Freddie Angell

For two reasons, I found the article about Freddie Angell by Gerard Hindmarsh (Nelson Mail, November 17) repugnant, and it needed replying to.

1) Out of respect for family and friends of the deceased, I was brought up to believe that if you cannot speak good of the dead, then it is best to say nothing at all.

2) I knew Freddie Angell, and considered him a ‘‘good ’un’’. Freddie came very close to forcing the Government of the day to totally rethink its attitude to ‘‘endangered species’’. This, I suspect, could be the reason for Mr Hindmarsh’s friend to stand up and cheer ‘‘the moment he heard the news’’ of Freddie’s death in a car crash. That friend knew full well that ‘‘endangered species’’ were a lucrative source of government funding for himself and his colleagues, and any talk or publicity that started a discussion on regulated private breeding helping to take some of our ‘‘endangered species’’ off the endangered list would be a big threat to that source of funding.

One of the few things that Freddie and I agreed on in the short time I knew him was that regulated private breeding could do no harm, and in fact could do a lot of good. In Freddie’s own dry words, ‘‘hasn’t done sheep any harm’’.

Rest in peace, Freddie Angell. You weren’t all bad. I liked you. John Morrison

Nelson, November 19