My brother Charles Holford, who has died aged 72, was a pioneer of renewable energy in Wales.
From his base in Llangeitho, near Tregaron, Charles’s company, West Wales Renewable Energy, focused on installing solar panels and wind turbines for clients across mid and west Wales. To many, in isolated farms and other “off-grid” locations, he brought reliable electricity for the first time. He also identified and sourced the best materials, and the quality of his work has stood the test of time.
Born in Bromley, Kent, Charles was the first child of Trafford Holford, a solicitor, and Norah (nee Kam), an artist and art lecturer. As a child, few recognised his ability. The schools he attended were obsessed with competition – academic and sporting – and Charles, who loathed sports, was not a competitor. He seldom fitted in.
He won a place at Dulwich college in south-east London at the age of nine, but within weeks had written in his diary that “I hate my form”. One teacher, he recently recalled, specialised in “bicycle rides”: grabbing boys’ hair above both ears and rotating it vigorously. Later he went to Bryanston school in Blandford, Dorset (1964-68), and then Beckenham and Penge grammar school (later Langley Park school for boys, 1968-70).
The casual brutalities of teachers and fellow pupils hurt Charles deeply. In his early teens he fell prey to what would now be seen as an eating disorder. He had to cope with it for the rest of his life.
Also in his teens, Norah had an extended period of mental ill health – Charles would sit with her while she unloaded her turmoil on him. He learned from that. To his many friends, and family, he was an excellent listener and counsellor.
Charles’s talents showed outside school, however: he was fascinated with plumbing, electricity and radio. He knew where all the country’s TV and radio transmitting stations were, and he taught himself how they worked. In 1971 he went to University College, Swansea, to study chemistry, and although he did not complete a degree, his time there led him to spend most of the rest of his life in Wales. After labouring jobs and community work, in the late 1970s he set up a small electrical business in Swansea.
After a short period trading in Norfolk during the mid-1980s, he moved in 1989 to Llangeitho, switching to the installation and maintenance of renewable energy equipment and rebranding the firm as West Wales Renewable Energy.
Later on the business was hit hard by George Osborne’s 2015 assault on green energy, and around that time Charles was increasingly troubled by psoriatic arthritis, which reduced his ability to use, and even hold, the tools of his trade. Also dogged by heart and kidney problems, he soldiered on, declining dialysis and hospital treatment, and died at home overlooking the beauty of the Aeron Valley.
He is survived by me and two nieces. Our youngest brother, Mark, died in 2015.
