Mike Walker 1941-2025

Founder of the ‘Night Out at the Horne’

It is with great sadness that those of us involved with the ‘Night out’ events have to announce the death of Mike Walker in January 2025.

Mike was instrumental in setting up these shows in 2012 which aimed to bring live shows to the Silvester Horne Institute. At that time the Institute was under-used and the Council, of which Mike was a member and indeed a one-time Mayor, needed to reduce its high costs to the community. He was closely involved with the refurbishment of the hall, including the building of the Conservatory, designed to improve the Institute’s facilities and sustain its economic life. Since then, he has worked tirelessly on behalf of us all to present a variety of acts on a regular basis which have added tens of thousands of pounds to the income of the Institute.

In addition to the shows, Mike was very proactive in other community matters helping to inaugurate the Father’s Day event, latterly the Family Fun Days in Sandford Avenue Park.

As many of you know, Mike had to stand down from arranging the ‘Nights Out’ last year after some illness and sadly, since then, his health had declined.

He was at the show here in December and, as usual, his wife Barbara, was looking after the ‘box office’. Those of us involved in putting on these shows will miss him as he still took a great deal of interest in the ongoing bookings and helped us to bring the current season to the Horne.

We dedicated the January 2025 show ‘Much Ado About Jazz’ to his memory and hope we can do justice to his legacy in bringing variety and interest to you all in future. We also send our condolences to his Widow, Barbara and family, who often helped with the shows. We know they will miss him and his involvement with the ‘Night Out’ events.