My friend Stewart Dakers, who has died of cancer aged 86, was best known to Guardian readers as the writer of its Grey Matters column, which ran from 1999 to 2020. Stewart mined his experience of community work with senior citizens to record their reflections on today’s world and shared his belief that older people should continue to engage with politics.
As an active volunteer, Stewart made a real difference in his home town of Farnham, in Surrey. It was more than 40 years ago that he founded the Thursday Club for adults with learning disabilities to combat their isolation. He also volunteered at Brightwells Gostrey Centre for older people, where he often served the Christmas Day lunch, and at youth centres. In 2016 the town awarded him their service to Farnham award in 2016; two years later he received the British Empire Medal.
Born in Harrow, north-west London, he was the son of Jane (nee Lane) and Andrew Dakers, both writers. The family moved to Ballachulish in the Highlands, and Stewart was educated at Fettes, Edinburgh, where he was a keen rugby player. He graduated in theology from University College, Oxford, in 1957.
Working as an industrial relations officer for Ford (1961-64), “strikes every hour”, and British European Airways (1964-71), Stewart never really felt comfortable in the corporate world. He found work in nature conservation, first as an estate manager at Wookey Hole (1971-77) in Somerset, which he described as “the time of my life”.
Moving to Farnham, he worked as a countryside ranger for Waverley council (1977-91), and began painting, producing earthy landscapes. Following his marriage to Christine Kapteijn, a gallerist, and the birth of his son, Ewan, he enjoyed the challenge of being a house husband, while continuing to paint, and volunteering in the community.
I first got to know him in 2010, when he helped me revive the Farnham Art & Design Education Group. He organised the monthly Art on the Railings exhibition in the town centre and for many years sat painting in the window of a framers – the self-proclaimed “Tart in the Window”.
From 2018 he took over the running of Unseen Artists: Art from the Community, an annual exhibition at Farnham Maltings celebrating groups and individuals who use art for therapy or just for fun.
His marriage ended in divorce. Ewan survives him.
