Brought up on a farm in East Anglia, experiencing the joys of "stick and dog farming" during school holidays, Richard always had empathy with the countryside and with animals in particular.
He joined the army and after the best 10 years, resigned and joined the brewers Watney Mann. After 15 years running pubs under management, he was made redundant ; a sobering experience.
Moving to a small hill farm on Dartmoor, with agriculture in decline and a recession looming was not perhaps the most obvious course of action, but the circumstances did give rise to the creation of Wild Beef ahead of the game when the retailing of farm food became popular.
Lizzie joined him in 1995. She had been an army daughter brought up between England and the Middle East. A full time mother, she also worked for Sotheby's amongst kindred spirits and interesting business.
Having spent a large part of her life in London, the move to Devon was a big change. She soon became an integral part of the sales effort, and once we brought the meat to London was in her element, and was also able to see more of her children who were living and working there, as well as her mother and brother and sister ; so things worked out well.
