Farewell to a titan of hunting

The late Martin Letts MFH made an enormous contribution to our sport, says Frank Houghton Brown

JOHN MARTIN LETTS died peacefully on 28 February 2022. He had just enjoyed his 88th birthday, which included a meet of his beloved College Valley hounds at his home at Hethpool.

Born and brought up in Kent, the eldest son in the Letts diary dynasty, Martin was educated at Marlborough, where he was preoccupied with country pursuits and was one of those who helped establish the Marlborough College Beagles. He completed two years of national service then joined the family business. He hunted the Bolebroke Beagles under Phillip Burrows and the Eastern Counties Otterhounds.

Visits to the Northumberland beagling festival caused him to fall in love with both the Cheviot Hills and his wife Eildon. She was the step-granddaughter of

Sir Alfred Goodson, the founder of the College Valley Hunt, who Martin joined in the mastership in 1964. Even more fortunate was that Martin could run part of the Letts business from their factories in Dalkeith.

“Luck has an undeniable part to play in hunting,” is how he’d explain all these fortuitous events coming together.

There followed 40 seasons where Martin hunted his own hounds. Eildon joined the mastership in 1987 and her hospitality at Hethpool is legendary. Martin oversaw the amalgamation with the North Northumberland Hunt and gifted his hounds and his knowledge to hundreds of masters and packs who sought them.

He was gruff and taciturn to those who either didn’t know him or who he didn’t want to know, but wise, humorous and deeply kind to his friends, family or anyone who loved hunting or the countryside.

In 2004, he gave up hunting the hounds, enlisting Ian McKie to move to Northumberland and fill his shoes. Martin stayed on as joint-master until his death, keeping a keen eye on the breeding and hunting qualities of the pack to which he had devoted so much of his life.

“Lucky” is a word Martin used to describe his life, a man who thrived among country folk when foxhunting was the foremost sport. Despite the loss of both his sons Anthony and Charles, he is survived by his wife Eildon, daughter Diana and grandchildren Emily, Harry and Louisa.