Canon Barry Giles is remembered as a very welcoming and dedicated man

CANON Barry Giles, who was Rector of St Peter for 28 years and was also a former vice-Dean of the Island, has died in Eastbourne.

A Guernseyman, he was known for his love of St Peter and its community as well as the Island as a whole, and was extremely committed to his work.

Former Constable Tom du Feu said that Canon Giles was a compassionate, frank and very fair-minded man who was highly respected and fully involved with life in the parish.

A close friend and member of his congregation, former Deputy Geoffrey Grime said that he was a very welcoming and dedicated man who did a great deal for the parish and for the Island.

He said that his wife Jan had set up the youth club there with his support. ‘There is no doubt that Barry served Jersey very well indeed,’ said Deputy Grime, whose daughter Christine was the first child Canon Giles baptised in the parish.

Mr Grime said that while he was Rector, Canon Giles was often accompanied around the parish by his little dog. ‘I remember the day the dog bounded up the aisle of the church in the middle of a service – it was a very happy moment for everyone there,’ he said.

The Canon was born in Guernsey in 1935 and was evacuated to Lancashire in 1940. During the Occupation he was educated at St Ambrose College in Altrincham, returning to Guernsey in 1945, when he continued his education at Les Vauxbelets College.

He trained for the priesthood between 1954 and 1959 at Kelham Theological College in Newark, Nottinghamshire, and was ordained as a deacon in 1959 and as a priest the following year at the Church of St Margaret in Leytonstone in London.

Between 1962 and 1966 he was precentor of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Gibraltar.

He and Janette Alexander, a nursing sister at St Bernard’s Hospital in Gibraltar, were married in 1964. They had a daughter, Alexandra, in 1965 and a son, Dominic, in 1968.

They left Gibraltar in 1966 when he became vicar at St George’s Church in Lancashire, and between 1969 and 1973 he was vicar of St Edmund in Forest Gate in London. It was that post he left to become Rector of St Peter, which he held for 28 years before retiring in 2000.

The couple moved to Eastbourne to be closer to their children. Mrs Giles died several years ago. Canon Giles died at his home in Eastbourne on Wednesday 15 April.

The Jersey Evening Post extends sympathy to his family and friends.