Eight-Year-Old From Selsey Appointed Rolls-Royce First Junior Beekeeper

Tuesday, 25 May 2021 06:00

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has appointed eight-year-old Poppy Liddle as its first-ever Junior Beekeeper at the Goodwood Apiary.

Poppy, who lives in Selsey, West Sussex, first came to the marque's attention when her beloved beehive was stolen in early May. Moved by her plight, and impressed by her pragmatic response to the outrage, Rolls-Royce arranged for her to visit the Goodwood Apiary, home to possibly the world's best-known (and certainly most palatial) colony of English honey bees.

On Friday 14 May, Poppy, her dad and step-mum were picked up from Poppy's school in a Rolls-Royce Ghost and chauffeur-driven to the home of Rolls-Royce. There, she was introduced to beekeeper Jason Hampton, and some of the Apiary's 300,000 hardworking inhabitants.

She was also presented with a special certificate confirming her as the marque's first-ever Junior Beekeeper, signed by Richard Carter, who combines serving as Chief Beekeeper with his role as the company's Director of Global Communications.

Before leaving, Poppy was given a jar of ‘Rolls-Royce of Honey’, made by the Rolls-Royce bees and usually reserved exclusively for clients and other VIPs. She will be returning to the home of Rolls-Royce later in the season when this year's honey harvest is collected.

Junior Beekeeper

In her first week, she's already been given an extremely important and responsible task. Earlier this year, Rolls-Royce invited colleagues to act as volunteer beekeepers for the new season. As expected, the response was immediate and enthusiastic: by the closing date, over 50 people from across the company had applied for the five available vacancies. Poppy drew 10 names from a hat to create a shortlist, who will then be interviewed by Jason; the successful candidates will go on to receive apicultural training funded by Rolls-Royce.

Poppy is also part of what has just become a worldwide team with the launch of a second Rolls-Royce Apiary in Dubai to mark World Bee Day. The worldwide event, first held in 2017, is a United Nations initiative designed to raise awareness of the global importance of bees and beekeeping in world food production, biodiversity, environmental conservation and climate change.

Richard Carter said:

“As enthusiastic beekeepers ourselves, we completely understand how much Poppy's recent loss meant to her. We can't bring back the hive that was taken, but we hope this event, and her new role, will help Poppy feel better and give her new opportunities to enjoy being with bees.”