UK Friends of Nyakasura
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Everard was born on 8 December 1915, his parents’ first child. He began his education at Radford Elementary School (near Coventry ), continued it at Bablake, and completed it at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge (though I doubt that ‘completed’ is appropriate for Everard for he regarded education as a process continuing throughout life). At the age of 14, he passed his School Certificate and at the age of 16, he passed the Higher School Certificate with distinction in physics. For good measure he passed it again the following year with distinction in physics, chemistry and pure and applied maths this time. In the year 1933-34, in addition to winning his scholarship to St Catharine’s, he was both Head Prefect and Captain of Cricket.
At Cambridge Everard met Joan, his wife-to-be, and took 1st Class honours in Natural Sciences. On graduating he took up a post as a science teacher at Denstone College in Staffordshire, conveniently only a few miles from Uttoxeter where Joan had also embarked on a teaching career. The following year, 1938, he registered as a conscientious objector and, when WW II began, he was excused military service on condition that he either continued teaching science or took up theological studies.
In September 1940 Everard went up to Lincoln Theological College. There he became Head Student. In June 1942 he was ordained deacon to serve as curate at St Andrew’s, Rugby , the service being held at Holy Trinity Church here in Coventry because the Cathedral was by this time in ruins. Before his ordination, however, there was a little personal business to attend to. The Bishop of Coventry of the day had a strict rule that curates (who in those days were expected to serve as curates for 4 years) could not marry. Knowing this, the Principal of Lincoln Theological College (Eric Abbott, later Dean of Westminster) told Everard to get on and marry Joan before he submitted himself to the discipline of the Bishop. So, on 9 April 1942 they were married by Eric Abbott at St Mark’sChurch, New Milverton.
May 1944 saw the birth of their first child, Stephen, in Rugby . By this time Everard had been ordained priest and had also given further thought to his objection to military service. In the following mont h he reported for service as an army chaplain. In April 1945 he was posted to Plymouth as Chaplain to the Force which liberated the Channel Islands on 10 May. He was not permitted to stay there, however. After 3 weeks he was transferred back to the UK for posting to West Africa to join soldiers preparing to go out to the Far East .
In the event those forces were not required to fight in that theatre and Everard was still in West Africa when Ruth was born in January 1946. It was not until December that he saw his daughter. Meanwhile Joan had taken her and Stephen to a “polyfoto” studio. When Everard received the proof sheet of 4 dozen images of his children, his African batman was much impressed: “Oh Massa” he said “many pickin”.
As a result of his experience of Africa Everard offered to the Church Missionary Society and in April 1947 he was accepted for service in Uganda . In August the family set sail from Tilbury on the steamship Modasa bound for Mombasa . They were in the Red Sea before Everard came to the end of his demobilisation leave. On arrival in Uganda Everard took up the roles of Chaplain, Science master and Deputy Head at Nabumali High School outside Mbale, in the east of the country, not far from Mt Elgon on the Kenya border. Catherine was born at Mengo, the CMS hospital in Kampala in October 1949.
The family remained at Mbale for 12 years, coming home from time to time to stay with Peter and Elsie in their home-now at 68 Warwick Avenue, Earlsdon. Then in September 1959 Everard took up the headship of Nyakasura School outside Fort Portal in the west of Uganda . There he presided over 6 years of major change. A 6 th form was introduced and girls were admitted to what had always been a boys’ school: this was the first senior secondary education for girls in western Uganda . Numbers rose from 200 to 400 and new buildings (including a chapel, a Dining Hall, additional science labs, classrooms and dormitories) were built. Meanwhile 1962 saw the end of the Protectorate and the emergence of the independent nation of Uganda .
In October 1965 Everard and Joan travelled back to England via Egypt and the Holy Land to take up a new life at St Margaret’s School, Bushey in Hertfordshire. There he was chaplain and religious studies teacher for girls from the age of 8 to the age of 18: in 1969 he became Head of Physics. Later he moved to King Henry VIII in Coventry , his arrival coinciding with the first admission of girls to what had been a boys’ school. With his previous experience, he was able to observe with wry amusement the impact of these alien creatures on the established staff and pupils. After 2 years teaching physics, he became Head of Religious Studies, a post which, typically, he accepted only on condition that he could keep up his physics.
