Tony Sharps, community farm manager who helped troubled youth, dies aged 72

Tony Sharps, a community farm manager in England who spent his career helping troubled young people, has died of cancer at the age of 72. The Guardian has published an obituary written by a friend.

Path to youth work

Sharps was born in London and grew up in the village of Congresbury in Somerset, where the family moved because of his father's job as a sales rep for the airline Aer Lingus. After leaving Backwell school at 16 he joined the Merchant Navy, spending several years at sea or travelling and working abroad.

He later worked in residential childcare and gained a community and youth work qualification at Matlock College in Derbyshire. From 1981 he was a youth supervisor and farm manager at Windmill Hill City Farm in Bristol.

The city farms movement

The Bristol job sparked his interest in city farms, a movement that aims to connect urban residents with the natural world and change how children engage with food, nature and sustainability. He was in London in 1980 for the launch of the Federation of City Farms, now part of Social Farms & Gardens, and stayed involved with it for many years. The network now includes community-managed green spaces as well as city farms.

The author met him in the mid-1990s while both were volunteering with VSO in India, where Sharps also ran a farm.

Lambourne End Centre

In 2002 he became farm coordinator at the Lambourne End Centre in Essex, helping build its reputation for developing young people. Its motto is "Inspired to Inspire". In 2017 he received a fellowship from LEEF, the London Environmental Educators' Forum, for excellence in environmental and sustainability education. He retired to Wells in 2022.

Sharps is survived by his brothers Chris and Nick and his sister Tess.