Kenneth BarrieSMITHResiding at Gonerby Hill Foot, Grantham, Lincolnshire, passed away to be with his Lord, Jesus Christ, peacefully at home on June 6, 2025 after a short illness. Barrie was “born and bred” to Arthur and Ivy (nee Gibson) Smith at the Poperinghe Nursing Home in Cottingham, East Riding, Yorkshire. His boyhood was spent riding his bicycle around Cottingham and Skidby, sliding during winters on the frozen drain ditches, putting on magic trick shows for his extended family, digging his unique underground dens in the back garden, stacking and guarding his wood pile prepared for Bonfire Night, creating and running his pay-to-borrow lending library and of course, growing flowers and shrubs in his parent’s garden. Always keen to learn, he was a Member of the Gardener’s Book Club at his secondary school.
He attended local Cottingham schools and received a General Certificate of Education from
Cottingham County Secondary School in May 1958. He was a school Prefect and received a First Class in Drawing, Science and English. His keenest areas of interest lay between woodworking and horticulture. He chose the path of horticulture, never looking back. At the age of sixteen, he left home for a job as a “Boy Gardener” at the Bishop Burton College’s walled garden and greenhouses.
He joined the Bishop Burton Youth Club and made friends participating in club activities. Under the tutelage of the Horticultural Head of department, he prepared himself for future studies, attending evening horticultural lectures. Barrie undertook a course of theoretical and practical education at Askym Bryan Institute of Agriculture in York. He earned a National Certificate in Horticulture, July 1961, passing requisite written and practical examinations of the Royal Horticultural Society in Division II. Studying from 1960–1961, Barrie earned the Certificate with Credit. After graduation, he worked for the York Parks Department, out of the Museum Gardens. After this position, Barrie returned to Askym Bryan Institute of Agriculture to work for their commercial organisation. He was in charge of the glasshouses producing cucumbers, tomatoes and chrysanthemums, as well as giving practical tuition to students.
While in York, he met Jean Thompson, of Copmanthorpe, York, whom he married in 1966. They made their home in Grimsby and then Scartho, Humberston, as Barrie had made a significant change in his career in 1965, moving into commercial processing vegetable production, as he became an Assistant Field Trials Officer for Findus Foods, in Grimsby, with their agricultural division. He was so pleased to have a company car with this position, but soon found out why, working exceptionally long hours and clocking up 50,000 miles per year as he drove between trials on farms in northeast Lincolnshire and Boston in the south of the county.
He eventually became the Field Trials Superintendent and expanded the regional programs on farms and set up the Waltham Agricultural Department. Barrie was responsible for planning and supervising trial planting, evaluation and harvesting of hundreds of varieties and even more plots of peas, French beans, Brussels sprouts, broad beans, carrots, calabrese, parsley, swedes and marrows.
Barrie increased the trialling acreage which was less than 3, to 6 acres in the south of Lincolnshire and Binbrook in the north. He developed ideal plant populations, fertility and pest control requirements for accurate evaluation. He had one full time assistant, one seasonal assistant, and hired seasonal students who were loyal to Barrie, working long hours, year after year, as he believed in treating them well and with respect. His favourites of course, were his “bean girls.” After sixteen years of exceptionally demanding work, Findus implemented redundancies companywide. By then, Barrie and Jean had two young children, Caroline and Alexander. Being a hard worker and conscientious provider for his family, he mowed lawns to make ends meet. Barrie and another ex-Findus employee, started their own company, SONITH Technical Services.
They offered services contracting with private vegetable seed and pesticide companies. This
consisted of planting, applying chemicals, evaluating and reporting on replicated trials. Barrie’s work so impressed Royal Sluis Seed Company, of Enkhuizen, Holland, that they offered him a new position, to be their Vegetable Technical Manager for Royal Sluis, Ltd. UK. He worked in developing a comprehensive trialling program based in Boston, in the south of Lincolnshire as well as trials on farms throughout the UK. From these he was able to demonstrate the merits of Royal Sluis’ varieties to the company’s salesmen and report trial results back to the breeders.
