My uncle David Cargill, who has died aged 88, believed in the value of investment in arts as a catalyst for positive social change, both for his beloved East Anglia and nationally - a belief that he put into action as a national board member for the Arts Council for England between 1988 and 1992.
David was born in Gimingham, Norfolk, to Jessie (nee Henderson) and her husband David Cargill, a farmer who was the doyen of one of Norfolk’s Scottish landowning families. Older brother to Jean and Alan, he was educated at Gresham’s school in Holt, Norfolk, and at the Royal Agricultural College (now the Royal Agricultural University) in Cirencester, before embarking unenthusiastically on a career in farming. A talented hockey player, he met his future wife, Shirley Williams, at the Trowel and Hammer pub in Norwich after a game. They married in 1960 and together they began a lifelong love affair with the arts.
In 1971 David took over the chair of the Norfolk Contemporary Arts Society, enabling more ambitious purchases to be made through match funding from national art funds. In the 1970s and 80s, he founded a commercial radio station business and a merchant bank; established Eastern Arts Association to support writers, artists and larger arts groups including the Cambridge Folk and Norwich Triennial festivals; and ran for a parliamentary seat on behalf of the newly established Social Democratic party, gaining 26% of the vote in what was a predictable Conservative win.
In 1989, the family began the transformation of Elsing Hall, a moated manor house near Dereham, Norfolk. With David’s ambition and Shirley’s idiosyncratic style the house flourished, becoming a place of social and cultural introduction where artists, writers, musicians, financiers and lifelong local friends and family were entertained. Over 30 years they developed the grounds, creating a garden that became famous for its romantic, wild nature and hundreds of old English roses. David took pride in the arboretum he set out there, seeing it as an investment in the future.
In his 70s, pushed unwillingly from his professional life by the onset of dementia, David began making his own paintings and sculptures, and though he continued to attend arts and music festivals he devoted most of his time to his family.
He is survived by Shirley and their children, Natasha, Jonquil and Angus, and grandchildren, Lucas, Milo and Finn; and by Jean and Alan.
