Celebrating the life of a quiet giant: Tribute to founder of Daily Bread Co-operative in Northampton

Roger Sawtell was born in Sheffield in 1927, was educated in Wales and Cambridge and began a promising career in engineering. When his focus shifted from the practical aspects to managements, he discovered a new calling: creating and developing different, more equitable models for businesses.

In 1967 Roger, with his wife Susan and their four young children, undertook a 7,000 mile journey overland in a motor caravan. They visited Israel and stayed in a kibbutz, where they experienced the democratic structure of the community. This, along with the philosophy of the economist E.F. Schumacher, inspired Roger in his new endeavour. Soon afterwards he was invited to Trylon ltd. (a small Northamptonshire company, then makers of fibreglass canoes, now specialising in specialist design) to develop their employee-owned business. He became an advisor to similar small businesses and drafted a set of Model Rules for small co-operatives in 1976, which would become a major influence in the growing co-operative movement in this country. In the same year, he and a group of friends began Daily Bread Co-operative, a workers’ co-operative based on a Christian model for business, which started trading in 1980.

In the 1970s he served as chair of Industrial Common Ownership Movement, now Co-operatives UK, as well Industrial Common Ownership Finance, the first community development fund which now trades as Co-operative & Community Finance and makes sympathetic loans to help launch or develop co-operatives nationwide. During his life he published numerous articles and booklets and two books: Under One Roof – the Story of a Christian Community in 2015 and his autobiography, A Somewhat Upside-Down Life in 2016. He maintained, however, that his only best seller was A Simple Communion, a short Eucharistic liturgy that sold 10,000 copies.

Although Roger retired as a member of Daily Bread Co-operative in 1987 he remained a part-time worker while pursuing other projects, and up until quite recently he was a frequent and welcome visitor, even if he had just popped in to make use of the photocopier! He maintained a keen interest in the activities of the company and kept up-to-date on the ever-changing membership and workforce. In 2013 Roger was present at a very special event: the relaunch of Daily Bread’s online shop with guest visitor, former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. In 2019, Co-operatives UK awarded Roger the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award in their Co-operative of the Year Awards, and Nick Matthews, then chair of Co-operatives UK, travelled to Daily Bread to present him with the award in person.

Roger passed away on the 15th of December. He had been unwell for some months, but died peacefully at 95, surrounded by his family. We at Daily Bread offer our sincerest condolences to his family, and express our gratitude for the huge impact he had on the co-operative movement in the UK. Roger Sawtell was a quiet and gentle man, and yet his legacy is one of many thousands of lives changed.