Dr Derek Forster, RIP
A page dedicated to the memory of Derek Forster (pictured above with HUSSO Chair 2006-7 Tracy Jenner), the founding member of HUSSO. Derek founded HUSSO in January 1961 in order to help disadvantaged members of the community. Fifty years on, HUSSO is still going strong. Thousands of students have volunteered for HUSSO over the years and their work is a tribute to Derek and his vision for social change. He was a remarkable man and he is greatly missed.
The following article was published in the spring edition of Gradlink and is reproduced here with kind permission of the Alumni Office.
Dr Derek Forster (Social Work ’61)

Hull University Social Services Organisation (HUSSO)
This article is a tribute to a very special gentleman, the founder of HUSSO – Dr Derek Forster. It would be impossible to detail his inspiring story in the space available, but the following paragraphs may go some way to illustrating the vision of this remarkable man.
At the age of 14, Derek found himself homeless and virtually penniless in post war England, and therefore was exposed to a wide range of social issues - particularly those affecting homeless children – from a young age. Consequently, he developed a strong determination to help people with a variety of needs. Despite receiving a poor schooling himself, education was of paramount importance to him and, after doing various jobs (including farm work, National Service and truck driving), he eventually gained entry to the University of Hull to read Social Studies at the age of 29. For someone with only a Grade Three education, in 1959 this was a rare accomplishment. But Derek’s battle cry has always been ‘never tell me it can’t be done’!
Whilst at university, Derek was keen to help disadvantaged members of the local community, and championed the formation of a voluntary aid service. HUSSO was founded in January 1961, thus enabling the undergraduates who volunteered to gain valuable experience with the more personal and welfare needs of people seeking support.
With some difficulty, Derek paid for the initial establishment costs of HUSSO, including stationery, printing, advertising, and under his guidance HUSSO rapidly grew to a 200 strong group of highly motivated student volunteers. Divided into teams, the students visited old people, the blind, the deaf, and the physically disabled. They worked with young people who were experiencing difficulties, they visited hospitals, acted as “aunts” and “uncles” at orphanages, operated Meals on Wheels, decorated and gardened for the aged and handicapped - the list goes on and on. It must be remembered that all without an official constitution or insurance. In the first six months of operation HUSSO members contributed over 13,000 hours of work and service.
HUSSO received extensive coverage in the press. These excerpts typify the overwhelmingly positive reaction: ‘Derek Forster and HUSSO are responsible for the most constructive piece of public relations the University of Hull has ever undertaken within the City’.... ‘HUSSO is one of the finest schemes ever to be introduced into this city to alleviate distress experienced by the old and handicapped’....’It has taken HUSSO one term to establish itself as the University’s most dynamic society, the leaders and committee members of which are devout Christians, with Derek Forster as its founder and guiding force’.
In subsequent years HUSSO surged forward with varying tasks and ideologies to suit the community’s requirements. The sabbatical post of Chair of HUSSO was established in the 1970, and a part-time secretary was employed - with funding provided by the Students’ Union. During the 1980s, HUSSO acquired two minibuses for use by beneficiaries and student work parties, and in the ‘90s some 1000 volunteer student members were working at any one time on 35 different human aid projects.
HUSSO continues to be a living, evolving group which reacts to the needs of the community, while there are reciprocal benefits for the student volunteers to encourage their participation. In addition to meeting new people and having fun, students develop skills to meet new challenges and are introduced to management, team building, financial planning and other competencies which often help in later life, as well as being useful to include on their CV.
HUSSO’s innovative structure means that as each wave of new students takes over ownership of the organisation, it is constantly being refined and improved by fresh energy and ideas. ‘HUSSO’s biggest strength, in my opinion, is that it is completely student led which means that it really does belong to the students of the University’ confirms Tracey Jenner, the present Vice-President of HUSSO Student Community Action, Tracey Jenner. ‘Every project that we currently run exists because a student at some point in HUSSO’s history had an idea of how to give back to our local community. They then found the support and guidance to turn their idea into a reality with HUSSO. Because of this there are always new projects being set up alongside established projects that have been running since HUSSO’s conception.’
The history of HUSSO is an inspiring account of how a small, generous-spirited act of kindness can lead to a far wider community benefit. Over the last 45 years, approximately 30,000 students have assisted over 90,000 needy people in the City of Hull and surrounding region. It is worthy of note that over 150 colleges and universities across the UK have adopted HUSSO’s principles and practices, while numerous students, once introduced into voluntary social work, have opted to change career paths and taken up work in social services.
Former Vice-Chancellor, Professor David Dilks, opined that the benefits of HUSSO had been ‘immeasurable, and had brought great credit to the University’. This was echoed in 1992 by the bestowal of the Gold Award for outstanding volunteer service to the nation, awarded to HUSSO by HM the Queen. Derek was made Doctor of Laws honoris causa in 1998. At the degree congregation, Professor Peter Wells said, ‘Today we honour a man who has spent a lifetime concerned for the disadvantaged. We honour him for his originality, inventiveness, creativity, drive and enthusiasm which have resulted in substantial advancements in volunteer programmes in human services, in criminal justice and Penal Reform’.
Derek relocated to Australia in 1965 where, naturally - he began a career as Regional Probation and Parole Officer in Melbourne! Since then, he has continued his vision of helping the underprivileged, aged and disabled people of the community in which he now lives. But he has never forgotten HUSSO.
