Rosemary Farrer (1924–2018)
In December 2018 I received the sad news
that Rosemary Farrer had passed away.
She was the first member of the Commit-
tee of the Waldensian Church Mission
that I ever met. It was spring 1987 and at
the time we were living in Torre Pellice, in
the Waldensian Valleys in Italy, but I was
on maternity leave in Cambridge, having
just had my third child, Cressida. The
Mission had sent a generous donation to
Radio Beckwith, of which I was a founder
and the first Director, and I was asked
to thank them. This led to Rosemary
coming to Cambridge to interview me
for the Waldensian Review, of which she
was then the Editor, a task that later she
passed on to me. I found her extremely
pleasant and affable and we spent some
lovely time together, talking about my
Valleys and my Church which she knew
so well. She had visited various parts
of Italy where there were Waldensian churches and communities, large and
small, with trips organised by Bishop Ward, who was the Executive Secretary
of the Mission. She obviously must have liked me as much as I liked her,
since when the following year the Bishop retired, and knowing that we were
planning to come back to the UK, she recommended me to the Committee,
which was looking for a new Executive Secretary. I was asked to apply and
… 31 years later I am still occupying the post. Since I was a journalist and I
obviously knew Italy well and contributed to the Review, she later asked me
to take it over from her.
I remember her as a clever woman, wise and well informed, gentle
but firm, kind but determined and, having just learnt from her much-loved
nephew David Farrer that she had trained as a nurse, I can see where that
came from. She specialised in various roles, including the care of blind peo-
ple, switching later to social work for the Barnardo’s Homes and for other
forms of social care, which included prison visiting. She had a great interest in
Mission work and supported a number of Christian organisations, including
ours. She was very faithful in her backing of the WCM by prayer, contribu-
tions and Committee work and she loved hearing about the Lord’s work in
the Waldensian Valleys and in the churches in the rest of Italy. All who knew
her will greatly miss her.
ESN, Editor
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