TILLEY

William Frederick Anyan

 

William Frederick Anyan was born on 28 May 1908, at Haceby Lodge, near Sleaford, Lincolnshire. His parents were George Frederick Anyan and Lavinia Melbourn Ellis and he was educated at Carre's Grammar School, Sleaford.

 

Known to his friends and colleagues as Frank (and Bill or William by his family), he spent a lifetime in hunting and farming. He came from a well-known Lincolnshire family of farmers and hunting people, and his father bred horses and raced them at local point-to-points.

 

An inbred love of horses and the country life drew him naturally into Hunt service and he went straight from school to the Newmarket and Thurlow Hunt as second whipper-in, in 1926. Two years later he moved to the Belvoir Hunt as first whipper-in and remained there 10 years.

 

In 1938, he was appointed huntsman of the Blackmore Vale Hunt. After a short time in the army he was discharged because of ill-health and returned to hunt hounds with the Blackmore Vale until 1948.

 

On his retirement from the Blackmore Vale, Frank took up farming at Stonecroft Manor, Tintinhull, Somerset, where he lived for 23 years, before moving to Lois Farm, Horsington, Somerset.

 

Frank married May Watchorn and they had two daughters, Isobel Letty and Rachel Mary. Frank died on 13 July 1977.