Geoff Whale

St Katharine's Churchwarden

I was first introduced to a high Anglican church called St Saviours, Shanklin, where I recollect the incense made me feel queasy. On my 8th Birthday we moved to Snodland, and I joined the choir at All Saints. I was born again in a travelling gospel tent in Halling in August 1963, and confirmed by Bishop Russell White, the first Bishop of Tonbridge, at All Saints, Frindsbury (near Strood) on 28th November 1965.

On moving to Shortlands soon after, I joined St Mary's Boys' Choir. The church was rebuilt post-war following substantial bomb damage. The boys fielded a football and cricket team, of which I was Captain. I even attended our vicar's installation at Harrogate and sung with their choir. We could turn out 30 boys at special services! A separate ladies' choir sang at funerals and the occasional service with the Assistant Organist. The boys' and mens' choirs weren't allowed to sing together as the organist maintained sopranos didn't have the same "pure" voices as trebles: for those in the know, I was always Cantoris, never Decani. The Rev'd Noel Wood was Curate at St Mary's, but moved to St Margaret's to become Vicar in the mid-60s.

My family moved again in 1968 and I became a server at St Giles & St Nicholas, Farnborough. We had a strong youth group then and I occasionally led evening youth services, with my best man Mike Brooks, now sadly dead, who played piano for us. Simultaneously I was Assistant Cub Leader, and then ASL at 1st Farnborough, where I first met a teenage Girl Guide called Jane Brooks.
 
Married in 1978 at St Margaret's by the Rev'd John Whitehead, we moved to Knockholt in 1980. A year later St Katharine's celebrated its sept-centenary, and Joy and I pushed baby Louise down Main Road holding real fire torches! When Rev'd Malcolm Bury moved to the parish I started regular attendance of St Katharine's, working alongside Jane Brooks, amongst others, fundraising for the new room and organ refurbishment, and later became Churchwarden in 2000, being re-elected for a second term in 2010.

I am a member of Petts Wood Lodge, have served as a Governor at Weald of Kent Grammar School, been a member of the Knockholt Society Committee, MC of the Carnival and Fireworks, and enjoy cycling - although I'm not so fit as when I regularly entered the London to Brighton Bike Ride for the British Heart Foundation - and have stood for Sevenoaks Council three times.