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Robin Herbert was happiest among the trees, especially the maples, licudumbars, and kariyas, which were always ablaze in the spring but always in the fall. Although change was his specialty, he was never in a hurry. Whether in finance, gardening or walking in the woods, he combined extra-long strides with a sense of purpose. „It's slow to be on time,“ he told his children. „If it's five minutes early, you're on time.'' Of course, being late was not an option.
When Mr Herbert, who has died aged 89, was elected president and president of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1984, the coffers were empty and membership concentrated in local counties. A banker with many years of experience in the National Trust and Countryside Commission, Herbert brought a clear vision of the revolution needed and its timescale. Yes, he told the ruling council that he would remain in office if voted into office, but for no more than 10 years.
Under his watch, the RHS acquired Rosemoor in Devon and Hyde Hall in Essex to complement its flagship garden in Wisley, Surrey, and launched a new horticultural show outside London.
He and his treasurer, fellow financier Lawrence Banks, brought the society back into the black and more than doubled its membership to 189,000. Sure, there was some uproar about members not being able to get tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show with their subscriptions, but that has passed. His first Chelsea gala night in 1990 unleashed fame and sponsorship. Soon, Herbert became the go-to guy for every major horticultural institution. As Kew Chair of the Royal Botanic Gardens (1991-1997), he separated the Botanic Gardens from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and he undertook reforms with Dame Jennifer Jenkins. Royal Parks.
Plants were central to all of this. Although his business acumen was very good, what Herbert most enjoyed when he first joined his RHS in the 1970s was as a tree enthusiast on Flower Committee B (Woodly Plants). and discussed the benefits of the latest varieties of Pitosporum or Rowan. As chairman, he reformed a somewhat random award system into one that nurseries could rely on. The Garden Achievement Award is given to outstanding plants of superior quality known only to those who have studied the progress of the specimens over the years.
![Robin Herbert looks around the hedge and smiles](https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2Fe53107d3-6817-4829-b907-6953af575625.jpg?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=1)
![Robin Herbert looks around the hedge and smiles](https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2Fe53107d3-6817-4829-b907-6953af575625.jpg?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=1)
Herbert's own resilience developed at a young age. His father, Conservative MP Sir John Herbert, died in Kolkata in 1943 as Governor of Bengal. His mother, Lady Mary Herbert, died four years later. Orphaned at the age of 13, Herbert inherited 3,500 acres in Monmouthshire and a large amount of debt.
Stepping into the cracks were his godfather, plant manager Bobby Jenkinson, and his American grandmother, Lady Herbert, née Helen Gammel, from a Rhode Island business family. Following her advice, Herbert pursued a career at Eton College, Royal Horse Guards College, Oxford University, earned her MBA at Harvard's School of Business, and went on to work as a Wall Street analyst. I made up for it. He returned to Wales in his 1957 with a suitcase full of seed cones from the redwood forests of California and a desire for change. He married Margaret Lewis in 1960 and they planned to have four children before divorcing in 1988.
In 1963, he joined a consortium that acquired a small merchant bank in London. Its leaders, Prince Rupert Lowenstein and Alexis de Rede, turned to Leopold Joseph, founded in 1919 by a German-born journalist and banker with no heirs in his family. They invited Jonathan Guinness from the brewing family, Anthony Berry from the newspaper dynasty, and (almost on a whim) Herbert. „Initially, I was in the loop, but outside of the inner loop,“ he said. „Over the years, I always had a desk there, but I was never an officer. Then gradually different people left and I became chairman.“
It was 1978, and there were challenges ahead.Lowenstein introduced The Rolling Stones as a customerBut Rockstar's tax deals rattled the board, and by 1981 Loewenstein had struck out alone. Leopold Joseph weathered storms such as a lawsuit from singer Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) and grew as a private bank while its rivals were brutally targeted by major corporations.
When Herbert, supported by his second wife Philippa Hooper (née King), steered the sale to Butterfield Bank in 2004 for £51.5 million, the FT wrote that it was „the end of an era“. Ta.
Herbert's cooperative nature and courteous demeanor earned him friends throughout the city and beyond. His directorial jobs are listed three inches long in the Who's Who book, but his greatest pride is in the park at Llanover, Monmouthshire. There, California seed cones are now planted on two acres of award-winning 150-foot-tall Sequoia sempervirens.
The author is Robin Herbert's son-in-law