Clifford Chambers charity founder Sarah Hosking honoured with Times Sternberg Award
Clifford Chambers charity founder Sarah Hosking was recognised for her amazing contribution to society as an older person at an awards presentation at Downing Street recently.
Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, Sarah, 84, bought a cottage in Clifford Chambers 27 years ago after a life working in the arts to establish the Hosking Houses Trust. The charity offers a retreat and sometimes financial support to women so that they can complete artistic or academic work
Sarah was also awarded an MBE at the new year and is an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
She attended the State Room inside 11 Downing Street along with five other worthy winners to pick up a Times Sternberg Active Life Award on 29th April.
The annual awards are given to people over 70 who have embarked upon enterprises in their post-career life. Each nominee receives £1,500, while an overall winner gets £7,500.
Telling the Herald about her day in London, Sarah said: “The Sternberg family created this prize and two generations of the family were there that recent hot day at the end of April that I arrived at Downing Street.
“I was waved past the armed police at the heavy gate and into the modest pair of Georgian houses where our leaders reside and up to the first floor reception room. Once there, the usual congratulations and niceties were rolled out with an exquisite tea, and all was hosted by the Sternberg family and Baroness Altman who is famous for championing the rights of pensioners.”
She continued: “My five fellow winners were easy to spot, all elderly and well-dressed (but I was the only one with a wheelie walker), all clearly delighted to be there, and what surprising initiatives they had all invented. The overall winner was retired doctor Denis Durno, 91, from Aberdeen, who had had two disabled sons but has spent his retirement founding a bakery where disabled people could make bread and sell it, benefitting both themselves and the immediate community.
One of the beneficiaries of a residency of Hosking Houses Trust, playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, nominated Sarah for the award.
Speaking about her beloved trust, Sarah continued: “I initiated the Hosking Houses Trust when I was 60, much of our success has come since I reached the age of 70 and now aged 84, it is well prepared for the future. By design and a few accidents, HHT is rare in that it benefits creative clever women, from anywhere in the world who simply have too much to do and need a period of private time; it is unusual in that residencies are free, it is very rare that we sometimes offer bursaries but unique in that we welcome pets.”
She added: “Winning this prize and receiving the MBE last year are consoling to me because founding and running HHT for over 20 years in a small village has not always been easy. There have been objections and accusations, obstructions and even threats but these are now mercifully in the past. External validation of the enterprise, as represented by these two significant instances of recognition, have helped enormously in achieving local acceptance besides national notice. Many thanks to all involved.”
