Local Face: Roger Fellows

Roger was born and brought up in Hendon, NW London and educated at Haberdashers’ Aske’s School in Hampstead and Elstree. Are there any other Old Habs out there?

Aged seven, Roger joined his Parish Church choir, where he met Susan (Local Face December 2011) some years later. They married there before moving to Tring. His mother, a trained tailor, made vestments and mitres for many bishops and cathedrals, including the new Coventry Cathedral, where some of her work is still on display.
After four years in Tring, Roger and Susan moved to their present house in Aylesbury, where they have been for 43 years bringing up their two children who have now married producing four grandchildren, aged three to nineteen, all with strong musical talent.

For twenty years, they attended St Mary’s Church, Aylesbury, where Roger was in the choir and was Parish Treasurer for twelve years. Susan was a server. They then moved to St Mary’s, Weston Turville, where Roger is again in the choir and Susan is Director of Music and assistant priest. It is at Weston Turville Church where Roger has been organising concerts and other fund raising events which he regularly advertises in Wendover News and with the familiar posters in Wendover shops and elsewhere.St Mary’s Weston Turville has great plans for an extension to the Church, providing a meeting room for community events, with wheelchair-accessible toilets and baby-changing facilities. The PCC committee which is spearheading this project is called SWIFT (St Mary’s Weston Turville Improving Facilities Team). Roger was a founder member of this team and is the treasurer. The architect hopes to apply for outline planning permission soon. Funds are coming in but the campaign will be intensified shortly. Roger is hoping for support from individuals and local businesses as well as grants. Roger’s picture shows him sporting a beard which was grown as part of a fund raising competition in 2013, raising over £4,000 for SWIFT. Roger has been a churchwarden for a year and finds that the SWIFT project and the ongoing responsibility for maintenance and repair of the existing Church building are closely inter-related. He was also a governor of Weston Turville School for eight years.

Retiring after a career as an accountant and auditor, mainly in the public sector, Roger says he has never been so busy, but is enjoying his varied lifestyle. In his “spare time”, as well as many pleasurable family activities, Roger is a member of Wingrave Singers and Kingsbury Singers, which was formed in Aylesbury but has members all over the country. With both choirs, Roger sings in various cathedrals when the resident choirs are on holiday. He has notched up some thirty different cathedrals so far and these breaks, weekends or longer, are a wonderful way of experiencing these beautiful buildings and the lovely cities where they are situated as well as keeping up the centuries-old tradition of religious music in this country.

If you would like information about SWIFT, or can offer your support, please contact Roger on roger@rwfellows.co.uk or 01296 424982. The SWIFT website is at www.swift-wt.co.uk. You can donate on-line at www.make-a-donation.org.