The Late Revd. Ken Reeve

Many Wincanton people will be sad to hear news of the recent death of Ken. He and his late wife Daisy spent several years in retirement in Wincanton and became familiar figures as Ken helped by taking services in local Anglican churches. After Daisy died a few years ago, Ken moved to be nearer their family. Both of them rejoiced in the availability of the BCP 8am Holy Communion either at Wincanton or at Charlton Musgrove. They will both be fittingly remembered as really nice people who also took great pleasure in the gentle art of gardening.

Ken baptising his grandaughter and Daisy his wife

The late Revd. Ken Reeve

Ken was born on 7th June 1923, and brought up in Oxford where his father was domestic bursar at St. Edmund's Hall.  He was educated at New College and Magdalen choir schools. He regularly used to listen to Choral Evensong on the radio twice a week. Leaving school in 1941, Ken served for 4½ years in the Royal Indian Navy mostly patrolling in the Bay of Bengal and on one occasion being blown up by a Japanese mine!

Returning to England in 1946, he married Daisy Loeb whom he had met before the war when she found refuge here as a student opponent of the Nazi regime. They lived with Ken's parents in north Oxford and son, Martin, was born in 1949. Ken was reading Modern History at the University and studied an extra year for a Diploma of Education.

He chose service overseas, and 1950 found the family in Tanganyika. After a short period at a government school on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, he was posted to Mwanza as headmaster of a boarding secondary school for boys. There were two twenty-week terms a year, allowing pupils to go back home for the planting season and harvest. There was no electricity or telephone. As well as the teaching programme, the headmaster was responsible for the programme of new building (a building handbook was supplied!), road construction, the water supply and the school farm (maize, cotton, rice)! Hilary was born here in 1951. Long home leave meant a change of post, so in 1953 Ken and Daisy went back to a similar school at Bukoba. This was so isolated that the school messenger had to walk 14 miles every day to collect the post. All water had to be carried ¼ mile from the spring. With their children old enough for schooling, Daisy now became social development officer and set up a string of women's clubs in the villages to encourage literacy and childcare. Next post was in Tanga in 1956 when Ken became assistant provincial education officer in charge of all government and church schools and spending time every month on safari inspecting. In 1959 he return to Mwanza as provincial education officer with 30,000 square miles to cover and 100,000 pupils. A new duty was to help elected local councils learn how to be responsible for education in preparation for independence in 1961.

Ken and Daisy returned to England in 1962 to Teignmouth where Ken's widowed father was now living. Ken took up teaching, but was considering ordination, and it was suggested to him that he might serve the church as a director of education after theological training. In 1964, Ken began training at Salisbury Theological College, but realised that this was not the right course for him and a new opportunity opened up as a tutor/organiser for adult education in NE Somerset with 3,000 students. This meant a move to Frome and a new diocese. 'Jock' Henderson, Bishop of Bath and Wells, was attracted by the vision of self-supporting ministry and recruited four men, including Ken, supervising their training for three years. Ken was made Deacon at Michaelmas 1968 and ordained Priest the following year.

Ken was licensed to the Rural Dean, which enabled him to assist where necessary. In 1971 the Ministry of Overseas Development arranged for Ken to be seconded for a year to the British Virgin Islands to inspect the schools system and to help refashion adult education to serve tourism. At the same time, he served local churches, which were part of the Episcopal Church of the United States, and was a visiting preacher for the Methodist Church. In 1974, after local government reorganisation, Ken resigned to spend two years in the Seychelles to prepare the way for independence. He headed the Ministry of Education, trained a local successor and rewrote the educational laws. He also found himself serving as secretary to the Cabinet and permanent secretary of the Ministry of Finance! He served as priest at the Cathedral, and Daisy found her own role as a trainer of tourist guides.

Returning to England, Ken continued to work for the Department of Overseas Development living at Haywards Heath and helping the local church. Retiring in 1980, he and Daisy moved to Wincanton, and from the moment of his arrival Ken was asked to take charge of one parish vacancy after another. As a member of the Diocesan Resources Committee he was the clergy retirement officer with over 100 retired clergy and widows to care for. He was also chaplain of the local hospital. For recreation, he and Daisy were National Trust volunteers at nearby Stourhead House. Advancing years suggested a final move to be near their daughter, and in 2001 they moved to Saffron Walden. Since 2004, when Daisy died, Ken has shared a home with Hilary at Littlebury. Ken's whole ministry has been a free gift to the church, and he continued to undertake clerical duties in a modest way and to everybody's benefit and delight.

Ken died on 26th October 2009 and his funeral took place at Saffron Walden, conducted by a personal friend, Canon Michael Swindlehurst.

I am grateful to Canon Michael and to Ken's family for supplying much of the detailed information in this Article.

Canon Alan Watson

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