Old Farnhamians'
Association
Cyril Trust
MBE
1948 - 1953
Cyril attending his
last OFA dinner in October 2019
Cyril Trust was many things to his fellow Old Farnhamians. A
jovial fellow who had been an excellent swimmer in his school days, a large
chap over 6 feet high and a broad frame and, above all, a most enthusiastic
former grammar school boy who was in the first intake of post-war 11+ examinees
sent to the reformed state grammar schools under the 1944 Education Act. He was one of many in those early years to
benefit from the new system that selected the 11 year olds with promise and
gave them a good education that competed with that of the children sent to
private schools. Although Cyril did not distinguish himself academically, he
clearly benefited from his school education by pursuing a successful career in
management rising to be a Chief Executive of his company. He loved Farnham and,
as detailed in the tributes below, performed innumerable services to many of
the town’s activities and institutions, particularly the OFA.
The association is deeply indebted to Cyril for the continuous stream
of innovative ideas and projects that he initiated and the hard work he put in
to ensure that they were successful. His inimitable style of presenting his
proposals and his persuasive approach brought hundreds of people a lot of
nostalgic enjoyment, particularly his organisation of events such as celebratory
garden parties etc bringing together both old boys, old girls of FGGS and the
partners of everyone who wanted to join the events. The other pages of this
website bear witness to many of these events.
Thank you Cyril, old chap, we will
really miss you!
Ian Sargeant
Thursday, 19 March, 2020
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The tributes
below were delivered at Cyril’s funeral on 10th March, 2020
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Tribute by
As school mates I would be a regular
guest at his home at weekends to watch the latest Western films on T.V., and
listen to the latest Elvis Presley records with his father.
We were in the same form at
We both served our National Service
in the RAF and afterwards regularly chartered each others careers in the
business world.
He was a hugely successful salesman,
and as we have heard, eventually becoming M.D. of Ucan
Products. In his sales patter he built up a vast repertoire of jokes, which he
shared with me in frequent telephone conversations.
Sometimes, our conversations were
often done from public telephone boxes, where time was limited to how much
money was put in before one was cut off. We had no idea that our conversations
were ever being heard by operators, and on one occasion before Cyril got to the
punch line on a joke he was relating, the “Beeps” tone warning time was up
sounded, and before we were cut off, and with Cyril having no more cash, an
operator said “please carry on, I want to hear the end as well”!!
We were also great fans of the Goon
Show on radio, and during a joint holiday with friends in Jersey one year, one
of the Goons, Peter Sellers, issued his classic L.P. record “The Best of
Sellers”, and many hours were spent listening to this in a record shop booth in
He was always a “larger than life”
character who was blessed with a great gift of charm and personality, combined
with an enormous sense of fun.
Cyril had a great passion for food
and liked nothing more than a great meal in a good restaurant. He was
particularly fond of Indian curries, and one of his favourite restaurants was
The Curry Centre in
The Manager said that’s no problem,
just pay when you next come in! When he did in my company some months later,
there were several other unpaid bills to settle!
Life will not be the same without
Cyril, who made lifelong friends wherever he went. Farnham and particularly the
Old Farnhamians Association’s magazine,
which he restarted and produced for many years, will never be the same again.
Farewell, old and treasured friend,
may you rest in peace, and who knows, maybe you will be organising a get
together of old Farnhamians, when we all join you.
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Tribute by Roger Edgell
Former President & Secretary of the OFA
When Cyril Trust rose to address the 53rd Annual Dinner
of The Old Farnhamians’ Association on the 14th April 1985, it would not have been
possible to even dream of the impact this man was going to make in the years to
come.
OFA addresses are not always known for their brevity so
today I will concentrate on how that impact I am referring to emerged.
Cyril, over time, has been a quite outstanding President
of our Association and a formidable Chairman of the Farnham 400 Trust and his
contribution to matters OFA since he joined the Association in 1954, is nothing
short of phenomenal:
·
He was responsible for the
resurrection of the school Farnhamian Magazine and
its distribution to a worldwide membership for an incredible 27 years,
selflessly completing his final effort in the last few weeks;
·
He fronted the Farnham
Lecture, cajoling any number of eminent speakers to offer their services free
of charge for over 20 years;
·
He began work with Farnham
College setting up an Annual awards process where, once again, he persuaded any
number of Old Farnhamians to contribute to the awards to successful students,
currently totalling 40 per year; Principals of The College came and went but
Cyril still found a way through the door of any new incumbent in the post – it
seems no-one could say ‘no’ to him – then he proceeded to report joint ventures
between the OFA and The College to The Farnham Herald, thus ensuring
appropriate publicity for both parties but at the heart of this was his desire
for The College to be sustained as a seat of learning on the site of his former
School;
·
He then moved to consider and
set up influencing the feeder schools to The College (Ash Manor, Heath End
& Weydon) by introducing an Old Farnhamians’
award to be presented at each of their annual awards evenings;
·
Not content with this he
started compiling a full listing of the memorabilia associated with Farnham
Grammar School and the OFA and he ensured the perpetuity of same by having
copies of all the School Magazines from 1912 and his modern contributions
stored in the Surrey History Centre at Woking and The Farnham Museum – these
activities ensured that, in some quarters of the OFA, he became known most
affectionately as ‘Squirrel’;
·
His most recent excursion
into assistance to The College came via his establishment of the ‘Happy Space’
Lectures, focussing on the mental health and well-being of the students,
demonstrating his commitment to ‘current’ concerns across both Government and
the medical profession;
·
The list goes on – he has
written a series of publications about former Members of Staff at The Grammar
School, together with further contributions about some of the most successful and
revered old boys;
·
And finally, while all this
was being achieved, he remained at the forefront of the Annual Dinners and
Lunches being a font of knowledge for all who required it – OFA Members will
always fondly remember the Dinners he organised at that most prestigious of
venues Farnham Castle.
Ladies and Gentlemen – it is not the length of this list
that is significant – it is the depth of it – if you piled all this activity
one item on top of the other, you begin to appreciate the supreme, even gargantuan,
organisational effort that was required.
What on earth drove him on you might ask – I think there
is a simple answer – his love and affection for
Appropriate then, I feel, that this extraordinary effort
should now be recognised with the construction of a memorabilia museum at
Farnham College and thanks are due to The College for this dedicated facility;
this will serve as a fitting tribute to Cyril’s enterprise and vision of the
past 65 years of OFA membership – a truly quite remarkable man whose prominence
and pre-eminence in the OFA ranks, in his time, is without compare; it has been
my enduring privilege to have known him as a great chum, in fact, as if he were
the elder brother I never had.
The aims of the OFA are ‘to promote good fellowship
amongst old boys and to perpetuate the spirit and traditions of the former
Farnham Grammar School, through its Farnham 400 Trust’ – there can be no
question that this is precisely what Cyril did; in the circumstances it hardly
seems enough to say thank you Cyril but, to conclude, we must do just that,
from the bottom of our OFA hearts.
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Obituary – Click here