We Remember ... Heroes of the Faith at St. Michael's - T. Percy Singer

T. PERCY SINGER
29 November 1869 – 3 October 1962

T. Percy Singer, an old friend of the Shelford family from North London, was an unofficial Churchwarden while the temporary church (later the church hall) was being used between 1908-9 and became St. Michael’s first Vicar’s Warden on the consecration of the permanent church. Before the consecration, Mr Singer and his fellow unofficial warden, Gerald Cutler, played a huge part in raising money to repay the debt on the temporary church, as well as carrying out the usual warden’s duties.

The vicar was fond of gently teasing his old friend in the pages of the Parish Magazine. At a Social Evening a Mr Rowe sang ‘Take a pair of Sparkling Eyes’ which prompted the Vicar to write that the ‘Eligible Warden’ (Singer) is in need of this excellent advice! At the Vestry meeting in May 1911 the presentation of the accounts was made by Mr Singer ‘in his usual lucid manner while we endeavoured to look intelligent.’

He served as Churchwarden for seventeen years, retiring from the post in 1924, just before Rev. Shelford’s incumbency ended. However he continued to be active in St Michael’s as vice Chairman of the Church Council. His mother died, aged 94, towards the end of 1924 and Percy Singer married the following year. St Michael’s presented the couple with a silver coffee pot and milk jug.

Thomas Percy Singer died in Bexhill, Sussex in 1962. Like his mother, he was well into his nineties when he died.