Steve Goddard writes:
GOS HOME, who died on Holy Saturday, 11 April, aged 87, will be best remembered for creating and developing the Christian Resources Exhibition (CRE), which became the largest annual exhibition of church-based resources in Europe.
The son of a renowned author and artist, Gospatric David Laurens Reston Home undertook his National Service as an officer in the Royal Fusiliers, City of London Regiment, which included fighting in Korea. He studied modern history at Pembroke College, Oxford, before embarking on a distinguished career in commercial publishing and exhibition management. By the 1970s, he was IPC’s International Director, before becoming the Managing Director of Argus Press’s exhibitions companies.
In 1979, Gos spoke of his and his wife, Diana’s, turn from “passive churchgoers to pro-active Christians” at a Marriage Encounter weekend in South Wales, after the birth of the last of their three children. So it was, that, a few years later, recovering from a hip-replacement operation in 1984, he heard someone say “Pick up and read” — the same words given to St Augustine. But where Augustine picked up the Bible, Gos took hold of The UK Christian Handbook.
“It wasn’t the voice of God, but of Ernie Barnett, owner of a chain of St Andrew’s Christian bookshops,” he recalled. “Laid up for days on end, Ernie suggested I read The UK Christian Handbook. I did — from cover to cover.” Its 5000 entries spanned publishers, charities, architects, missions, newspapers, magazines, bookshops, and much more. Gos had already been prompted to run an exhibition for church leaders and officers by his wife, Diana, who believed her husband’s experience in the secular exhibition world was preparing him for what would become CRE.
He took the plunge, and the first exhibition, held at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London, in 1984, including some 120 organisations, was attended by 8200 church leaders, including Archbishop Robert Runcie, Cardinal Hume, and Christians from all over the country. The Revd Richard Chartres was the chaplain at the first exhibition.
A truly ecumenical event, successive exhibitions were attended and opened by luminarie, who included Dr Desmond Tutu and several other archbishops, Princess Anne, and celebrities such as Sir Cliff Richard, Roy Castle, and, more recently, the actress Sally Phillips. He started several other exhibitions in this period, including the Education Show, the Natural Stone Show, and the Library and Information Show. Still devoted to his first creation, even in his late eighties, he attended National CRE as honorary president in October 2019 at Sandown Park in Surrey.
His greatest achievement, however, is largely unknown to most people. In 1963, aged 30, and with initial capital of £64, he founded Quadrant, a not-for-profit housing association, with the Revd Nick Stacey, Rector of Woolwich.
“We didn’t have any qualifications in housing management,” Gos recalled. “This meant we weren’t stuck in our ways. We were more adventurous. We did everything ourselves in our spare time.” Now called London & Quadrant, the association currently holds a £34-billion property portfolio and houses hundreds of thousands of Londoners in some 110,000 homes, with 100,000 more in the pipeline, including Barking Riverside, an enormous brownfield site on the River Thames. He was involved on the L&Q board until 2000.
Over the years, Gos also played an active part in his church, St Mary’s, Princes Risborough, where he chaired the committee to develop the church, and also chaired of the C of E primary school. In retirement, he pursued his love of family, place, and history, and chaired the committee forming Britain’s first museum about the history of the Huguenots in Rochester. He was also involved in various positions related to his Scottish Clan Home.
Those who knew him well describe Gos as having the heart of a lion and the tenacity of a terrier. Above all, he was a gentleman, a man of his word, unassuming and modest, one of the “old school”. Devoted to his family, he was at his happiest at home in the Chilterns, where he lived for nearly 43 years, surrounded by Diana, his son, two daughters, and grandchildren.
In thousands of homes and churches throughout the UK, many people are, unknowingly, benefiting from one man’s determination to make a genuine difference.