The Rev Gerald Reddington
Stockbroker who worked with the homeless and gave up the City to become an Anglican priest
THE REVEREND GERALD REDDINGTON, who has died aged 85, joined the Anglican ministry after spending 28 years in the City as a stockbroker. In 1997 he explained his move to the Independent: “When you feel impelled by a love greater than yourself you respond to it. You have no option – you feel fingered by God. “I moved from a testosterone-oriented, masculine, aggressive world in the City to a post where I must be passive and help people cope with the stresses of the world. Everybody has the capacity for both environments.”
Appointed parish priest at the Anglo-catholic church of St Barnabas Ealing in 1990, over the next nine years he sorted out structural problems with the building, and attracted many young families to join the congregation.
His city training came in useful when he oversaw the building of a new church hall, a project costing nearly £1m, about half of which came from a grant from the Millennium Lottery Fund. “I am used to dealing with big numbers” he said. “Others may have found handling that amount of money a burden.” He also arranged for a Montessori school to occupy the hall during the week to provide additional income for the church.
The youngest of three brothers, Gerald Alfred Reddington was born on August 8 1934. His father, Mortimer, was a doctor from New Zealand who had come to London to further his medical studies and later became a Harley Street gynaecologist.
Gerald’s mother died when he was five and, after two further marriages, his father died when Gerald was 16. As a result he had to leave Repton for lack of funds for the school fees.
After National Service in the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment in Gibraltar, the 2nd Lord Colwyn, who had married his stepmother, introduced Gerald to his stockbroking firm. He eventually ended up as head of sales and in due course senior partner at Scott Goff and Hancock.
In 1958 he married the actress Valerie Gaunt, best known for her appearances in the 1957 and 1958 Hammer horror films The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula, both starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. After their marriage she retired to bring up their two sons and two daughters. The couple were members of the Anglo-catholic Church of All Saints, Margaret Street, and their shared faith helped them to survive the tragic death aged nine of their son, Adam, from a congenital heart disease.
They retained their links to the theatrical world, supporting Judy Garland through her late returns to the London stage, and socialising with other stars. As a member of the Garrick Club, Gerald chaired the club’s charity committee, disbursing funds from A A Milne’s bequest of the royalties from the Winnie the Pooh books.
While working in the City Reddington also started doing social work at the homeless charity Centrepoint and he went on to chair Centrepoint for 11 years.
Finding he had a strong calling to the priesthood, he joined the Southwark Ordination Course of evening studies while still working in the City. He was ordained deacon at the age of 45.
In addition, he trained as a Jungian psychotherapist, helping fellow clergy and others in coping with their difficulties. His first clerical post was as an assistant curate at St Vedast’s church near St Paul’s Cathedral, and he also became chaplain and counsellor to the students at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Aged 51 he returned to All Saints, Margaret Street, for four years before being given a parish of his own at St Barnabas Ealing.
While working in the City he had a fine house in Hampstead and houses in the country. But as a Name at Lloyds he lost most of his fortune in one of the insurance market’s periodic crises, and he and Valerie found themselves subsisting on little more than a vicar’s salary followed by a small clergy pension – a comedown he accepted with Christian resignation.
On retirement in 1999 he moved to Seaview on the Isle of Wight, where he and his brother Bruce had been sent to live with a family friend during the Blitz and where he enjoyed many family holidays. He continued to preach, to help out at local churches, to conduct retreats to the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield, West Yorkshire, and to serve as a psychotherapist and counsellor.
A loving husband and family man, with the help of his daughter Victoria Reddington he attended devotedly to his wife Valerie as she suffered from increasingly debilitating Parkinson’s before her death in 2016.
He is survived by their three children.
The Reverend Gerald Reddington, born August 8 1934, died June 17 2020