A Fond Farewell to our Chaplain John Webster

John Webster joined King’s in 1986. He was appointed to teach Divinity and his success as a teacher took him from an NQT to a Head of Department in the space of just three years.   

In those early days, young teachers were expected to be all-rounders.  So John was required to teach English as well and he was also timetabled for Games, and although this didn’t last long, John did accumulate 30-odd years of timing track events at Sports Day.

John was a boarding house tutor in Paddock and helped David Evans run the Heritage Society, taking pupils to visit museums and historical sites on Saturday afternoons and in the school holidays.

John then went on to be Head of Sixth Form for six years, during which he oversaw the move into Dulverton and in 2003 Headmaster Peter Lacey appointed John as our Chaplain, the first lay Chaplain in the school’s history.  As Chaplain, John has continued to seek to be involved in, and to support, everything that goes on in the school.  He has seen more school plays, attended more school concerts, watched more cricket matches and attended more pupil reunions than any other living King’s School teacher.

From the pulpit John has gently encouraged us, given us opportunities to take part in the Cathedral and brought out the best in many people. Assemblies have been led by staff and pupils all following themes that John had carefully chosen to be as inclusive as possible.

John took on well-established services such as Advent Eucharists and Christmas Carol Services and radically transformed some of them, such as Remembrance, whilst adding brand new services, such the New Pupils’ and Parents’ service, and introducing events like the Beating the Bounds.  The school hymn book was put together by John, following extensive research into the school community’s favourite hymns, or at least the hymns that the school could manage to sing.

John has personified the spiritual life of the school, celebrating its highs and its lows.  He has been a wise Chaplain, never one to embrace a snap decision, but always one who has sought the middle road to keep on board as many people as possible. The success of a school Chaplain is measured not by what he has preached, but by how many other people’s lives he has touched, those he has helped grow, and by the strength of the values of the community that chapel has encouraged.

So, we thank you, John - for all you’ve done in your 36 years at King’s, including 19 as Chaplain, for everything we know you have done, and for the things of which we are largely unaware.  In words of a prayer attributed to Sir Francis Drake: “it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same unto the end, until it be thoroughly finished, which yieldeth the true glory”. 

By David Evans