NGO honours gamekeeping’s past, present and future at annual awards

A Derbyshire keeper who has transformed a depleted woodland into a wildlife haven and a teenage underkeeper using social media to bring gamekeeping to a new generation were among the stories celebrated at the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation’s annual awards ceremony on 22 April.

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Conservation champions

The NGO’s Conservation Champions Awards celebrated some of the most ambitious conservation and habitat work carried out on shooting estates and private fisheries across England and Wales.

Among the winners, Roger Harrison received the Lifetime Achievement Award for decades of managing the wild brown trout and grayling fishery at Itchen Stoke Mill entirely for wild fish, to a standard the NGO described as “a benchmark for others”.

James Allsop of Monk Wood Shoot in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, was recognised for outstanding commitment to shooting and conservation after planting more than 55,000 trees and shrubs and creating over 30 ponds since inheriting the shoot in 2017.

The Country Food Trust received the Marsdens Special Award for distributing more than seven million free meals using game meat to people in food poverty, a story Shooting Times has covered previously.

Other winners were honoured for projects ranging from sea trout restoration to 36 years of woodland, grassland and wetland creation.

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Next generation steps forward

Izabel Hall, 17, studying countryside and land management at Brooksby College and working on the Walter Benbow Shoot in Thurlaston, received the Frank Jenkins Memorial Trophy, created to recognise the next generation of keepers. The trophy honours the memory of Frank Jenkins, who devoted 63 years to gamekeeping and gamebird rearing.

Miss Hall is already volunteering at shooting shows and rural events and the NGO said her social media presence as “Izzy the Underkeeper” was helping to broaden the profession’s appeal to wider audiences.

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Long service medals

Alongside the Conservation Champions Awards, the NGO recognised the careers of those who have given a lifetime to the countryside. The NGO presented 11 Long Service Medals to individuals representing a combined 486 years of service across gamekeeping, ghillying, deer stalking and river keeping.

First established by the CLA and entrusted to the NGO in 2015, the medals recognise careers devoted to wildlife management, conservation and the production of game meat.

NGO national chair David Pooler said: “The theme of the day is best practice and these 11 men have dedicated their lives to delivering exactly that. Their work caring for the countryside, its wildlife and the production of sustainable game meat has helped shape the landscape we all enjoy today.”

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The full list of award winners:

2026 Conservation Champion Award winners

• Lifetime Achievement: Roger Harrison, Itchen Stoke Mill
• Outstanding Commitment to Shooting and Conservation: James Allsop, Monk Wood Shoot, Derbyshire
• Responsible Land Management: Daniel Crimp, Bodorgan Estate, Anglesey
• Habitat: John Martin, Warningore Farm Shoot, East Sussex
• Innovation: Game Larder by Tarrant Refrigeration
• Marsdens Special Award: The Country Food Trust

Frank Jenkins Memorial Trophy

• Izabel Hall, Walter Benbow Shoot, Leicestershire

Long Service Medal recipients

• 40-year medals: John Maynard, Kerry Williams, Kevin Childs, Andrew Chadwick, Kevin Bowers, Michael Bulmer, Kevin Brosnan, Bob Perry, Neil Jones
• 50-year medals: Peter Lucas, Colin Chadwick