In Memoriam: Arnold Tasker MW

Arnold Tasker MW

Notes on the life of Arnold Tasker OBE, Master of Wine, holder of the Polish Silver Cross of Merit and honoured by the French Government which appointed him a Chevalier of the Order of Merit.

Husband for 44 years of Dallas and, when he became a widower in 1998, later husband to Hilary for nearly 16 years.

Father to Alan, Gillian and Katherine and grandfather of 10, young people Arnold spoke about with love and pride.

Born in Suffolk in 1926, he was educated first at the Crypt Grammer School in Gloucester and then Ellesmere College in Shropshire. He was the son of the civil engineer and architect Edric Tasker AFC (the Air Force Cross from the Great War) and Edith Minnie (née Taylor from the Moray Firth Scotland). His father worked at the Gloucester County Council and was organist and choir master at various churches in Gloucestershire.

To avoid being conscripted to work down the mines as a ‘Bevan Boy’, Arnold volunteered to join the army. After attending the War Office Selection Board, he was sent later to Sandhurst and suffered, like all the others, under the famous Regimental Sergeant Major Ronald Brittain – originator of the phrase, “you ‘orrible little man”.

Princess Elizabeth took the salute at his passing out parade at Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the 2^nd battalion of the Cameron Highlanders Regiment in February 1946 and then trained in Scotland before the regiment was to be posted to the island of St Helena. Luckily, the Colonel of the Regiment, General Wimberley, got to hear about this and the Camerons were diverted to the Italian- Yugoslav border to stop Marshal Tito marching into and taking Trieste.

2^nd Lieutenant Tasker did well and was soon appointed Liaison Officer and learned some Serbo-Croat. In November 1947, he was promoted Temporary Captain and put in charge of buying wine for the Regimental Mess. This was his first introduction to wine in any serious way and it fascinated him.

On demob in August 1948, he attended the University of Birmingham and got his degree in French with Italian and was then introduced by the Warden to the Birmingham family firm of wine merchants Thomas St Johnston in Edgbaston and by 1955, he was awarded the Albert Guillet Cup as the best wine student for his essay and tasting. His reward was a trip to Cognac.

In 1939, his sisters Margaret and Muriel introduced Arnold to their good friend Dallas Woodvine. They married in July 1954.

His next career move was to join the Liverpool shippers and wholesale wine merchants Walsh, Penketh & Kaye, with their best shop in Heswell on the Wirral in Cheshire.

In 1959, he sat and passed the Master of Wine exam, instituted in 1953 by the Vintners Company of the City of London with blind tastings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings with written papers in the afternoons. He was only the 21^st MW, which shows just how tough was the test.

Then down to London to join brewers Courage Barclay & Simmonds wine company Charles Kinloch (later called Saccone & Speed) in 1961, which served naval and military bases at home and abroad with smart offices in Sackville Street, Mayfair.

By then Dallas and Arnold were living in Gerrards Cross and then a move of home to Chalfont St Peter in Buckinghamshire.

In 1967, he was appointed founder member of the Wine Development Board, promoting knowledge and appreciation of drinking wine. He introduced wine trade press tastings, including Jilly Cooper and then Jancis Robinson.

He was appointed chairman, by the Vintners Company, of the Institute of Masters of Wine in 1979 and a Trustee of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, where he served one year.

He was appointed managing director of Percy Fox, UK agents for Lanson Champagne and a number of fine clarets, in 1981 he then became chairman of the Sherry Shippers UK. He served as chairman of the Wine & Spirit Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Since Saccone & Speed had the Royal Warrant, he was appointed Royal Warrant Holder to HM The Queen in June 1987 and the chairman of the Wine Development Board between 1986 and 1989.

The Home Secretary appointed Arnold Tasker to the Alcohol Education Trust & Research Council for the period 1988 to 1994 and in 1989 he was awarded the OBE in the Birthday Honours List. The French Government appreciated his work on behalf of their wine industry and he was appointed Chevalier de L’ordre du Merit Agricole at a ceremony at the French Embassy.

It was the most extraordinary and successful career in the wine industry that it is possible to imagine.

At home, his family grew. First Dallas and he had a son Alan, then Gill and finally Katherine. They all married and now have 10 children between them. Arnold’s diary had a careful note of all the birthdays and he reckoned that he never missed a birthday of any of them as the years went by.

Dallas Tasker tragically developed cancer and died on the 20^th of November 1998, leaving a great gulf in Arnold’s life.

His good friend Hilary Cooper, a neighbour with her husband Dr Peter Cooper during his time up in the Wirral, had been recently widowed. In the summer of 1999 Arnold and Hilary met up again on a regular basis. They decided to marry and did so in January 2000.

Arnold and Hilary moved to Thame, a town they got to know and like, and made many new friends there. They always seemed busy doing something or going somewhere, whether Arnold to a Probus meeting, U3A or his Italian classes and Hilary painting or spending hours in often cold but beautiful old buildings as a Church Recorder. They were joint members of NADFAS and seldom missed a meeting together.

Then there was their music. Many Sundays, they drove into Oxford for a morning concert or London for grander orchestral pieces and their classical music CD collection is reported to be a wonder.

Both loved gardening and the garden at Keswick House in Thame is, I am informed, a beautiful and quiet place right in the middle of a busy town. Arnold actually found a special delight in his Allotment, which he only gave up a few years ago. Growing things to eat was what he specialised in.

However, he was proud of his fine collection of fuchsias and had a special place in his list of likes in dahlias and sweet peas – so Arnold was not a vegetable-man only by any means.

They travelled, often to Italy, where Arnold could practise what he had learned of the language – indeed they spent their honeymoon in Venice.

My point is that they had such similar tastes and enjoyed many of the same pleasures. What a wonderful and happy basis for their close partnership over the last 16 years.

There will be a Memorial Service for the life of E. Arnold Tasker at St Mary’s Church, Thame, Oxon on Saturday 23 January 2016 at 10am.