JOHN HERBERT STRUTTThe last male descendant of Belper's iconic Strutt family, John Herbert Strutt, died at his home in Cumbria.
A celebrated wildlife-lover and environmentalist, John was known for his love of exotic birds and kept dozens flying free at his home.
Described as "a quiet and shy man" he rarely visited the Derbyshire town which his ancestor Jedediah Strutt put on the map when he built the cotton mills which dominate the town.
Pam Lloyd, whose late husband, Cyril Maskery, was chairman and later president of the Belper Historical Society, knew John Strutt.
She said: "John was a very nice person but shy as well.
"I remember when we opened Strutt's North Mill as a museum in June 1995 and we managed to persuade him to come and visit it shortly after.
"Because he was so shy not many people realised he had seen the museum because he tended to shun publicity.
"After my husband died in 2004, I kept in touch with John mainly through phone calls and letters and I last spoke to him before Christmas. He sounded quite poorly."
John Strutt never married or had children and was the last male descendant of George Benson Strutt, son of Belper's pioneering industrialist, Jedediah.
He was born in 1935 and grew up at Hilltop on Duffield Bank, before being sent to school in Hove and Harrow.
After two years serving in the Army from 1953 to 1955, he trained as a land agent and worked at Dalemain in Cumbria, then at the Strutt Estate Office in Belper.
In 1968 he bought a 520-acre farm in the Eden Valley, Cumbria, where he settled for the rest of his life.
The estate formed the main part of land later donated to the John Strutt Conservation Foundation, which he set up to develop a long-term balance between farming and wildlife conservation.
Mrs Lloyd, of Park Side, Belper, said: "Since childhood John had been fascinated by exotic birds and this led to the building of aviaries on his Eden Valley estate where parrots could fly free.
"I remember he told us one time how one of the parrots had been found 40 miles away and had to be returned to him.
"He was very much into conservation and had quite a lot of land that he put to one side to encourage environmental diversity."
John Strutt was a benefactor to his local area in Cumbria and set up a charity to support needy people.
He also paid for football and cricket pitches at the nearby village of Kirkby Stephen and donated money to Mallerstang Church, where he has now been buried.
He was survived by his younger sister, Jane Strutt, and also has cousins in Ireland and Australia.
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