Daphne Wimpenny (remembered by the Ramblers Group)

Daphne was one of those memorable people who will be missed by a whole range of groups, not just by us in the Ramblers. She was warmhearted, lively and great fun. She was an acute observer of others, but always kindly with it. Besides rambling she was learning French to speak to her French grandchildren, as well as German, singing in a choir, and her involvement with many musical events with her husband Peter.

Cancer reappeared last year for the third time, but this time everywhere, and she was given a few months. She managed to see many friends and family to say goodbye with great stoicism. Fortunately, there was never any pain, and she went very quickly at the end, tended by the wonderful Myton nurses, Jane, her daughter, and Peter. Her main comment since Christmas was “it’s a bugger”. We can still hear her saying it.
Ramblers’ holidays will not be the same without her bright presence and her active interest in nature on all our walks. And none of us will forget her rolling over field gates nor the plastic bag she always carried in the autumn, scouring the countryside for blackberries.

John Hancock

John joined U3A when he retired from full time practice in 2004. He joined the Current Affairs and Natural History Groups and eventually became leader of Natural History. He founded the Cycling Group. It had an inauspicious start as only one lady turned up and she could not change gear on her bike! However, it eventually flourished and he continued to meet the group at their coffee stop when he could not tackle longer cycles. He also enjoyed u3a trips to Sicily and to Northern Spain, and many of Chris’s study days and seminars. He leaves his wife, Sharon, a son and daughter, six grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Members of the Natural History group remember John:
John was such an active man with a huge knowledge of natural history. I was so inspired when he was leader of the group when I first joined. He seemed to have a vast fount of all things natural, being so enthusiastic it rubbed off on us all. I also recall his 70th birthday at Batsford Arboretum when he suddenly produced a large tin of birthday cake from his rucksack during our usual coffee break time. He will be missed very much and the group sends our best wishes to Sharon and family. Frances Wilmot

Keith Roberts

In November last year we received the very sad news that one of our members of Daywalkers 1 had passed away in Eswatini, when 10 days into a 17 day train journey from the Victoria Falls to Pretoria. Keith was a thoughtful and kind man and in June 2025 he organised a trip on the GWSR (Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Steam railway) combined with a walk in the area. On this occasion, Keith was able to share with us two of his passions in life: walking and steam trains. We all had a thoroughly enjoyable day travelling on the railway and learnt a lot about steam trains and their history. Keith’s enthusiasm, knowledge and passion will be sadly missed on our monthly walks.  Heidi Barber

Mary Huggan - remembered by Garden Group 4

Mary was a member of Garden Group 4 since 2017 and regularly came on our garden visits. She had a great love of plants and gardening. In latter years she managed to get to our social meetings but was not physically able to join us on garden visits. She remained in the group until her death as she liked to get emails about what gardens we were visiting. One of our members said that she remembers Mary as a founder member of the U3A and that there was a 25-year anniversary celebration of the start of Warwick U3A that Mary was part of.

Ros Heron

Although now many years since I first met Ros, my memories of her are still bright and warm. We worked together on new arrangements for liaising and booking with The Loft when we took over as group leaders, and I found her full of life and enjoyment, a very easy and positive person to work with.  I’ll miss her. Sue Sheen.

Jeannette Oubridge

Jeannette Oubridge, one of our Life Members, passed away peacefully on October 1^st after a long illness.  She and her late husband, John, were much involved in the early days of Warwick District U3A and were substantial contributors to its success.  Jeannette edited ‘Forum’ from 2001-2011, which was the forerunner of the current INFO; she was the Group co-ordinator from 2001-2004 and the Assistant Speaker Secretary from 2001-2002.

She was the group leader of our Local History & Social Studies Group for many years and managed to find a variety of speakers and topics, which was never easy as it was often for 'free'.   She taught us, or reminded us, about the old buildings south of the river, got us to choose a building to research and talk about, and arranged visits to the Real Tennis Club, the church at Bishops Tachbrook etc.   She often called on an old friend who had the most marvellous collection of slides of old Leamington which showed what beautiful town it had been.   It was a very friendly group and we learnt, and discovered, so much about Leamington, Warwick and the surrounding area.

Jeannette was also a keen member of the Bishop’s Tachbrook History Group and was the editor of the delightful and informative book “Bishop’s Tachbrook Past and Present”, a 200 page history of the village published by the Group in 2008.

She will be much missed.

Deborah Bates and Mary Vickers