John Grummitt was a fenland farmer who devoted more than a quarter of a century of his life to public service. He was born into an old established farming family in 1912 at Grove House in North Fen, Bourne, which was to become his lifelong home.

The farm, about half a mile from the village of Twenty and close to the main Bourne to Spalding road, was previously owned by his father, Marshall Grummitt, a tenant farmer for many years who got the chance to buy the the farmhouse, outbuildings and 95 acres of grass and arable land at an auction held at the Angel Hotel on 31st January 1918. Bidding opened at £4,000 and the final price was £7,050 [£175,000 at today's values], about £20 higher than any auction price in recent years. This was considered to be high price but the Stamford Mercury reported that there was great satisfaction in the room when it was knocked down to Mr Grummitt because his family had been there for so many years.

John was educated at Spalding Grammar School where he took a keen interest in sport, later becoming a playing member of Spalding Rugby Club and chairman of the Bourne Services Rifle Club. Soon after the end of the Second World War of 1939-45, he followed the family tradition and set up in farming on his own. About the same time, he began his public service, being elected to Bourne Urban District Council in 1947 at the age of 35, the youngest member of the authority. He remained on the council for 24 years, becoming chairman twice, in 1954-55 and again in 1965-66, and during this time he sat on all of the council committees and had been chairman of most of them.

His particular interest was in roads and traffic and while chairman of the highways committee, he donated the John Grummitt Road Safety Cup which was competed for annually until the council disbanded under the local government reorganisation of 1974.

From 1959 until 1971, Mr Grummitt served as a magistrate, as a county councillor from 1964-67, a governor of Bourne Grammar School and a trustee and chairman of Bourne United Charities, and in 1968, an inscribed silver ashtray was presented to him by BUDC to mark his record in public service. He was also an active freemason and a member of the National Farmers' Union while his dedicated service to the village of Twenty is still remembered, being a founder member of the village hall committee and a man who always had the welfare of the community at heart.

An illness in 1971 forced him to give up all of his public duties, making his sole interest the Fenbourne School of Equitation at North Fen run by his daughter, Miss Gillian Grummitt. He died suddenly on 28th April 1972 at the age of 60, leaving a widow, Mrs Constance Grummitt, and three daughters.

See also Tree planting ceremony in 1965