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On the 27th April 2023 Barbara Herd passed away and the TEMPO family lost our Founder and President.

Barbara founded SCAMPS (now TEMPO) in 1983, 40 years ago with a young boy called Paul Thompson who was keen to perform on stage, an area in which Barbara had many years’ experience. The first show was Oliver! Followed the next year with Bugsy Malone and so SCAMPS was born.

Barbara was the inspiration that has kept TEMPO going over the decades inspiring many young people to choose a life in the performing arts. Over the years TEMPO has given many young aspiring members the chance to work with some of the best Directors, Musical Directors and Choreographers, with professional musicians, sets, lighting and sound engineers. As President of the Society she was still involved on a day to day basis, making costumes, advising creatively and she even for our most recent production Footloose, still made sure that the crew and orchestra had refreshments every night. Barbara was a strength and guiding force, she had the energy and enthusiasm of a woman half her age. Her experience, influence, financial support, and tremendous talent for costume making certainly kept her busy and TEMPO was an important part of her life. Without Barbara, TEMPO would not have become the successful renowned youth theatre company it is today – we will miss her.