A memorial service to celebrate the life of a distinguished cobnut farmer will be held on Saturday.

John Cannon, of Roughway Farm, Tonbridge, was born in 1931 in Tasmania, Australia, where he was soon helping look after his family’s dairy herd on Gunns Plains.

The family were relatively new immigrants having only moved from the UK after the First World War.

As a young boy during the Second World War, John enlisted in the Australian Home Guard.

The family returned to England in the late 1940s, but John always recalled his time in Australia with fondess and on a visit in 2009 was keen to stay in a shack with a tin roof where he could listen for rain.

He said the sound of rain on a tin roof “was always comforting and also meant good milk was on the way”.

His parents settled in West Peckham and began to farm on land belonging to the Oxenhoath estate.

Later after they sold their Oxenhoath holdings, John acquired Roughway Farm at Plaxtol, where he farmed for the rest of his life.

He grew many crops including hops, soft fruits and cobnuts.

Even after his retirement when he handed over the reins to his youngest son Giles, John still remained active and was always keen to share his ideas, once remarking to his son: “What’s the point of being 90 if you haven’t got any good ideas?”

Appointed chairman of his local NFU branch in 1976, he became Kent County chairman for the year 1983/84.

He led a delegation of Kent pig farmers to meet with the EU deputy agriculture commissioner in Brussels in 1984.

He went on to become chairman of the Apple Growers Association and was also a keen supporter of the Kent Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group.

He was ahead of his time in pressing the government to give support to farmers with conservation, though many of his ideas would be adopted decades later in the Agriculture Bill of 2018.

His interest in conservation led him to identify a link between the need for native UK nut production and work to save our threatened red squirrels. He became well known as a champion of organisations supporting the native reds.

But he is best remembered as a stalwart of the Kentish cobnut industry.

He founded the Kentish Cobnuts Association (KCA) in the early 1990s in response to proposed EU legislation to ban the sale of all fresh nuts.

This was counter to the unique fresh nut eating tradition that had been established in Kent and had been common across the UK for centuries.

The Kentish Cobnut had been grown as a nut to be eaten fresh without the need to be dried, blanched or roasted for flavour like other foreign hazelnuts.

His association, with the help of the National Farmers Union, was able to persuade the government to oppose the legislation and so saved cobnut growing in Britain, earning him the approbation of ‘Cobnut King’.

He was chairman of the Kent Cobnut Association for 14 years and was then appointed its president, a post he still held at his death.

During that time, he also raised the profile of Kentish Cobnuts by extensive media appearances on BBC Countryfile and BBC Radio 4 and by talking to celebrity chefs.

In 2019, he was made an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours for services to the British cobnut industry.

The award was presented to him by Lady Colgrain, the Lord-Lieutenant of Kent, and after their conversation together, Lady Colgrain went on to establish The Kent Lieutenancy Cobnut Platt at East Malling Research, an initiative to mark the platinum jubilee in 2022 of Her Late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, with John as chief guest at the opening ceremony.

His grandson Tom Cannon, is now the chairman of the KCA. He said: “During his life, my grandpa gave his time to many rural organisations, hosting them and through quiet diplomacy and influence, he had a profound effect across Kent and beyond.

“He was a countryman and was one of the last of a unique generation of local Kent farmers.

“He was also an absolutely wonderful grandfather – kind, caring and always supportive. He was an exceptional character and a real inspiration to me.

“He will be deeply missed by his family and by the many people who knew him.”

John was married to Rosemary (nee May) for over 60 years. She predeceased him by nine months.

He died last November aged 92 after a period of illness following a stroke. He was given a private family funeral.

He is survived by three children – Robert, Jane and Giles, and by seven grandchildren.

His public memorial service at Plaxtol Church starts at midday this Saturday, January 20.