Robert Aagaard

Robert Aagaard ( ; 27 June 19321 April 2001) was an English furniture maker and conservator, magistrate, and founder of the youth movement Cathedral Camps.

Early life The son of Villien Valdemar Aagaard and Florence Aagard (née Brooke), Aagaard was born at Norwich, Norfolk, in 1932, after his father's family had migrated from Denmark at the time of the rise of Fascism in Germany. His exact contemporaries at Farfield included Martin Burgess, later a master clockmaker. The beginning of the movement came when the dean of Ripon Cathedral asked Aagaard to organise on a voluntary basis the restoration of a house owned by the cathedral. While this work was in hand, Aagaard visited his son at a National Trust Acorn Camp and realised that cathedrals could also harness the enthusiasm of young people, training them as volunteer labour and giving them in return an interesting working holiday.

In the early 1980s, the Aagaards raised funds and found trustees, including architects, artists, and cathedral deans. Establishing a supply of suitable tools and conservation materials, insurance, accommodation, and transport all needed careful planning. In the 20 years during which Aagaard headed the organisation, Cathedral Camps enabled some 9000 students to spend time working and living in cathedrals. Camps were organised every year at 24 centres, mostly English cathedrals, but also some larger parish churches and some Church of Scotland, free church, and Roman Catholic places of worship.

Aagaard was a churchwarden at Knaresborough

Honours Officer of the Order of the British Empire, 1993