A tribute to former Haywards Heath rector Father Ray Smith (1956-2024)

We are sad to share the news that our much-loved former Rector, Fr Ray Smith, who retired to his home town, Reading, in 2020 after serving our parish and the wider community for 24 years, has died there, following an illness, on Friday, April 12.

Born on March 12, 1956, he had just turned 68.

Fr Ray was well-known, loved and respected not only in the two churches of our parish but also in the wider community.

At his last-but-one Eucharist in St Wilfrid’s Church on St Wilfrid’s Day, October 11, 2020, the then Town Mayor Cllr Alastair McPherson paid tribute, on behalf of the Town Council, to the various ways in which Father Ray had served Haywards Heath for almost a quarter of a century and presented him with a Town Council plaque bearing the civic coat of arms and a sterling silver photo frame. Many townspeople will fondly remember Fr Ray leading the town’s Sunday morning Remembrance services on Muster Green and regular assemblies at St Wilfrid’s CofE Primary School, Eastern Road, where he was a long-serving Foundation Governor. He was equally well known by many young families who came to his Family Worship services at St Wilfrid’s Church or to Messy Church in the Centenary Hall, and for welcoming the Mayor and Town Councillors to the annual Civic Service in St Wilfrid’s.

His other effective public roles had included many years as ambulance and police chaplain in Sussex and chairing the ecumenical Churches Together in Haywards Heath and District.Ray Smith was ordained deacon in June 1980 and ordained priest in 1981. He trained for the ministry at King’s College London and at The College of the Resurrection at Mirfield in West Yorkshire. In the late 1970s Ray worked for 16 months as an auxiliary nurse on a surgical ward at St Georges Hospital at Hyde Park Corner. He served two curacies in Oxford Diocese at Iffley in Oxford and at Wallingford and then served for just over ten years as Vicar of St Mary Magdalen’s Church Tilehurst in Reading, where he also lectured on Ethics and Doctrine on the Berkshire Christian Training Scheme course. He moved to Haywards Heath as Team Rector in the summer of 1996.

Spring Live! 2024 in photos – sports cars, sheep judging and lawnmower racing

During his time in Sussex, and alongside his parish ministry, Ray worked as chaplain to the South East Coast Ambulance Service until 2014 and Chaplain to Sussex Police until 2013, serving as senior chaplain to the Sussex Police Service and South East area representative on the committee of the National Association of Chaplains to the Police from 2003.

In his retirement in Berkshire, Father Ray continued to pursue his lifelong interest in public transport – collecting memorabilia, photographing buses and using these photos to illustrate his several publications about the history of bus services in Britain.

St Wilfrid's Parish Churchwarden Gloria Kendall, a former Chair of Governors at St Wilfrid's CofE Primary School in Eastern Road, Haywards Heath, said: “The staff and pupils held him in high regard, and he was always greeted by a 'Hello Father Ray' by the children as he travelled around the parish. He enjoyed the visits to the churches by the pupils, and his extensive knowledge of each Church and its buildings gave the pupils not only a theological but also a historical lesson.”

She said: “As our Rector he was much respected and loved within the Parish. We all have very fond memories of him, administering services, baptisms, weddings, and funerals, engaging with the children at the Toddler group and the family services, and establishing our midweek ecumenical Taizé services. Ray often spoke at our Men's Group, Women's Fellowship, Presentation Wives, and Mothers' Union meetings on one or other of his many interests. He enjoyed music and worked closely with the choir. Also fond of reading poetry and sharing it, Ray took part in our concerts with readings, and he had a great presence and sense of humour. Our thoughts are very much with his family at this time. May he rest in peace.”

He leaves his daughter Katherine, his son Daniel, and four grandchildren.

Fr Ray's funeral will be held at St Andrew's Church, Albert Road, Caversham RG4 7PL on Wednesday, May 1, at 11am. Katherine and Daniel would like to know if anyone in Mid Sussex will be attending. If you will be going to the funeral and need more details, please email [email protected].