▶Date of birth:  3 November 1906        Place of birth: West Ham, Essex

▶Father:  William Mason     Mother: (uncertain)

▶Spouse(s): Constance Iris Skeet    Date(s) of marriage: 7 October 1939      Place(s) of marriage: Rayleigh Parish Church, Essex

▶Occupation: Clergyman

▶Lifestory: Ronald was the only son of Mr W. Mason, of Mount Avenue, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. Originally attracted to the Baptists, he conducted a Baptist mission at Canvey Island, before migrating to the Church of England. He attended the London College of Divinity, ALCD 1938, and was ordained Deacon (Tewkesbury) in 1938, and Priest (Gloucester) in 1939.

He was licensed Curate of St Paul’s, Cheltenham 1938-41 (by 1940 he was running the St Paul’s Lads’ Brigade); when he came to Cheltenham he lived at 47 Clarence Square, Pittville. In 1939 he married Constance Iris, younger daughter of Mr and Mrs F. S. Skeet, of Wheatley Road, Rayleigh (she had been a Sunday School teacher at Rayleigh Baptist Church). 

After Cheltenham, he accepted an invitation from the Bishop of Manchester to take charge of the parish of St Ambrose, Pendleton, whose church had been destroyed and where services were held in a schoolroom; in the end he went as Curate to the adjoined parish of St Luke’s, Weaste, Salford 1941-2 (where another former St Paul’s clergyman, the Revd. Frank Bishop, worked) and then as Curate to St Mary the Virgin, Colchester 1942-6. In 1946 he was preferred to the living of  St John the Evangelist, Colchester as Vicar.

As the century moved on, he continued to move to new challenges, and in 1954 he was preferred to the vicarage of St Peter’s Church, Bocking in Essex. After ten years at Bocking, he migrated within the diocese of Chelmsford to become Rector of Great Warley, Essex. He died in Thanet in 1995, at the age of eighty-eight.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  London      Moved from Pittville to: Pendleton, Lancashire

▶Date of death:   2Q 1995     Place of death: Thanet, Kent

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes:        ID: 13669

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden