Peter Seabrook

Peter John Seabrook MBE (2 November 1935 – 14 January 2022) was a British gardening writer and television broadcaster, presenting programmes including the BBC's Gardeners' World. He wrote a gardening column in The Sun newspaper for over 40 years. He was appointed an MBE in 2005.

Peter Seabrook

MBE
Seabrook in 2011
Born(1935-11-02)2 November 1935
Chelmsford, Essex, UK
Died14 January 2022(2022-01-14) (aged 86)
Chelmsford, Essex, UK
Occupation(s)Gardening writer, television broadcaster

Early life

Seabrook was born in Chelmsford, Essex, on 2 November 1935,[1][2] as the son of a farmer. He grew up in Galleywood, near Chelmsford.[3] With the help of international contacts, he started work in the horticultural industry aged 10, taking up full-time employment by 16.[4][5] He paid for a nursery tour of the Netherlands with money raised selling sweet peas from his back garden to a local florist.[5] He attended King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford.[3]

Training and career

After working for two years on seed trial grounds, Seabrook studied horticulture at Writtle College in Essex, earning a diploma in 1956. During his national service, the British Army paid for his florist training. He became a director of seed and garden company Cramphorn, then a technical representative of Bord na Mona (Irish Peat Board) and finally a consultant and director of two garden centres.[5]

Seabrook's broadcasting career began in 1965 on radio, with the BBC Home Service's In Your Garden and Gardeners' Question Time. On BBC television, beginning in 1975, he presented programmes including Gardeners' World, Pebble Mill at One and the Chelsea Flower Show.[5] From 1977 until his death he was the gardening editor of The Sun.[4] In America he hosted segments of The Victory Garden on PBS for over 20 years.[5]

Personal life and death

For 60 years Seabrook was married to Margaret, with whom he had two children. In 2020, she died of COVID-19 after living with dementia for nine years. He created in her honour the flower Margaret's Memory, a pale pink verbena, and donated the proceeds to Alzheimer's Research UK. He died of a heart attack at his home in Chelmsford on 14 January 2022, at the age of 86. He was gardening, campaigning and writing columns until the end; he had visited RHS Hyde Hall and W. D. Smith's Nurseries the day before he died.[6][7]

Honours

Seabrook was appointed an MBE in 2005.[4] and he was the only person in the UK to hold the top three RHS awards for services to horticulture: the Victoria Medal of Honour (2003), the RHS Associate of Honour (1996) and the Harlow Carr Medal.[6]

References
  1. 'Seabrook, Peter John', Who's Who 2013, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press, December 2012; online edn, November 2012, accessed 8 August 2013. [subscription required] Archived 16 January 2022 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Obituaries, Telegraph (19 January 2022). "Peter Seabrook, gardening writer who became a trenchant presenter of the BBC's Gardeners' World – obituary". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
  3. "Peter Seabrook obituary". The Times. 17 January 2022. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  4. "Peter Seabrook: Gardening writer and broadcaster dies aged 86". BBC News. 16 January 2022. Archived from the original on 16 January 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  5. Peter Seabrook biography Archived 16 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Sun Gardening.
  6. "Peter Seabrook dies aged 86". Horticulture Week. Archived from the original on 16 January 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  7. "Peter Seabrook MBE 1935–2022". SunGardening.co.uk. Archived from the original on 16 January 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
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