A WELL respected member of the farming community, who attended his local agricultural show every year since the age of eight, has died.

John Luck, 93, also competed in Bowes Agricultural Show in Teesdale and became a staunch supporter, helping run it for many decades.

“Johnny Luck will forever be remembered as one of the most loyal and reliable supporters of Bowes Agricultural Show in all of its 148 years of existence," said current chairman, Andrew Bracewell.

“It was as a richly deserved reward that Johnny was elected President of the Society for the 1995 Show, a position which he filled with his usual good humour and determination obtaining everybody’s admiration in the process.

“Continuing as a vice president and attending committee meetings until shortly before his death Johnny Luck was, and will remain, one of the greatest stalwarts of Bowes Agricultural Society. He will never be forgotten.”

Mr Luck was born in August 1923 in Baldersdale and moved to Nabb Farm, in Bowes, near Barnard Castle, at an early age.

He attended Bowes School and attended his first Show, then known as the Swaledale Royal, with his father at the age of eight.

In 1935 he enjoyed his first recorded entry, with success in the Industrial section.

He left school to work on the family farm , his main job being to look after the horses.

However, Mule sheep were his passion and he followed his father, joining the Show’s working committee in the 1940s.

In 1946, together with his father he showed a ‘cow in milk’ and in 1947, as part of the Young Farmers he showed a sheep.

He went on to breed prize-winning shorthorn cattle, and won Champion Beast in 1950.

In the 1960’s he began breeding Fresian cattle along with Masham Sheep and became one of the top breeders of Masham’s.

He then changed to Mule sheep in the 1970s, which he showed every year at Bowes Show until the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001.

He continued to breed Mule sheep and sold them at auction marts in Teesdale.

When the Show was at risk of being shut down in the 1950s, he raised money to keep it going.

Mr Luck, who was known as Johnny, was Show chairman from 1980 until 1992 before becoming president in 1995 and vice president until his death.

He married late wife, Greta Elizabeth Metcalfe, in 1948 and the couple had four children, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Tributes have been paid to the family man described as kind, gentle, loving and “a true gentleman and farmer through and through”.