A forester whose career has impacted forestry practice from Africa and Indonesia to County Durham has won a national award.

Hamish Jeffrey’s early career took him from Ghana in West Africa to Liberia and Borneo. When he returned to the UK, it was to County Durham where he was head forester for the late John Vane, 11th Baron Barnard ‘s Raby Estate for many years.

He has now been named as the winner of the Royal Forestry Society (RFS) Sylva Trophy, which is presented annually to a person or organisation who, in the opinion of the society, has made an outstanding contribution to forestry in its broadest sense.

Darlington and Stockton Times: Royal Forestry Society 2023 Sylva Trophy winner Hamish Jeffrey

The award will be presented to Mr Jeffrey by the current Lord Barnard at the RFS Excellence in Forestry Awards at Ushaw House, County Durham, today.

Lord Barnard said: “Hamish was head forester at Raby for 25 years, overseeing the management of the woodlands with dedication, skill and tenacity. With his life-time commitment to forestry I’m delighted that Hamish has been chosen as a worthy recipient of this prestigious award.

“He was responsible for growing good quality timber in an estate context and at the same time being sensitive to environmental and landscape concerns."

For Mr Jeffrey, forestry was a career he had dreamed of as a teenager. He recalls helping forest teams during school holidays, and his first paid role was with the Forestry Commission on the Isle of Wight. There he gained the necessary experience to take a forestry degree at Gwydir College in North Wales.

When he qualified in 1968, the world opened to him and his wife Sonia, a zoologist. Mr Jeffrey was posted to Ghana with Glisten and then to Liberia with a US-based forestry company. He was later headhunted by Unilever, working in Borneo and offered a post in the Solomon Islands.

“My main concern in both Ghana and Indonesia was the destruction of the forest," said Mr Jeffrey. "This may sound strange as I was there harvesting timber, but we were trying to establish a continuous cover type of forestry.

"We had a 30-year programme, only felling one 30th per year, with the intention of relogging. Unfortunately farmers moved into the concession and we were powerless to stop them. The soils would not sustain crops, and after about five years they had to move on having completely destroyed the forest. It saddens me now to see on Google earth that the entire concessions have been destroyed.”

Returning to the UK, Mr Jeffrey turned his expertise to work in collaboration with Lord Barnard’s agent, RFS past president Tommy Eade. He focussed on growing productive trees as part of the landscape and environment, and managed the estate’s sawmills, becoming an early exponent of the firewood market. He also mentored numerous individuals as they have explored and pursued forestry careers.

Among his many notable achievements was being responsible for Lord Barnard’s contribution of oak towards the restoration of fire-hit York Minster.

Post retirement, Mr Jeffrey has remained involved in forestry as a contractor working on small estates and farms in small areas of woodland.