Newey Kingston was born in 1921 as the second son of farmers in the Spalding area, and grew up as so many agricultural engineers do on the farm with a keen interest in all things mechanical.

He spent almost the entire wartime period in the army in India as part of the transport corps maintaining vehicles and saw no action. After the war Newey returned to the Spalding area and started work for Leverton's the main Caterpillar distributor, soon meeting and marrying his lifelong partner Margaret. Shortly after they moved south as Newey had a promotion to work for Leverton's at their Windsor depot.

In the early 60s Newey moved to a new position as UK Service Manager for Lundell of Edenbridge in Kent who were manufacturers of forage harvesters and grain drills but were also main importers and distributors for John Deere, with 4010 and 5010 tractors being distributed through some key dealers such as Don Macmillan of Devizes, Drake & Fletcher of Ashford, L E Tuckwell of Woodbridge, Ben Burgess of Norwich and T M Simpson of Ceres.

When Deere & Co bought Lundell and wound down operations while at the same time starting up business from Langar as John Deere Ltd in 1966, Newey and a number of colleagues, such as Parts Manager Cyd Earl, moved up to Nottingham to continue in their positions but now with John Deere Ltd. Thus Newey became the first UK Service Manager for John Deere Ltd, a position he held until his retirement in 1984.

During his time at John Deere Ltd Newey developed many of the processes of customer support which have been so successful in the company's growth and hired the first employees, many of whom went on to work for the company for 30 or 40 years carrying on what he had started. During his 18 years the company grew from about 2% market share on tractors to 12% and became one of the "big 4".

Newey and Margaret enjoyed many happy years of retirement with their family Chris and Louise and their many grandchildren. Margaret passed away in 2009 and Newey soldiered on to the grand old age of 92.

At his funeral last week the family wanted to mark his important association with John Deere and asked if an old tractor could be supplied to lead the funeral cortege. John Deere Ltd happily obliged to give a loyal employee a good send off and provided the company's 4020, which had been restored in 2006 to mark the company's 40th year.

The tractor was decked out with a green and yellow wreath and driven by a long serving member of Newey's team Richard Clarke (now retired).

A Eulogy covering Newey's association with John Deere was delivered by Peter Leech (now also retired) who succeeded Newey as Service Manager.