- [BO:The Times Obituary 2 November 2004:BO] Canon Aidan Chapman,
priest, was born on September 27, 1909. He died on October 7, 2004,
aged 95. Aidan Chapman was an inspirational and energetic pastoral
leader in three very different West Kent parishes, who used his wide
interests and an infectious enthusiasm for his fellow man to
complement his long ordained ministry in postwar Erith, suburban
Farnborough (where he built a second church) and Westerham. Although
he served variously as parish priest to the families of both Margaret
Thatcher and Sir Winston Churchill, his ministry was most effective
among his ordinary parishioners, among whom he worked tirelessly.
After Dean Close, Cheltenham and Emmanuel College, Cambridge (where he
was stroke in the college boat) he was Chaplain to the Forces with the
West Kent Yeomanry in France and Iceland, later joining 49th Division,
with the King®s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, landing on Gold Beach
and ending the war at Nijmegen. Later, he was successively Rural Dean
of Orpington and Sevenoaks, and chaplain to both main hospitals there.
In 1964, he was appointed honorary canon of Rochester Cathedral and
represented his clergy colleagues at the World Council of Churches
Toronto Congress. He was an accomplished sailor, skier, glider pilot
and collector of clocks; as well as an owner, in the 1930s, of a rare
Jarvis-bodied C-type MG sports car while assistant curate at
Beckenham, Kent.
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1909 - 2004 (95 years)
