'The right time to go'

Catherine Austen talks to Tim Easby about his decade in charge of the Hunting Office and changes afoot

- Catherine Austen

“TEN years is enough – it’s time to move on and do something else, not just for me but also for the Hunting Office,” says Tim Easby.

He has just handed over the reins as director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association (MFHA) and of the Hunting Office, which acts as the administrative hub of the various hunting associations and supervises and administers the activities of hunting.

“You need fresh blood, fresh ideas and enthusiasm in different directions, and, while I’m still really enjoying it, I knew in my heart of hearts it was the right time to go.”

That decade – he took over from Alastair Jackson in 2009 – has spanned considerable change as hunting has come to terms with life after the Hunting Act, as much within that Cotswolds-based office as in the sport itself.

Initially based around the MFHA, the Association of Masters of Harriers and Beagles (AMHB) and then the other hunting associations became integrated into the Hunting Office, and AMHB director Lizzie Pinney, who has also stepped down, became deputy director.

“My job had a very broad brief; one minute someone is ringing up wanting a second whipper-in for the Blankshire and the next you are writing a brief for a secretary of state. It’s never boring – you never know what is going to happen next. No one ever phones you up with good news. They always have a drama for you to solve,” he says with a laugh.

“I’ve learnt as much about the human as I have about hunts and hunting from doing this job.”

“PEOPLE NEED TO TRUST YOU”

TIM had, however, already absorbed a great deal about people from his Army career and time as an amateur huntsman.

“I adored the soldiering and the soldiers,” he says.