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Great thinkers

By Sue Mennell (January 2008 Issue)
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BACKGROUND: The Rev Dr Chad Varah was born in Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire. He was the eldest of nine children and his father, the vicar of Barton-upon-Humber, named him after St Chad, the founder of his parish.

Varah attended Worksop College, Nottinghamshire, gaining an exhibition in natural sciences to Keeble College, Oxford, but switched subjects to earn a degree in politics, philosophy and economics in 1933.

Despite his initial reluctance to follow in his father’s footsteps, he was persuaded by his godfather, Archbishop Hine, to study at Lincoln Theological College and was ordained in 1936. He was curate at St Giles, Lincoln, from 1935 to 1938, St Mary’s, Putney, from 1938 to 1940, Barrow-in-Furness from 1940 to 1942, and vicar of Holy Trinity, Blackburn, from 1942 to 1949 and St Paul, Clapham Junction, from 1949 to 1953.

TURNING POINT: In 1935, Varah conducted the funeral of a 13-year-old girl. She had recently begun to menstruate and, being poorly educated, believed she had contracted a venereal disease from which she would die a slow, painful and shameful death and took her own life. At her graveside, Varah vowed to help others overcome the kind of isolation and ignorance that had led to her suicide by offering a combination of education and emotional support in times of need.

Varah was an early advocate of sexual education, which he taught at youth clubs throughout his London and northern parishes. The popularity of his teaching swelled attendances. He was also sought out by those about to embark on marriage, and married couples who were experiencing difficulties. He said: “It was marriage guidance before it was invented.”

From 1950 to 1961, Varah supplemented his income by working as a writer and visualiser on comic titles such as Girl and Eagle, which were owned by fellow clergyman Marcus Morris. Varah is credited as being the brains behind the popular Dan Dare character.

Morris believed that good writing could change people’s lives and this was the impetus that led Varah to work as a consultant for the sex education magazine Forum from 1967 to 1987. His work in this field was recognised when he was appointed patron to the UK’s biggest HIV and Aids charity, the Terrence Higgins Trust, from 1987 to 1999.

SAMARITANS: In the early 50s, three suicides a day were recorded in greater London and Varah saw a need that was not being met by doctors or social workers. He discovered that some desperate people preferred to turn to someone with liberal views such as himself, and wondered why, if saving lives was so easy, someone wasn’t doing it full time.

As a family man with five small children and busy with parish work, which included house visits, youth clubs, teaching and, as chaplain of St John’s Hospital, Battersea, “bawling prayers at geriatric patients”, Varah believed the person to take on the task of saving lives would “need to be a priest with one of those city churches with no parishioners”.

Having arrived at that conclusion, he went on holiday. While there he received a telegram offering him the living at just such a City of London parish, St Stephen Walbrook, which he took up in 1953.

Once there, he devoted more of his time to counselling and was so inundated that he found it necessary to draft in parishioners to offer a sympathetic ear and emotional support to those in need. So he drew together the first group of Samaritans volunteers and on February 2, 1954, they became a freestanding organisation. Although Varah was director of the London branch from 1953 to 1974 and president from 1974 to 1986, he ensured the voluntary principle could flourish without him.

Today, the Samaritans organisation, which was founded “to befriend the suicidal and despairing”, has 15,500 volunteers in 202 branches in the UK and Ireland offering confidential, non-judgmental, emotional support around the clock.

TRIBUTE: Upon his death, aged 95, Varah was described by the Prince of Wales as “an outstanding humanitarian and a great Briton”. The Archbishop of Canterbury said Varah had made “a unique contribution to the life of our whole society, changing attitudes to suicide and bringing a distinctively pastoral and wholly non-judgmental approach to people in need”.

Sue Mennell is editor of TJ Online. If you would like to nominate a ‘Great Thinker’, please send your nomination to her at sue@trainingjournal.com

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