Charles Copland, missionary churchman and sportsman

Published on Monday 21 December 2009 20:57

Born: 5 April, 1910 in Ardrossan, Ayrshire. Died: 12 December, 2009, in Forfar, aged 99.

CHARLES McAlester Copland, who has died just months before his 100th birthday, had been in the ministry of the Scottish Episcopal Church for 75 years and at the time of his death was the oldest priest in the Church. His father, Alexander Copland, spent 50 years in the ministry, the last 22 of them as rector of St John's Church in Forfar. His mother, Violet Williamina, was the daughter of the Chieftain of the Name and Arms of McAlester.

Copland was educated at Denstone College, where he was captain of school and of rugby. From there he went up to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, graduating with honours in history and theology in 1933. At Cambridge he continued his sporting prowess, gaining a half-blue for shooting and the captaincy of college athletics and playing in the college XV and the London Scottish B Team.

After Cambridge he trained for the ministry at Cuddesdon College, Oxford, before beginning a curacy at Peterborough Parish Church in 1934. In 1938 he offered himself for service overseas and went out to serve in the Scottish Episcopal Church mission at Chanda, south of Nagpur in India. He remained there for 15 years, latterly as head of the mission. Home on furlough in 1945, he married Wendy Williamson, beginning a partnership in ministry that bore much fruit. In 2003 a man who had been brought up in Chanda wrote: "Chanda Mission is synonymous with Canon Charles Copland. It is almost 50 years since he left, but he had so dedicated his life to the people that his service rings loud and clear to this day."

Fortunately, Copland recorded the history of the mission and, in a later book, an account of life in Chanda.

Returning from Chanda, he became rector of St Mary's, Arbroath, and then, for 20 years, provost of St John's Cathedral, Oban. He combined that post with that of dean of Argyll and The Isles, retiring from full-time ministry in 1979.

Copland had the unusual distinction of having been appointed as a canon in three Anglican dioceses – of All Saints' Cathedral, Nagpur; of St Paul's Cathedral, Dundee; and of St John's Cathedral, Oban.

Copland was an unashamed traditionalist – a committed member of the Church Gaelic Society, of Forward in Faith and of the Scottish Prayer Book Society. He made no secret of his disapproval of some developments in Church and in modern society. He frequently made his views known in letters typed on an ancient machine with the missing letters filled in with ink.

His study of, and sympathy with, the persecuted Episcopal Church of the 18th century made him an avowed Jacobite.

He was an outstanding rifle shot. He had gained his shooting colours at school, won a half-blue at Cambridge and was a member of the team that won the Elcho Cup for Scotland in 1932. Over the following 60 years he had represented Scotland at Bisley on no less than 31 occasions. He won three Bisley Cups (including the Albert) and eight crosses of the National Rifle Club of Scotland, two of them gold. When he finally gave up competition shooting, he continued as a valued coach and gave much encouragement to his fellow enthusiasts. It was a skill that had stood him in good practical stead in India.

He remained remarkably fit almost to the end, taking part in the annual charity swim in Kirriemuir even in his nineties.

The Coplands retired from Oban in 1979, first to Comrie and then, for the last 14 years, to Kirriemuir, where he was a familiar figure in his McAlester kilt and, occasionally, the red stockings he had worn when playing rugby 80 years before.

No-one will ever forget his annual wine-and-cheese parties, even if his occasional home-brewed vintage bordered on the lethal. He and Wendy (who predeceased him in 2001) were always welcoming and hospitable.

Charles Copland leaves two daughters, Frances and Jane, and two grandchildren.

He was sui generis.