Cornishman Chris Riddle has stepped down as chairman of farming’s oldest welfare charity, the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (R.A.B.I) after three years in the role. He is replaced by Malcolm Thomas, the first Welshman to be elected to the position in the charity’s long 156-year history.

Chris, who is secretary of the Royal Cornwall Agricultural Association, is stepping down as a trustee of R.A.B.I after 10 years. He said: “I’ll be sad to go. R.A.B.I is a fantastic farming charity that is going to be much needed in the weeks, months and years to come.”

Last year, R.A.B.I gave out grants of around £1.9 million to farming people in financial need throughout England and Wales and helped people in hardship claim more than £390k in state benefits and tax credits. The charity, first formed by Essex farmer John Mechi in 1860, gave out emergency grants of around £88k to flood victims in the north of England at the turn of the year.

Paying tribute to Chris, R.A.B.I’s newly-elected deputy chairman James Orme said: “Chris was extremely active during the flooding in Somerset and again last year, when winter flooding hit parts of northern England. He’s also played an important role in the £6m development of Manson House, our residential care home for farming people in Bury St Edmunds.

“Chris has been a terrific R.A.B.I chairman, making sure people’s views have been heard whilst maintaining a sense of reality and proportion.”