Deaths

HENRY ROGER TEMPEST (OA37) 2nd April 1924 – 6th May 2017 was the 31st generation of his family to live on the land they hold in North Yorkshire; latterly Broughton Hall, the 97-room stately home that in 1970 Tempest gallantly took on and revived from near ruin. 

As a younger son, Henry Tempest had not expected to inherit any of this.  He was born in London in 1924, the last of three children.  His father, Brigadier General Roger Tempest, had been appointed DSO and CMG in the Great War, but his experiences had left him deaf and he was a distant figure to his children. His mother Valerie (nee Glover) had been a great beauty in London. Country life was alien to her.  Henry's contact with her was largely restricted to being presented for inspection before bed.  Although there were 22 indoor servants to attend to the family's wants, for much of the time he led a semi-feral existence wandering the estate with dogs and ponies.

Following Ampleforth, Henry read Mathematics and Physics at Christ Church, Oxford.  But in 1943, he was called up and commissioned into the Scots Guards.  On his 21st birthday, having crossed the Rhine with his company - hardened Glaswegians and Geordie miners - he received a head wound during fierce fighting.  He insisted that his wounded men be put into an ambulance while he waited for another.  His courtesy saved his life; the vehicle was destroyed by a landmine.

His father died in 1948 and Henry’s brother, Stephen (C31), inherited Broughton.  Henry then endured a glum time as a salesman before seeking adventure in Northern Rhodesia.  He built a house on a tract of bush and worked as an accountant in Lusaka, where his clients included Robert Mugabe. 

Whilst in Rhodesia, he met Janet Longton and they married in 1957.  They moved back to England and lived with an Aunt in Oxfordshire.  Later, she gave Henry a plot of land where he again built his own house.  There his children enjoyed a blissful upbringing, although their au pairs, postmen and the local sheep came to fear their Rhodesian Ridgeback dog!

Henry’s persistence got him the position of Bursar in the Department of Nuclear Physics at Oxford University.  Encountering in the early 1960s some of the earliest computers, he taught himself to write programmes in one of its first languages, Fortran.  He claimed to dream in numbers and created a highly effective accounting system for the department.

In 1970, Stephen died unmarried and Henry inherited Broughton, which was in dire repair.  Its finances had been mishandled, its income had been depleted by the fall in agricultural rents and there were huge debts to pay.  The house had a leaking roof and dry rot.  Death duties were punitive and many thought Henry should sell up.  Henry vowed to save Broughton for future generations.  Assets were sold, debts restructured and farms reorganised.  For a time, holes in the roof were plugged with blu-tack. 

Rather than persist with agriculture, Tempest saw the potential of the buildings from the time when the estate had been self-sufficient with its own gasworks, brewer, home farm and a water mill.  Eventually, his son Roger (C81), who now runs Broughton, converted many of these into offices creating a business park for dozens of companies, which has since acted as a model for others. 

With the estate back on an even keel, Henry became active in local affairs.  He was a founding member of the North Yorkshire County Council, a Deputy Lieutenant and a Governor of Skipton’s Grammar School, which he helped to prevent from going comprehensive.

Henry was not a conventional public figure, preferring to follow logic of his own.  He was obsessed with finding a rumoured cache of buried arms and church plate and spent much time digging for this, both inside and outside the house. 

A Knight of Malta for more than 65 years, Henry’s other great enthusiasms were horses and cars.  Known for his champagne cocktails spiced with brandy, he celebrated his 80th birthday by opening a bottle atop the hill he had just climbed and marked his 90th by sliding down the bannisters at Broughton. 

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Rest in eternal peace.