Obituary

Winston Farrar
1910 – 1997

Those members who are familiar with either Goyden Pot or the climbs at Dkley will be sorry to learn of the death of Winston Farrar. I first heard the name in a report of the YMC Annual dinner of 1956 when he made a ‘gem of a gem’ of a speech. I am sorry I never met him because he seems to have been a man of parts and a living example that a good man can make his mark without advantages of birth or extended education.

He left school after matric and became a clerk. Later he went into library work and qualified FLA. He is said to have made a traverse across the upper frontage of Leeds Municipal Building. I wonder if Arthur Craven had anything to do with that.

As a young man he teamed up with Charlie Salisbury and they made some of the popular routes at Dkley including Josephine, Three Slabs and Fairy Steps. He was also active underground and his adventure in Goyden Pot is graphically described in Iris own words in the Journal of the Pudsey & District Rambling Club. This is reprinted in the Craven Pothole Club Record No. 47. He also gets a mention in YRC Journal Vol. VI 1930-36, pp.223-4.

After the war service with the RAF he opened a bookshop in Bradford with Gordon Daley and went on working there, latterly part time, until the day before he died. His funeral took place at Ilkley on 10 April with readings from various sources chosen by himself including Chuan Tzu and the Rubaiyat.

I am indebted to Don and Liz Pennington, Stephanie and Pete Hanson and the Editor of ‘The Yorkshire Mountaineer’ for the above information and permission to reproduce it.