Walter "Snowy" Farr

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(b. 1919; d.

Oakington Oakington is a small rural Anglo-Saxon village north-west of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire in England, and belongs to the administrative district of South Cambridgeshire. Since 1985 the village has formed part of the parish of Oakington and Westw ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

, 8 March 2007) was a British charity

fundraiser Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

who mostly operated in the streets of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Over several decades Farr collected many thousands of pounds for

The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, known colloquially as Guide Dogs, is a British charitable organization founded in 1934. The Association uses guide dogs to help blind and partially blind people. The organization also participates in ...

. In recognition of his efforts, he received an MBE in November 1995. Farr was usually seen in eccentric clothing, often incorporating antique military wear, and accompanied by tame animals, including mice, cats, dogs and even a goat. A former local authority road sweeper, Farr lived in one of the terraced cottages on the main road through the village of Westwick, and later (after he had retired) moved to the adjacent village of

and a bungalow whose garden containe
a display of flags, dolls and teddy-bears
This collection was occasionally reduced in scale and exuberance in response to the demands of the local Council. A board outside the house recorded a 'running total' of the donations he had collected. For many years, Farr also maintained the graveyard of St Andrews church in Oakington. In September 1977, Farr led a procession of 150 children around Cambridge city centre, filming for a TV show which never went ahead. Brief panic resulted when he became confused and took a wrong turn."Cambridge Evening News"
September 18, 2002 He later appeared in the

ITV Yorkshire ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network. Until 1974, this was prima ...

program Snowy and the Buttercup Buskers, which aired in 1984. A newspaper article from 2002 reported that Farr had been commended by the Cambridgeshire Society for the Blind and Partially Sighted after raising £62,005 for the charity; it also reported that he had raised £33,700 for Guide Dogs for the Blind and £28,305 for Cam Sight, which supports people with sight loss in and around Cambridge."Cambridge Evening News"
November 28, 2002 Farr died on 8 March 2007. Within a short time, suggestions were made on a local newsgroup"cam.misc newsgroup"
thread in response to Snowy's death that a statue to Farr ought to be erected near the site at the end of Petty Cury where he habitually collected. On 3 March 2009,

Cambridge City Council Cambridge City Council is a district council in the county of Cambridgeshire, which governs the City of Cambridge. History Cambridge was granted a Royal Charter by King John in 1207, which permitted the appointment of a mayor. The first recorde ...

announced the decision that a memorial of some kind would indeed be erected. A Snowy Farr memorial artwork, designed by

Gary Webb Gary Stephen Webb (August 31, 1955 – December 10, 2004) was an American investigative journalist. He began his career working for newspapers in Kentucky and Ohio, winning numerous awards, and building a strong reputation for investigative ...

, was unveiled outside the Guildhall in Cambridge's Market Square in August 2012. The statue resembles a combination of Farr's tame cat and mice, whereby his cat was trained to sit atop his hat, and the mice trained to run circuits of the rim.

References

External links

* Photographs
1234
* Ranjit Dhaliwal,
Snowy Farr: Picture of the Day
. ''Guardian'', 26 February 2013. A photograph by

Tony Ray-Jones Tony Ray-Jones (7 June 1941 – 13 March 1972) was an English photographer. Life Born Holroyd Anthony Ray-Jones in Wells, Somerset, he was the youngest son of Raymond Ray-Jones (1886–1942), a painter and etcher who died when Tony was ...

that appeared in the ''Sunday Times Magazine'' in 1970. {{DEFAULTSORT:Farr, Snowy 1919 births 2007 deaths People from South Cambridgeshire District People from Cambridge Members of the Order of the British Empire English philanthropists Charity fundraisers (people) People from Oakington 20th-century British philanthropists