Rev Peter Frederic Murphy

25th April 1940-17th June 2021

Obituary

Well known and much loved, maverick New Forest vicar Rev Peter Murphy died last week. Known for his inclusive and down-to-earth approach to religion, some of his notable activities included frying an egg in the pulpit; leading a sponsored dog pee with his dog Sinner; arranging the first internet marriage, conducting baptisms in the sea and services in the pub. Peter remained positive, with a cheeky smile to the end.

Born on Guernsey in 1940, Peter was evacuated at less than four weeks old, just before the island was occupied by Germany. He was carried on Southern Railways cross-channel ferry, The Isle of Sark, enjoying the humble comfort of a kipper box. An experience one might consider as the beginning of his life-long passion for the sea and sailing. After arriving in Weymouth, the family made their way to Brighton where Peter’s father bought into a corner shop. Right from the start the family were closely involved with church life in the Parish of St Martin’s Brighton. At the time Father Colin Gill was looking after the parish and asked the Murphy family to run a house looking after retired clergy.

Hampered by dyslexia, which was only diagnosed much later in life, Peter didn’t excel at school. He had dreamed of following his uncle Laurie into the Merchant Navy or reading Fine Art and Philosophy at Leeds University, but at the toss of a coin he chose the path of ordination. This somewhat haphazard or pragmatic approach continued to be a feature of his life in the church, so much so that he referred to it as a Theology of Blunder. During a talk on vocations at an infant school many years into his service, he explained to the children he’d only started going to church “because of a beautiful, auburn-haired blue-eyed girl called Margaret”. The teacher sat in stony silence before complaining that wasn’t what she’d intended for the topic. Peter replied “That’s how it happened. Take it or leave it”. He wasn’t invited to give any more careers advice. Peter continued to under-achieve at school and it was thanks to the support of Brighton’s Fr Gill that he was eventually able to retake GCE’s and A levels which would then get him a place at Kings College London to read Theology.

It was the Theology of Blunder, rather than carefully laid plans that led Peter to his first position serving under The Revd Cuthbert Scott in his Hyde Park London Parish. “I was captivated by this Guernsey man”, Peter wrote in his autobiography The Confessions of a Chameleon. “He was funny, thought laterally, loved his Parish and the people and looked like Don Quixote”.

Anyone who came into contact with Peter’s caring character would no-doubt find resonance with these same qualities. During five years “in a Parish that had a national railway station, a truly great hospital, a canal and nineteen dirty bookshops” Peter built a number of notable relationships and developed interests that would last a lifetime. Richard Branson started his Virgin empire in the crypt of the Paddington church and other friends included the Beatles Producer George Martin. Peter started to help with the Parish of St John and St Michael’s ‘Saints and Angels News’ which offered a radical approach to the church magazine format. It was overseen by former Time/Life Magazine editor Walter Greber, who, on their first meeting, handed Peter camera and told him he was the new staff photographer. Peter would process film in a home photographic studio belonging to Brooks Firestones (of rubber tyre fame) opposite his Paddington church.

The magazine was the catalyst for his love of photography. At this time Peter struck up a friendship with Nicholas Brown, a retired Naval Officer who had been attached to the staff of General Eisenhower in London. Nick’s wife Diane and Peter’s wife Valerie were both in St Mary’s Hospital Paddington having babies. Some of Peter’s fondest memories were sailing with Nick all over the world, including a couple of weeks with the New York Yacht Club Rally off Croatia, cruising around Maine, a week off the coast of Denmark, Cuttyhunk off Cape Cod and racing together in Salsa.

Peter took over All Saints Church in Basingstoke and became a guiding force in the somewhat controversial parish magazine. Issue One was called the Ephing Times as an irreverent response to a Church of England conference on Ephratha. “I also became a sort of graphics man for the team” Peter remembers “I’d doodle my way through meetings of every sort… here my little friend who always sat on my shoulder began to develop. He would whisper things in my ear that I would have difficulty saying except through my doodles”.

These whisperings were the beginning of his cartoons, which he continued to get great pleasure drawing throughout his life and which appeared in numerous publications. In August last year Peter collected some of his favourites, together with explanations into a compilation called Himself and Me. The Story of two Egos. Another of Peter’s loves was real ale.

In theological college he was told if one felt like a beer one should never wear a dog collar and always choose a pub outside the parish boundary. Not only was this advice studiously ignored to every last detail, but he would often serve behind the bar at The Bounty, the pub closest to the Church. Here he was affectionately designated pub chaplain and was often to be seen wearing a sweatshirt claiming the honour. “The other pub I have served in regularly has been The Royal Oak at Fritham” Peter wrote. “It is the most genuine old pub in the Forest…it has had a consistent of quality beer, food and above all welcome. That welcome has extended to me”.

On the Sunday closet to St John Baptist’s day, Peter would shut the church and take the whole congregation to a nearby stretch of water for service. This developed into outdoor Baptisms in a variety of unexpected locations, including on a boat with the child’s head dunked in a bucket of water drawn from the Solent. Colourful and imaginative ceremonies didn’t stop at Baptisms. Known as a sailor, Peter was once called on to perform a Burial at Sea. After the formal service, family, friends, vicar, undertakers and coffin headed out on a small fishing boat to waters at Gosport, but after being slid from the boat the coffin refused to sink. Eventually the brother of the deceased chained his 50 lb anchor to the coffin and threw it overboard.

