Robert Hugh Mansfield-Williams vicar ??/??/1954 -??/04/1960
Hilary Roadley
Hugh Mansfield-Williams arrived as vicar in 1954 and moved to Gainsborough in May 1960. His departure was announced in the local press thus:
‘The vicar of Harston (the Rev H Mansfield-Williams) announced this week that he is to leave the parish at the end of April to take up the living at St John’s Gainsborough.
He views the prospect of leaving Harston, where he has been for the last five years, with regret but he reflects with pleasure upon the happy association and friendships experienced during the period of his incumbency, and the support and encouragement which he has always received.
The vicar has done much admirable work, not only in his church, but in the village as a whole. The youth of the district, particularly, are losing a very good friend and an ardent supporter of their interests, and hee was also interested in the game of darts of which he was no mean exponent, especially when in partnership with his Lay Reader Mr W Armstrong.
Many of his friends wish to be present at his induction at Gainsborough which is expected to take place in early May, and it is hoped to arrange transport for the occasion.’
There seem to be a number of village memories of Rev Mansfield Williams stay in Harston. Brian Willers remembers him with affection as he often took him to the Queen’s Head for an underage drink after he had been helping around the church or after a funeral. One day the Rev sat on a bier outside the Coach and Horses asking for money and said ’if the parishioners won’t come to me, I’ll go to them’!
David Starr went to a youth club in the village hall started by the Rev Mansfield Williams.
A newspaper cutting in 1958 tells of the Coach & Horses Chapman Cup darts final which won by the Rev Mansfield Williams & his lay-reader Mr Armstrong. The Rev threw the final double 5 to win.
On Friday, May 15, 1959 the Independent Press & Chronicle shows a picture (right) of Rev Mansfield-Williams leading female candidates to Harston Church when Bishop Walsh visited Harston.
Wendy Farrington’s wedding was on 21st July 1962 and although Rev. Williams was no longer the vicar of Harston he came back to officiate for he. The wedding photo was taken in the vicarage garden.
While living in Canterbury in 1972 he was invited back to Harston to open the village fete.
The Reverend liked Harston so much he asked to be buried here even though he no longer lived here. He died 24 March 1986, aged 68, and is buried in churchyard. His funeral service took place on Friday 11 April at 2.30pm. Earlier in the day, at his request, a requiem was held for him at 10.00am.
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The Reverend Hugh Mansfield Williams was the type of vicar who gives the Church of England a good name.
Community-minded to a fault, his summer garden fêtes were legendary, offering visitors a variety of challenges, from a fairground coconut shy to transferring dried peas from one plate to another using only a straw.
In retirement, he retained his enthusiasm for ministering to his flock by visiting the Model Tavern in Northgate, Canterbury, where his absences from St John’s Cottages were explained to his housekeeper as “a visit to the dairy”.
A splendid sense of humour endeared him to people of all ages. He could be as charming to a disaffected teenager as he was to a visiting bishop. Ever optimistic, he always put the emphasis on the edible part of the curate’s egg.
There was no other choice to lead the service to bless the 25th wedding anniversary of my parents, and he played a full part in the life of my family. In the turbulent era of 1960s rebellious youth, all three Foley brothers paid heed to his advice and fully respected his contributions to discussions around the dinner table.
A graduate of Selwyn College, Hugh Mansfield Williams was open to debate on almost any subject. The only time I remember him being partisan was during the weekend of the Boat Race, when his loyalty to Cambridge was manifest—eminently forgivable if you had seen his study at home. It contained numerous editions of the Authorised Version and, on the wall, an oar from the Selwyn College 2nd VIII boat, duly inscribed with his name.
The life of Hugh Mansfield Williams offered strong evidence of the symbiotic relationship between pubs and churches. Before burdensome employment taxes and commercial rates devastated the hospitality sector in East Kent, the links between places blessed by an Archbishop or Cardinal and those blessed by Shepherd Neame or Fremlins were much in evidence. A Sunday morning congregation would take minimal exercise to transfer its attention from vicar to landlord in quick succession.
Hugh Mansfield Williams was certainly an attraction at the Model Tavern, where his gentle guidance over a pint of best was just as effective as any stern sermon delivered before a taste of communion wine. There was no shortage of erudite and interesting contributions from other regulars, including Colonel George Easton, a veteran of the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940; Major Derek Pulsen of the BBC World Service and formerly the Buffs; Warwick Wride of Southern Television; “Humph” from the genealogical centre; and landlord Mike Beasley, who gained a world record for drinking the most cups of tea—before my father took him to the Accident and Emergency Centre at Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
On holy ground and on licensed premises, Hugh Mansfield Williams will be remembered with great affection in Canterbury as a man of the Church and a man of the people.
David Foley
The Reverand Hugh Mansfield Wiliams was a lovely man. A good friend of my parents and a regular congenial and entertaining customer of the Model Tavern in Canterbury. He helped teach me to drive and freely gave hours of his time as I practiced in his Austin A 60 Cambridge in the country lanes around Canterbury throughout the spring of 1972. He drove me to the driving test centre dressed in full dog-collared vicar regalia thereby ensuring that it would be unwise for the examiner to fail me. He later unflinchingly put up with me and my teenage hippy chums fixing my clapped out Ford Anglia 105E in the garden in front of St Gregory’s vicarage and suporting our efforts with orange squash and sandwiches. Gone but not forgotten.
The Rev Mansfield Williams married me and my wife on 9th January 1966 at St Gregory’s Church Canterbury, he was a remarkable man who I shall never forget.RIP.
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