After nine years of providing technical data to support sales, design varietal technical bulletins and catalogues, Barrie was again made redundant. He was offered two positions to choose from; working for Incotec, Royal Sluis’ seed enhancement division or Petoseed in a new position as Product Development Manager, covering vegetable product development, research and sales in the UK. He chose the latter, and loved working with the freedom and minimal hierarchy of the US based company. Barrie put Petoseed on the map in the United Kingdom.
After company buyouts, Petoseed was merged with Royal Sluis and Asgrow Seeds. Barrie was immersed in the complications as the merger created Seminis Vegetable Seeds, which became at that time, the world’s largest vegetable seed company. Barrie’s titles changed as did his responsibilities, holding positions as Petoseed European Product Manager Dry Seeds and Seminis Vegetable Seeds Product Manager Rooted for Europe and the Middle East. He was in charge of onion, carrot and other rooted species’ market analysis, varietal evaluations and promotion to sales, sales forecasts and seed production forecasts. His position was based in Enkhuizen, Holland, but he worked out of his UK office as well as traveling extensively in Europe, Eastern Europe, several Middle Eastern Countries and the United States and Canada. The intense travel and work over the years, however, took its toll on family life, ending his many years with Jean.
In a new chapter of his life, Barrie married Carole (nee Rackowski) Noeller from New York state, USA in 1999. They began a new life together in Grantham, Lincolnshire until he again was caught up in a worldwide company redundancy one year after his new marriage. But ever a good provider, he took a job gardening for an estate. PGRO, Processors and Growers Research Organisation, Thornhaugh, Cambridgeshire, were familiar with Barrie’s work, and created a position for him, as a Senior Technical Officer. He spent eight years there expanding PGRO’s research to include carrot variety evaluations, including Cavity Spot screening, edamame, flageolet and French beans varietal evaluations, precision pea drilling trials, PCGIN (Pulse Cultivar Genetic Improvement Network) evaluations of exotic pea species, research to support labelling of garlic granules for carrot and parsnip nematode control, and design and implementation of variety plots for Syngenta Seeds, for demonstration.
Barrie was “encouraged” to retire from PGRO. But again started his own company, KBS International Horticultural Consultancy Services. He settled into a longtime relationship with Pro-Veg Seeds, Ltd., Sawston, Cambridge, in 2010, as a consultant working in Product Development and sales. Working with all of Pro-Veg’s product line, Barrie returned to flowers in trialling, promoting and selling commercial cut sunflower varieties. He also worked with his favourite species, alliums, which led to evaluation, development and seed production and sales responsibilities for eschallions, bulb and salad bunching onions. A major responsibility was working with the breeder and sales team, in developing Pro-Veg’s patio tomato program. Meticulous evaluations and responsibility for seed production forecasts have led to success. Barrie created Pro-Veg’s new logo and wrote and compiled their seed catalogues and species brochures. Attention to detail and conscientiousness led to production of many beautiful catalogues for which he was rightfully proud.
Barrie had great success in designing, organising and developing Pro-Veg’s Demonstration Plots at Soham, Cambridgeshire for fourteen years. This beautiful and unique 1.5 acres is a “Living Catalogue,” featuring many of Pro-Veg’s new and current varieties over many species with the challenge to bring them to simultaneous maturity. It is not undeniable that Barrie’s vast experience, attention to detail and knowledge have made this an artistic and beautiful horticultural summation of his long career.
Funeral arrangements are by the H Kemp and Son Funeral Directors, 259-261 Hallgate, Cottingham, East Riding Yorkshire HU16 4BG.
A funeral service for Barrie is July 14, 11:00, at St. Mary the Virgin Church, Hallgate, Cottingham, ER Yorkshire HU16 4DD; followed by Christian burial at Cottingham Municipal Cemetery, 150 Eppleworth Road, Cottingham, ER Yorkshire HU16 5YQ.
Donations will be shared between The British Heart Foundation, for Congestive Heart Failure research, and refurbishment to reinstate the defibrillator at Nobody’s Inn, Grantham, Lincolnshire, which saved his life on April 5, 2025.
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