Meanwhile, outside the school, he was active in many local churches, while in Cove nt ry Cathedral he was a chaplain for 8 years and found a unique ministry to visitors which continued into his 94 th year.
Everard retired from King Henry VIII in July 1979 but that did nothing to diminish his other activities. On the contrary he took up a formal appoint ment as an assistant curate in the Parish of St Christopher, Allesley Park . Retirement did, however, allow him and Joan to travel. In February 1981 they acquired the first of two folding caravans (each known in the family as the toadstool) with which they toured in Britain and on the Continent over the next 15 years. They also travelled further afield to visit Stephen in Australia and Catherine first in the Solomon Islands and then in the USA . In addition they joined the Servas organization through which they were able to exchange hospitality with members from many nations some of whom became long-term friends. Even on their travels he was called on to minister in churches they visited (and, as a result, he is still fondly remembered in Stafford , in Greater Brisbane, Queensland, and in Darrington in the shadow of White Horse Mountain in the Coastal Range in Washington State). The travelling cont inued after Joan had suffered her first stroke and included a memorable return to Uganda in 1998 (while their grandson Ian was on a gap year at Nyakasura): accompanied by all 3 of their children, they were feted by former pupils from both Nabumali and Nyakasura.
In October 2003 Joan died after a severe stroke. Everard continued to travel on his own, making winter trips to Spain and long-distance trips to Uganda, to Antigua (to visit a couple whom he and Joan had first met as post-graduate students at Warwick University), to Burma and Australia and to Canada and the USA. By the time he left home on one trip, he always seemed to have the next one booked, usually through his own researches on the internet.
In July 2009 Everard made his final trip. He set off for Tortola in the British Virgin Islands to visit the couple from Antigua , now working there. When he had been with them for a week, he suffered a more severe stroke. After 3 weeks in hospital in Road Town he was brought back to the UK, and died at Allesley Hall Nursing Home.
The biographical outline describes a life which began when motoring was the prerogative of the rich and ended with intercontinental travel for the masses in the 747 and then the even bigger A380 (Everard was delighted to return from Australia last year on an A380). It also describes a life of dedication in the pursuit of education and sound values. Through it run four defining threads:
- his faith
- physics
- a global outlook -and how he rejoiced to see all his six grandchildren taking their places as citizens of the world (his description for them)
- his love for Joan, who shared all this with him, and for his family.
For Everard, faith and physics were not opposed to one other but ran together. Until his final stroke he maintained an active interest in that area of science where the two meet in the debate about the origins of the universe, corresponding with leading scientists in Cambridge and elsewhere.
Everard was no ordinary man of faith, however. As a priest he was loved and admired. Two memories stand out from the past. One came from a fellow-priest of great distinction: at the party to celebrate the 60th anniversary of his marriage to Joan, he described Everard’s life as the model of the priestly life, not of the world but most surely engaged in the world. Another came a few months ago in a letter from one of the many visitors to the Cathedral with whom he developed a pastoral ministry: she said that she immediately recognised him as a priest who really understood what life is about.
Since Everard died, tributes have flowed in from Uganda , Australia , the Caribbean and the United States as well as the UK . Many spoke of being inspired by him: some writers movingly credited him with major changes in their lives. It is clear that others shared the experience of his family that, though always gentle and loving, he was not afraid to challenge.
Let the final tributes come from Uganda . The language is exuberantly African: the content is unmistakable.
A former pupil who has risen to some eminence in public life of Uganda and was for a time High Commissioner to the Court of St James, described Everard as
“our source of inspiration, headmaster, team-builder, sincere friend of many globally, and true spiritual leader”.
A member of Global Care staff in Uganda wrote: I will miss his parental love, counsel, guidance, encouragement, instruction, insight into Godly love, physical demonstration of love and many, many other values…. He certainly has done the best in his life for everyone with true insight of God’s love to fathom. He leaves a legacy for us here in Uganda to behold and learn from .