Canon Brian Macdonald-Milne writes:

WE NEVER knew why Bill did not use any of his real names, Gerald Richard Stanley. During his undergraduate years, he was a member of an entertainment group that I set up at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. We put on entertainments of various kinds in Corpus and elsewhere. The other members included another now retired priest, the Revd Alun Glyn-Jones; Michael Tubbs, who was later the Music Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon; and one who went on to serve as a lay missionary in Africa. As a group, we enjoyed ourselves and had many laughs.

Bill had a varied ministry in St Albans diocese from 1961. He served his title at St John the Baptist, Harpenden, and often spoke of his time here under both Mark Potts and Gerald Emmet. He took up a second curacy at St Mary’s, Goldington, before becoming Rector of Clifton, Bedfordshire, in 1976. Another incumbency followed in 1987, at Aldenham, during which time he was also chaplain to Robert Runcie, the Bishop of St Albans. He became an honorary canon of St Albans and then a residentiary.

After retirement, I visited him at his flat near the Old Vic and once accompanied him to the Globe Theatre, in Southwark, where he was honorary chaplain for a while. He moved to a residential home and eventually became bed-bound. When I visited him this year, he was delighted, despite his difficulty in speaking.

Bill died on on 22 June, aged 89. May he rest in peace in the presence of the Lord he served.