Diane Nightingale

Diane Nightingale, a co-founder of the Postellers, died on 4th June 2024. She was a driving force in the group through its 48 years.

Taking a group of young people on a weekend away from home she had such a tremendous response she arranged many more trips for many more young people.

As part of a job with YHA in 1967, Diane Nightingale took “underprivileged” young people from London, away from their homes, on first trips and adventures. For many the estate on which they lived was their whole existence. Getting to Euston from Hackney was a feat for them.

She bought canvas shoes for anyone who had nothing suitable for walking, like three girls in high heels who turned up for a weekend walking. For those who needed, she borrowed rucksacks. Raincoats were a problem but she managed to borrow enough of them.

She called on others to help, youngsters who had been on her trips before or local YHA members. Diane could be persuasive. She cajoled a cafe owner into serving tea and coffee to thirty children who had slithered through mud and rain from Ivinghoe to his cafe in Wendover.

Those who went found enjoyment, even in walking in the rain. They noticed things too, like the smell of pines in a wood, flowers in gardens and the pleasure of rolling on grassy slopes. They escaped home life for a while.

They learned about cuckoos, that it could be fun walking in the rain and boys learned that it wasn’t only girls who did the washing up. They made friends away from their home estates which could be as constrained as a village but without the surrounding countryside.

Diane learned too, about their homes, that two boys had Saturday jobs but their mother took all they earned. She learned that youth hostels offered so much to city youngsters. She wished more money was available for doing more because the response from the youngsters was so tremendous.

Without her efforts many might never have come to travel at all. Once begun she found it hard to stop. When she no longer worked for YHA she carried on with the group she had started. They called it Postellers, because its members arranged their meetings by post. The group continued for 48 years.

A weekend might see eight young people and four leaders travelling by minibus to an area within about 70 miles of London. Summer trips went further for a week or more, and often involved a long distance path, the Pennine Way, or the Coast to Coast.

They walked the Two Moors Way, the West Highland Way (twice), and the White Peak Way. They did Hadrian’s Wall, and the Cumbria Way (three times) too. The cycled, in Southern Ireland, France (many times) and Belgium (many times).

There had to be a strong leaders team to support so many trips. Without them trips couldn’t happen. Diane persuaded them and brought them along. Many were ex-Postellers who had begun their adventures with the group.

Diane was also a vice-chairman of the Gatliff Trust, a charity for young people founded by Herbert Gatliff, another stalwart YHA member, dedicated to encouraging young people, especially those of limited means, to experience, explore and appreciate the countryside of the British Isles.

Diane earned an MBE for services to disadvantaged youth in 2001, a reflection of that tremendous and undimmed response she had found all those years ago.