The Revd John Overton writes:

I WAS glad to see an obituary of the Revd Robert Clarke (Gazette, 17 July), although this was silent about his ministry before becoming a hospital chaplain. I knew him briefly just over 50 years ago, and never saw him again after he left parish ministry.

Robert (Bob) was Priest-in-Charge of St Francis’s, in the parish of Langley Marish, on the eastern edge of Slough, from 1969 to 1970, in the era before it became a team ministry. He was at St Francis’s when the Revd Brian Walshe was Vicar of Langley, all other clergy had the status of curates, and curates came and went, sometimes with remarkable rapidity.

Robert came to Langley, having served his title in Hendon, where the people gave him a case of whisky as a leaving present; Robert was not ungenerous with his whisky.

He was a tall man with black curly hair, who claimed that he had once been mobbed on an Underground train by a group of girls who had mistaken him for the Welsh singer Tom Jones. Robert could be one for fanciful stories: he seemed to like to see how far he could stretch people’s credulity, but this one did have a measure of plausibility to it.

For a few years, near Christmas, an illuminated crib scene was displayed on the flat porch roof of St Francis’s, where it was visible from the busy A4 London Road. The crib was eventually abolished as being a potential distraction to drivers, but then was seen to be appropriate. An ecumenical open-air crib dedication service was organised, and Robert sought to make this inclusive. He was not happy to receive a letter from the Salvation Army withdrawing their acceptance because they had discovered that the Roman Catholics would be participating. Robert selected the largest available sheet of writing paper on which to reply, and wrote the single sentence “I am sorry, I thought that I had invited a Christian band.” That did the trick. The Salvation Army band did participate, and the grounds of St Francis’s were full for the service.

On one occasion, when I was visiting a friend’s mother in hospital in Windsor, the lady in question said that she had been visited by Robert. She had been apprehensive, because he could be a loud and booming presence, but she said that in visiting her he had been quiet and gentle, and it had been a real comfort to her. It is marvellous when someone finds their real vocation, which Robert clearly did in hospital chaplaincy.

Dr David Parry-Smith writes: In Kenneth Shenton’s obituary of Professor Nicholas Temperley (Gazette, 19 June), the two-volume magisterial study is The Music of the English Parish Church (not the “English Church”, as printed). This remarkable contribution to understanding the broad sweep of music in our parish churches is not only fascinating in itself, but has shaped the understanding of parish-church music for many musicians and clerics alike over the past 40 years.