Vicars of Thursley
- David Young
- Feb 24, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
When preparing for the Wedding Belles exhibition (see separate entry) in 2008, this list of the vicars of St Michael and All Angels was compiled to coincide with the dates covered by the exhibition.
To this distinguished list must be added:
2010 John Jeremy Page
2020 Hannah Thérèse Moore
Work in progress, so this is just the beginning of entries about our vicars:
Francis Harcourt Gooch, 1886-1901
Alfred Perceval Pott 1901 - 1907
Charles Kaye Watson, 1914 - 1918
C K Watson was vicar of Thursley throughout the First World War. Here is a letter to parishioners that was in the Parish Magazine:
Addison James Wheeler, 1925 - 1932
From Durham University
The Addison Wheeler Fellowships are funded by a bequest from Addison James Wheeler, who died in 1967 at the age of eighty-five. Having read Theology at Durham University, Wheeler became a schoolmaster and afterwards took Holy Orders. Ill health prevented him from achieving his ambition of a career in scientific research. During his lifetime this remarkable man devoted himself to building up sufficient capital to support young scholars, whom he hoped would be able to make a significant contribution to knowledge that he himself had been unable to achieve.
As reported above, the Vicarage suffered a terrible fire in 1930. Unfortunately some church records were destroyed in the blaze as the vicar had taken them home having removed them from the church safe. Revd Wheeler was responsible for uncovering the 12th Century sedile (a group of stone seats for clergy in the south chancel wall of a church, usually three in number and often canopied and decorated, OED) in the church and for discovering in 1927 the Saxon windows in the chancel. After the fire, the Revd Wheeler bought the Haybarn field at Smallbrook Farm and converted a yard and barn used for the cattle and known as "The Hovel" into a bungalow, which then got rebuilt by Paul Wedge. Sadly, the Revd Wheeler could not stay due to his asthma induced by the cattle. He had to sell and move away. He and his wife divorced and he left the ministry. Mary Bennett said that he ran off with his ward. He was vicar of Thursley from 1925 - 1932.
H Gordon French, 1932-1959
Kenneth Mathews, 1968 -1977
This memoir of Revd A K Mathews, OBE, DSC, was based largely on an obituary in The Daily Telegraph and an article in the Thursley Parish Magazine of February 1993. It also appears in The Lives of the People of Thursley, published by the History of Thursley Society, which can be found on this website. Not mentioned in the article is that he was the progenitor of the Thursley Harvest Supper in 1972 which has recently been resurrected.
A John Stephens, 1977 - 1983
From the Church Times:
STEPHENS. — On 13 October, the Revd (Archibald) John Stephens: CMS Missionary (1950-52); Manager and Chaplain of Ado-Ekiti Hospital (1950-55); Priest-in-Charge of CMS Training Centre, Akure (1955-56); E.T.C., St John’s College, Owo (1956-59); Principal of Bishop Phillips Hall, Owo (1958-60); Hon. Can of St Stephen’s Cathedral, Ondo-Benin (1957-71); Assistant Curate, of Christ Church and St Mary, Swindon (1968-70); Hon. Canon of Owerri since 1971; Curate-in-Charge of Ash Vale Conventional District (1971-72); Vicar of St Mary’s, Ash Vale (1972-77); Priest-in-Charge of Thursley (1977-82); aged 100.
William David Lang 1992 - 2010
John Jeremy Page 2010-2020
Hannah Thérèse Moore 2020 -
Here is a complete list of Rectors, Vicars and Patrons from a photograph taken in the Church:
