British Simmental Review 2018

Joe Mee
19/08/1933 - 29/10/2018
Farewell to Dear Friends
Joe Mee, founder of the Lancelot herd, died on 29th
October 2018 after a long and courageous battle with
cancer. He was a loving husband, dad and granddad, and a
true gentleman, who will be greatly missed by his wife Jill,
children Oliver and Georgina and four grandchildren, and
also by those of us who showed cattle alongside him.
There were several tributes at his funeral, the first from
his friend Chris White, who spoke about his love of cattle
and showing:
Many of you know that I wasn’t family, but Joe and Jill
always made me feel like I was. I started to go up to Joe
and Jill’s at the age of eleven to help out, and later to work.
I look back now and think how patient Joe must have been.
I was not from a farming background – a city lad from
Sheffield – and have never thought about being a farmer.
The patience, time and understanding that Joe spent
teaching me led me to my career in farming, doing what I
love the most. I couldn’t have had a better tutor.
Joe loved his showing, and would always like to pick his
show team in January to start halter breaking and getting
them ready. His one aim was to beat Mr Donnelly, and
he achieved this with Harriet leading a home bred heifer
in 2016 at Ashbourne Show. Joe’s face was a picture, he
couldn’t stop smiling and said he was happy now, he’d
done what he set out to do.
The second tribute was from Harriet Thomas-Mee, Joe’s
granddaughter.
I would like to say a few words from Dada’s 4
grandchildren, Charlie, Josh, Ruby and myself. Dada has
always been there for us, helping and encouraging us with
our hobbies. For Ruby, he gave her advice and helped to
raise many orphan lambs; with Josh he had lots of good
times watching and chatting about football. With Charlie,
and the help of Dada’s dear friend Geoff, they restored an
old Petter engine. Dada shared his love of Simmental cattle
with me, as well as always encouraging me with my degree.
Every Tuesday and Wednesday after school he would be
waiting for us on the quadbike at the bottom of the lane
to give us a lift up to the farm. We all loved this but mum
wasn’t so keen on the soggy trousers on wet days! We have
so many great memories with Dada and are very lucky to
have lived so close to him and been able to spend lots of
time together.
There was always a job to be done, his favourite
summer job was to get us painting. He was very patient
as we got the paint on everything other than whatever we
were meant to be painting! The favourite winter job was
definitely mucking out the cows at the weekends, this we
got quite good at…
We have all spent a lot of hours growing up around
animals and riding on tractors with him. He was a great
role model and I aim to be as strong, kind and honest as
him. You stand forever in our hearts, the best Dada we
could have ever asked for, we will always look up to you
and miss you very much.
SIMMENTAL REVIEW 2018
www.britishsimmental.co.uk
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