The boat was pushed out for many wedding ceremonies too, including one in the 1980s which was held online uniting a US bride with a British groom - and was probably the first of its kind. After weeks of preparations and trial runs, everything went to plan until the groom was asked to confirm his vows. Several minutes of silence followed as a BT engineer working outside had severed the line. Luckily they were able to get back online and the service was completed. After the ceremony chat lines opened and congratulations flooded in from around the globe. “It had been an incredible experience” Peter wrote “and as far as I know the first Wedding on the Internet. I heard later that the legality of the marriage had been recognised by the authorities in the United States but predictably not in Britain”.

In his autobiography, one section is called Visual Aids and Visual Hinderances in Sermons. Amongst the collection of weird and wonderful pulpit moments he describes eating a daffodil and frying an egg on Easter Day, suspending a choir boy from a church rafter on Ascension Day, pouring a bucket of water over a boy in a tin bath holding a ten foot bunch of paper flowers one Mothering Sunday, drawing a live pet rat from his pocket at a Eucharist, throwing his notes into the air, collecting them in bunches and delivering them in a random order, transforming the pulpit into a boat and giving out kaleidoscopes to keep choir boys amused. On most occasions his efforts were designed to keep his congregation connected and interested, but he also admits to dropping-off himself on one occasion.

Peter’s love of the sea drew him to the parish of Hythe in 1982. He was out sailing as much as he could, but also started skippering for the Ocean Youth Club, an organisation which takes young boys and girls sailing in a fleet of 75ft yachts. “Most young people gain enormously in confidence, reliability, having fun and the ability to laugh at one’s self from a week at sea.”, he explains. During 13 years service with the Ocean Youth Trust Peter sailed all around the British Isles “We even made St Kilda on two consecutive sailings. We ate mussels on the pier at Mallaig, Lobster on Jura and drank Talisker on Sky. I used to take off three or four weeks every year to sail with OYT, mostly on the Scottish boat and during that time visited most of the Inner and Outer Hebrides.”

“The kind of sailing we did was mostly day sailing and stopping somewhere interesting at night but there was usually a night or two under way. Some of most magical moments a have had sailing have been at night; Sun sets and sun risings, a flock of Shearwaters rising from the sea’s surface in the fading light off Rhum, the Northern lights, the quiet noise of the sea parting before our bow are all noises a boat lover would recognise.”

Another strong connection with the sea developed at this time as he became Chaplain of the Calshot Lifeboat. He took his post seriously and stayed connected with the crews and families for the rest of his life. They were never far from his mind. On a recent visit to his son in South Africa, rather than sight-seeing or relaxing, Peter spent his spare-time with the Plettenberg Bay lifeboat crew. He even gave a talk on the differences in approaches between the crews and went on to arrange an exchange trip so experience could be shared. Calshot RNLI, who have been flying their flag at half-mast since his death posted the following on their Facebook page this week: “Calshot Crew and the local community have been struggling to come to terms with the loss of our recently retired station Chaplain, Peter Murphy, who passed away late last week. ‘Murph’ was an incredibly special person who made it his business to welcome everyone. No matter how long you’d been around, 30 years or 2 minutes, he knew your name and put you completely at ease. A beautifully grounded man. We’re all going to miss you so much”.

Hythe also lit the fires of Peter’s love for all things New Forest and after 10 eventful years in the parish, he moved on to become vicar of Lyndhurst. Taking his daughter’s pony Chester with him, Peter started taking part in the annual ‘Drifts’ (round ups of free-roaming ponies and donkeys) and Point-to-Point races. Chester was later retired and replaced by Bakeburn Echo, bought from the Beaulieu Road sales. During his early years in Paddington, Peter had become involved in services for the blessing of horses in his Parish. The event started in 1967 and celebrated its 50th anniversary with Rev Murphy at the helm in 2017.

He brought the unusual tradition with him to Lyndhurst, where horses also often features in other ceremonies, in particular many weddings held on horseback. Peter officially retired as vicar of Lyndhurst on the 25th April 2005 - the day of his 65th birthday. However, he continued to take services and look after other responsibilities on a part-time basis for Breamore and Fordingbridge. He never completely left behind church duties and took his last service for St John’s in Hythe at Christmas last year.

One of the last things Peter wrote in his autobiography was “from start to finish I kept the Church door always open” and it is probably for this attitude he will be best remembered. He never turned away anyone in need and this insistence often landed him trouble for one reason or another, but he was never a man to let go of his very unique moral framework. Peter died in Southampton general hospital around midnight on the 16th/17 June. He is survived by wife Trish, sons Benjamin, Jonathan, Daniel, daughter Saskia, five grandchildren and previous wife Valerie. His funeral will be held in Fordingbridge and the service will also be streamed online. His family request no flowers and ask instead for donations to the RNLI at Calshot.