FOLLOWING the death of one of the nation’s best loved actors, a partner of the Castle Veterinary Group, based in Launceston, remembers the day Robert Hardy opened the practice’s current building, writes Zoe Uglow.

Mr Hardy, better know to many as the much loved vet Siegfried Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small, opened the Castle Veterinary Group centre, on the Pennygillam Industrial Estate on April 26, 1997.

In response to Mr Hardy’s death, aged 91, the Castle Veterinary Group shared a number of photographs of the opening on their Facebook page with the message, ‘We are sorry to hear of the death of actor Robert Hardy today aged 91’.

Tim Bebbington became a partner in 1995 and was present the day Mr Hardy ‘cut the ribbon’ at the practice’s new premises.

Speaking about how these events came to be, Mr Bebbington said: “Twenty years ago this year Robert Hardy came to the practice to open it. Obviously he had his time playing the veterinarian Siegfried Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small. Well, one of our partners, Martin Vivian, met him by chance at a congress in Edinburgh. He was sat right next to him, I believe, on a bus tour around a farm. This was shortly before we were planning to open the new premises at Pennygillam.

“Martin got chatting to him and mentioned that it would be a good idea for him to come along to open the practice. Surprisingly he agreed and came down to Launceston.”

Mr Bebbington said they had a ‘huge turnout’ to the opening event, adding: “We had a tremendous amount of people packed into our little car park to see the opening — we were actually a little overwhelmed with the support we received.”

He said on the day Mr Hardy ‘did a good job’ and conducted the opening ceremony very well.

“He was a very amiable man, came around and chatted to everyone there.

“We had put him up in the Arundell Arms and took him out for a meal. We chatted about All Creatures Great and Small and some of his other works and really just had a great weekend with him.”

Mr Bebbington said they had thought the opening event went so well they would do it all again the following year.

“We thought because it had been such a good success we would hold another event the following year. However, there were substantially fewer in attendance that year and it became apparent that the draw had absolutely been Robert Hardy and not the opening of the vets — which isn’t surprising.

“It had been a one off event and one we were very lucky to be able to hold. We were certainly very fortunate he agreed and it was a real highlight for the practise.”

Mr Hardy, who is perhaps known to many of the younger generation as Cornelius Fudge in Harry Potter, died last Thursday.

His theatre, film and television career spanned some 70 years.

He played the wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill on a number of occasions, notably in the 1981 ITV series Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years, for which he was awarded a Bafta.