In 1964 Lord Sam Vestey (right), speaking with Ray Todd (left), worked at the Tomoana Freezing Works on the killing line. Photo / Supplied
In 1964 Lord Sam Vestey (right), speaking with Ray Todd (left), worked at the Tomoana Freezing Works on the killing line. Photo / Supplied
OBITUARY: Lord Samuel Vestey, March 19, 1941 – February 4, 2021.
Lord Samuel Vestey was a man of immense wealth, and walked in high circles, but it's his time in the thick of a Hawke's Bay freezing works that defines how he will be remembered in New Zealand.
Lord Vestey,who died last week in England aged 79, was the chairman of the Vestey Group, a multinational meat and shipping company, whose family's combined wealth is said to be around $2.29 billion.
As a young man he was sent to the region in the 1960s to "learn the ropes" of the family meat empire in Australia and New Zealand.
He started right at the bottom, working on the killing line at the Tomoana freezing works - which the Vestey Group had purchased off the Nelson Brothers in 1919, along with the Taruheru and Gisborne freezing works.
Hastings District Councillor Henare O'Keefe used to work at the freezing works and crossed paths with Vestey when he was a teenager.
"I worked beside him, he did a day in every department and came and worked on the chain next to me," he said.
"2,000 of us were employed as a result of that man; he clothed us and fed us."
Aerial footage of the Freezing Works in Hawke's Bay in the early 90's. Photo / Supplied
As well as working in all parts of his family's business the Lord of Stowell Park was also an avid horse lover.
He was the Queen's Master of the Horse from 1999 to 2018 and was once the chairman of Cheltenham Racecourse.
Polo was another horse sport that he was heavily involved in and he even played for Hawke's Bay Polo Club when he lived in New Zealand in the 1960s.
One of his most noteworthy contributions to the club was the donation of a more upmarket toilet block, replacing the long-drop.
When he returned to England he took up polo properly and formed the team Stowell Park.
Current Hawke's Bay Polo Club President Jared Thompson said his Uncle Phillip remembers when Lord Vestey played at Ellwood Park in Hastings.
"He also came back on a NZ Polo tour in the 1970s with two professional Argentinians and played against Hawke's Bay A in an 18-goal game against my uncle," Thompson said.
The country's polo scene still has a connection with the Vestey family. His niece Nina Clarkin, who is ranked as one of the best female players in the world, bases herself out of Cambridge.
