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Obituary: THE RT REVD LESLIE LLOYD REES

by
26 July 2013

Popular, and without pomposity: Bishop Leslie Lloyd Rees

Popular, and without pomposity: Bishop Leslie Lloyd Rees

The Very Revd Robert Jeffery writes:
THE Rt Revd Leslie Lloyd Rees, who died on 4 July, aged 94, was best known as a long-serving prison chaplain, who was Chaplain-General (and an Hon. Chaplain to the Queen) for 18 years.

A loyal Welshman, he was born in Cardiff. He had an early vocation, and trained for the priesthood at Kelham, and then, after one curacy, joined the prison service. A keen boxer and rugby player, he used these skills to some advantage. Popular with prison staff, he was also strongly opposed to capital punishment, as a result of his experiences with prisoners in the condemned cell.

In 1980, Bishop Kenneth Skelton invited him to become Bishop of Shrewsbury. It was a post for which he was well suited. I was the Archdeacon of Salop then, and we worked together very harmoniously until his retirement in 1986.

A Kelham man to his fingertips, he was a man of prayer, but also had a strong sense of humour. He enjoyed being a bishop, but without any pomposity. Ever since he had become a prison chaplain, he always celebrated the eucharist in a prison on Christmas Day.

The Lichfield staff, with three suffragan bishops and three archdeacons, was a very harmonious team, and Leslie fitted in very well. Having lived for many years at Alresford in Hampshire, he gathered round him a group of Shropshire laity to help him to get the feel of the area, and he was assiduous in visiting parishes. There were considerable developments taking place in Telford New Town, and he was supportive of the pioneering and ecumenical projects. A liberal Catholic, he became convinced of the rightness of the ordination of women to the priesthood.

He was popular with the laity and the clergy alike. He and I became very close friends; I was still visiting him in his retirement. He married Rosamund Smith in 1944, and they had two sons, both of whom worked in the prison service. It was a great sadness to him that she died three years after he retired, and that, not long afterwards, one of his sons died. In retirement, he acted as an assistant bishop, and carried on taking retreats and giving spiritual direction.

Nine years ago, he moved to a care home on the Isle of Wight, where his daughter-in-law was able to keep an eye on him, and he was regularly visited by family and friends. On one of my visits to him, he saw me off the care-home premises, and said to me: "Now, I want you to walk away, and don't look back." I saw him twice more more after that, and his death has made me look back even more.

There is to be a thanksgiving service at Alresford on 4 August at 9.30 a.m.

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