Dates

• Existence: 1928 - February 2016

Biography

Bill Weeks was born in 1928 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where he attended the Royal Grammar School and was one of 400 pupils evacuated to Penrith, in Cumbria, during the Second World War.

After graduating from Kings College in 1947, he enlisted in the Army for a short service commission, which he left due to funding cuts.

Following a spell at Cheshire School of Agriculture, he joined Newcastle University in 1948 as a lecturer in agricultural and food marketing, role which he held for more than 40 years.

Bill had a keen interest in steam engines and fairground organs, and was involved in the organisation of several traction engine rallies in the north-east of England. Bill was a member of the Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain and a founding member of the North of England Steam Traction Engine Society.

As well as his career in teaching Bill was an elected member of Newcastle City Council for many years, he wrote articles for ‘The Journal’ and many regular appearances on radio and TV as an authority on food production and an advocate of British farmers.

On his retirement, he moved from Jesmond to run a smallholding at his holiday home in Seahouses and got involved in many aspects of community life including President of Seahouses Rotary Clue and pioneer of the Tyneside Summer Exhibition.

Following the death in 1984 of his wife Betty, mother to their daughter Jane, he married wife Alison, who had a young daughter Charlotte and a son, Joseph.

Bill died on February 2016 aged 88.

Found in 7 Collections and/or Records: