David follows his grandfather as H&H’s chairman

David Trimble has taken over as chairman of the H&H Group. He succeeded Ian Walker at the Group's board meeting in April.

David Trimble

Mr Trimble was due to take over the chair at the Group's annual meeting last autumn but Mr Walker continued in the role until Mr Trimble relinquished his duties as High Sheriff of Cumbria earlier this year.

Mr Trimble, of Dalston, followed in the footsteps of his father Steuart, who was the last High Sheriff of the old county of Cumberland in 1971-72. Mr Trimble also followed his grandfather as a board member of the H&H Group in 1998, one of three of Cumbria's oldest established companies of which he is a director.

William Tennant Trimble was a director of the company for 49 years until 1945, 33 years of which he was board chairman.

David Trimble has been a director of the CN Group since 1973 and was a board member of Border Television from 1974 to 2000 when the company was sold. Mr Trimble is also chairman of the family firm Jacob Cowen & Sons, which was founded in 1821 in Dalston and manufactures cotton wool and wadding and pollution control equipment - some of which was used by farmers as disinfectant mats during the foot and mouth crisis.

He owns 90 acres of land near Dalston which is let on a farm business tenancy and until its sale in 1997 he managed 220 acres of commercial woodland at Brocklebank.

A merchant banker, Mr Trimble continues to have business interests overseas. His wife Margaret works as his secretary and is a director of the family investment company. His career as a merchant banker began in London in the early 1960s, after his education locally at Lime House School, followed by Rugby and Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he gained an honours degree in economics and law. Prior to his degree course he spent two years as a commissioned officer in National Service with the Scots Guards.

The sixth generation of his family to live in Dalston, Mr Trimble has been active in local affairs, as a Carlisle City councillor, as a governor of Caldew School, Dalston and as chairman of Cumbria and North Lancashire branch of the Northwest Industrial Council and on many other local and national committees. As chairman of the Carlisle Diocesan Glebe Management Committee he has supported re-investment from the sale of small Glebe lands to farms and other businesses. And he is a trustee of Carlisle Cathedral Development Trust.

Also locally, he revived the historic Blamire Medal for services to agriculture and while relinquishing its chairmanship, he remains a trustee. Nationally, he is a member of the Country Land and Business Association's finance committee which has been instrumental in re-structuring the new organisation which has emerged from the Country Landowners Association.

Mr Trimble is a keen tennis player and golfer and also enjoys snorkelling and bridge. He is a member of Dalston Male Voice Choir. He and his wife Margaret have three children, Emma, Robert and Annabel.

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