracked funny jokes. We will all miss him.