It’s with great sadness that we have to report the sudden and unexpected death of one of our founder members, George, who passed away peacefully at home on Wed 31st July 2024, aged 74.

George was an active member of CAMRA in the very early days and when the call came to understand the state of cask beer in the Huntingdonshire area, he, and our other founder member, Dave Cox, rose to the challenge of surveying nearly 200 pubs in the area. With a local brewery in St Neots (Paines), he actively and successfully persuaded them to reintroduce cask beer locally in their pubs and formed a long-lasting friendship with the brewery until it closed in 1989.

When the local Round Table in St Neots approached the branch in 1975 and asked them to run a beer tent at the local Riverside Festival, he rose to the challenge and set about organising the first CAMRA beer festival in St Neots, and probably the first under canvas, by CAMRA. A huge task, as this had never been done before. We went on to run many more successful festivals including our more recent ones at the Burgess Hall in St Ives and the Priory Centre in St Neots.

George stepped down from an active role in the branch after a few years, but continued to support us in many ways, including attending our AGM’s, socials and organising and running the glasses stand at our beer festivals, along with the Huntingdonshire Wildlife Trust, with which he was actively involved; this included a stint as its chairman. He was also instrumental in changing our branch name from St Neots CAMRA to Huntingdonshire CAMRA, which more reflected our area.

Being a founder member, George was actively helping us to organise our 50th anniversary branch celebrations, along with planning his own 75th birthday party.

He will be sadly missed.

George's funeral is being held at Brampton Church on Friday 13th September at Brampton Church, followed by a wake at Brampton Golf Club. George's Family are happy for those who knew him to join them to remember George with them, however if you intend to attend, please inform us by 29th August, so we can advice as to how many people will be expected. Let us know at: ku.gro.armac.stnuh@slaicos

A tribute from Tony Millns (Cambridge Branch chair in the 1970's and National Chairman 1982-1985:

I knew George for over 40 years, and last saw him at the CAMRA Conference in Sheffield in 2023. He looked just like he did in the 1980s - and laughed with me when I said so. He was a selfless volunteer, taking on boring but necessary roles like running the glasses stalls at local festivals - well, as he said, you can’t really have a beer festival without glasses to put the beer in! But he was one of those people who walked in and immediately cheered everyone up with his cheeky grin and irrepressible humour. He was a great guy to have a few beers and a chat with after a festival closed. It was a rare talent to be able to make other people feel so much better about the world. A glass to George!