SEVENTY years on from his ordination, it was a proud moment for the Rev Arnold Bennett.

The 95-year-old marked seven decades since he had been ordained priest in Portsmouth Cathedral by visiting again for Evensong with members of his family.

Arnold’s first job as a minister was as a curate in Hayling Island, so it was a particular delight that the current interim priest-in-charge of Hayling Island, the Rev Nick Todd, was there to welcome him and present him with a framed photo of St Mary’s Church.

He had been ordained deacon by the Rt Rev Launcelot Fleming on Trinity Sunday 1954 after four years studying at King’s, London. He then was ordained priest on June 5, 1955, and spent four happy years on Hayling. He and his wife Ruth were married there and Paul, their eldest son, was born there.

Arnold then ministered in Stevenage, and in parishes in Norfolk, Lincolnshire and back in Hampshire, before retiring in 1999. He continued to conduct services in the county until he finally hung up his dog collar at the age of 90.

“I spent four years in King’s London, from 1950-54, including a final year with very practical experience in the old missionary college of St Boniface at Warminster,” he said. “Bishop Launcelot Fleming had written to the warden Sydney Evans, telling him of the need for a curate on Hayling Island.

“So my name was given to Launcelot and a meeting was arranged for me to meet him at Bishopswood, Fareham. Then John Hollinshead, the vicar of Hayling Island, arrived to take me to the island. That evening, Launcelot told me that John had taken to me and that he would ordain me at Trinity 1954.

“Launcelot was an active, friendly man, who remembered people’s names. He had been a naval chaplain in the war and there was something of the naval padre about him. The padre was to be friend to all on board, so inspired I have tried to be just that in the five parishes in which I have been privileged to serve.

“John Hollinshead was indeed as kindly as I thought he would be. He was a good preacher and insisted on my reading my sermons to him, so that he could comment on them. John also emphasised the importance of visiting.

“The Billy Graham crusade was underway, and parishioners who had attended his meetings and gone forward had their names sent to their local vicar. I was given a long list to visit. One difficulty was that so many let their homes for the summer and would live in tents and caravans in their gardens. I remember knocking on the door of ‘Song of the Sea’ and being told that the family was in a railway carriage in the back garden!”

Because St Andrew’s Church was yet to be built on Hayling Island, Arnold’s ministry was based at St Peter’s in the north and St Mary’s in the south of Hayling, as well as a dual-purpose building known as the institute and the community centre at Eastoke. It involved him cycling around the island in all weathers.

The summer season involved holiday campers arriving at the Hayling Island camps, at Warner, Sunnyside and Northney. Arnold led community singing on Friday nights in the bar. His ministry in pubs also began on the island as many ex-Royal Navy types welcomed the ‘padre’. Arnold was also surprised when Bishop Launcelot asked Arnold to be his chaplain when he visited a school in Bournemouth for their speech day.