The Guardian corrects obituary of Eric Midwinter after misstating his role in founding U3A

The Guardian has amended its obituary of Eric Midwinter, the educationist and writer who died in August aged 93, after misstating his role in the origins of the University of the Third Age (U3A).

The original obituary, published on August 30, stated that Midwinter co-founded the international U3A in 1992. In fact, he was among the founders of the UK movement in 1982, drawing on a model first developed in France in the 1970s.

The correction matters because it speaks directly to Midwinter’s professional legacy in education. His role was not in establishing U3A globally but in adapting its principles to a British context, creating a framework that emphasised peer-to-peer learning among older adults. That innovation transformed lifelong education in the UK, with more than 1,000 local groups now operating and more than 400,000 members engaged in subjects ranging from history to computing.

To imply that Midwinter co-founded the international organisation risks obscuring what was distinctive about the British contribution: the idea that education for older people should be self-sustaining, locally managed, and free from traditional hierarchies of teacher and pupil. This shift in philosophy has been central to challenging stereotypes of ageing as a period of decline and has instead positioned older citizens as active participants in intellectual and civic life.

Obituaries are often treated as the final word on a person’s career. For an educationist like Midwinter, precision matters not only for accuracy’s sake but because it frames the understanding of a movement that reshaped how society thinks about lifelong learning. The Guardian’s correction restores the record, but it also underscores the need for careful attention when documenting the lives of those whose contributions lie in building institutions of knowledge.