A Short History Of Farnham u3a – by Eileen Williams (written in 2015).
Farnham u3a owes its birth to a remarkable ex-army officer Tony Collyer. Tony and his wife Joan joined Guildford u3a in 1984 after his retirement. By 1990 the Guildford u3a had grown far too big so Tony decided to start a Farnham branch. He put a notice in the Farnham Herald describing the concept of the u3a and inviting people to a meeting to be held at the Maltings early in January 1991 and 204 people enrolled – a splendid result.
On February 8th The Farnham Herald carried a report and pictures with the headline ‘Fantastic start for u3a’- the classes then were all held at The Maltings.
Tony Collyer, of course, was chairman and he had a full committee supporting him. The first meeting was on Monday 11th January and it was, in effect a monthly meeting, with Tony as the speaker. Monthly Meetings are a feature of British u3as. It’s a way of bringing the various groups together whilst listening to an interesting talk and socialising. For a number of years, our meetings included a complimentary tea or coffee and biscuits until a Treasurer, who shall be nameless, said that we couldn’t afford it!
Back to January 1991 – the classes offered were; Philosophy, essential for my research; Play Reading, Music Appreciation, Poetry, Art History, Geology, French, Italian and German, led by Rosa Knowles, who is still an active member of our u3a – by March Calligraphy and Needlecraft had been added and in May Rosemary Wisbey made her first appearance with The Novel and Eileen Bird started her Bell Ringing Group – for years they entertained us at our Christmas Party, then held in the Memorial Hall.
By Sept 1992 a number of new classes appeared – Painting in Oils, Photography, English Drama, Creative Writing, Spanish, Ramblers, Yoga, Farnham Oral History, Bridge and Travelogue and the first Group leaders meeting was held. In 1993 further classes were added – Dressmaking, Music for Pleasure, Personal Finance, History of the Crusades, Botany, Food Sciences, Mediaeval Architecture, World Religions, Choir and Current Affairs. Then Bob Beattie started his Scottish Country Dancing group and Tony Collyer and his wife Joan were enthusiastic dancers – other new groups were Extend to Music and Music for Pleasure, Travel Club, Theatre Club and Concert Club. Elizabeth McDonald started her very popular Shakespeare group – led for the eight years by the wonderful Mary Bell. In 1994 Molly Puddephat started the Choir. In 1995 Science for the Citizen started, led by Trevor Williams, and ran for 18 years, mainly with outside speakers from various Universities.
I am now going to move forward to 1997 which was the year that Tony Collyer retired from the Chair, documented again by the Farnham Herald. By then our u3a had 750 members. The chairmanship is usually a three-year appointment so I cannot account for the fact that Tony served for so long, but I want to concentrate on his achievements. During his six years in the chair, he was instrumental in setting up other u3a branches in Alton, Fleet, Haslemere and Petersfield. After retirement, he became Chair of the Regional West Surrey/East Hants committee and continued his efforts to start new u3as so that in total he was involved in the formation of 21 new u3as. Farnham u3a can be justly proud of our founder Chairman. In 1997 Farnham Rotary gave him an award for outstanding voluntary service. All of us who knew him enjoyed his enthusiasm, persuasion, energy and passion.
I am grateful to Tony Price, a founder member who subsequently served for two terms as Chairman, and for years as Class Manager, for his collection of old newsletters and programmes.