First Freemen For Wimborne
In a first for Wimborne, the Town Council has honoured three local people as Honorary Freeman of Wimborne Minster.
They are Margery Ryan, Anthony Oliver and Grant Bocking.
Mrs Ryan, who moved to the town with her husband Denis in 1960 is a former Mayor of Wimborne. She has been a founder member of many organisations including the Save the Children Festival which attracted large crowds to the town last week. She retired as chairman last year. She is a founder trustee of St Margaret's and Stones Charity incorporating St Margaret's Almshouses. Mrs Ryan is also a founder committee member of Wimborne Minster and Ochsenfurt Twinning Association and co-founder of the Wimborne Cinema Club which was set to bring large screen films to the town, first at Market House in the Cornmarket and then in the Allendale Centre which ran for two years prior to the Tivoli restoration. Margery sat on the Wimborne youth management committee for over 20 years and she has been a trustee of The Reef at Colehill since 2007. She is a founder member of Keep Wimborne Tidy, co-founder of Vision Wimborne Dialaride and founder committee member of East Dorset Heritage Trust and Vision Wimborne.
Anthony Oliver's first involvement in Wimborne came when he joined Wimborne Horticultural Society in 1976, becoming involved with affairs at the Minster a year later. He is the church's press and publicity officer and at present is serving as churchwarden for a second term. Elected to Wimborne Town Council in 1991, he went on to become Mayor five times. He founded Wimborne in Bloom in 1992 and is still chairman. His local involvement includes the Friends of the Tivoli, Priest's House Museum and Garden, Wimborne Model Town, Friends of Victoria Hospital, Dorset Society of Men and the Save the Children festival. He was awarded the MBE in 2008 and named a Paul Harris Fellow by The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International.
Grant Bocking was director of music at Queen Elizabeth's School, taking early retirement in 1992 and working part time until 1995. He started the Wind Band and the Barbershop group. He is also involved with both the Ochsenfurt and Valognes twinning groups.