Philomena Guillebaud and Nicky Padfield write: Your otherwise splendid obituary of Henry (June 3) made no mention of his concern for the plight of the homeless in Cambridge which led to his setting up Wintercomfort for the Homeless, a Cambridge charity still doing excellent work.
In the late 1980s Henry and Pauline (his wife) visited night shelters in Norwich, Peterborough and Bury St Edmunds before embarking upon a campaign to create something equivalent in Cambridge. It soon became apparent that no support would be forthcoming from the city authorities, who held that a night shelter simply deflected financing from the more important goal of providing permanent housing.
In this negative atmosphere anybody but Henry would have given up, but, backed by Pauline, he started, in January 1990, a small operation, using only volunteers to provide food and (whenever feasible) shelter in the evening hours, in the expectation that it would grow and eventually result in the creation of a permanent night shelter.
Thanks to the meetings Henry organised, volunteers poured in. Pauline organised the food supplies, others collected and distributed blankets and sleeping bags. Henry was everywhere.
In January 1991 Wintercomfort operated its first temporary night shelter for six weeks, housed first in the parish house of the Unitarian Church in Emmanuel Road and later St Laurence’s Catholic Church in Milton Road. It was entirely run by volunteers, people slept on foam rubber mats on the floor, and Pauline and others got up at dawn to cook magnificent breakfasts. It was heroic, but somewhat shambolic, and it was soon clear that professional support was needed.
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Three things then occurred in 199l: Wintercomfort acquired the status of an official charity, it received a grant from the Department of the Environment to hire a social worker as project co-ordinator, and in October, Henry, aged 78, suffered a severe heart attack.
He reluctantly yielded to the urging of Pauline and his doctors and resigned from the committee of management, but remained for the rest of his life passionately concerned for Wintercomfort. In 1994, after five years of being itself homeless and shifting from one unsatisfactory venue to another, Wintercomfort acquired its own premises at Overstream House in Victoria Avenue.
Henry was a man of vision with amazing qualities: extraordinary determination and energy, great empathy — his rapport with the clientele of Wintercomfort was striking — and an ability to make people do much more than they thought they could, all washed down with a mischievous sense of humour. With Pauline, quiet, organised and practical, they made an amazing team.
He was a constant reminder that we should all go that extra mile.