Dear editor,

I was born at Hackwood Park in 1938 where my father was head chauffeur to the first Viscount Camrose and lived there for much of my life so I knew the Berry family very well.

The family were everything to my father who had worked for them since 1918 and had taught Camrose's sons to drive and shoot.

I well remember seeing Lord Camrose walking around his estate sometimes cutting ivy away from his beloved trees.

He was a tall, rather stern looking man who had achieved so much in his life.

As a young man, he was a very keen sportsman with a passion for boxing when he travelled around with a portable boxing ring after refereeing the bouts, which advertised the magazine 'boxing' which he owned at that time.

He knew and entertained all the big names from the sporting world at the time.

My brother and I have wondered for years how his covenant for the Camrose ground could have been lost which everyone knew he had given it for 100 years.

So well done to the Gazette for bring it to light. Let's hope that it gets honoured.

So at the end of the day, why do we not have some sort of memorial to this benefactor of Basingstoke?

His home town of Merthyr Tydfil has honoured him and his brothers.

Why can't we?

David Buckland