Tributes for Stathern woman who was one of UK’s first women priests

The Rev Gillian Deave was closely associated with St Guthlac’s Church in the village and took services in more than 30 churches in the Melton area.

She was also a keen member of many local community groups, including the book club, art group, pilates and the women’s institute.

Gillian Mary Deave (nee Power) was born in May 1931 on the Isle of Wight, the daughter of Admiral Sir Manley Power, who fought with distinction in the Second World War, and Barbara Topham.

She came from a long parental line of distinguished military servicemen as well as a maternal grandfather, who was a renowned high court judge and legal author.

She left school at the age of 16 and took a secretarial course, working initially in Malta and then in London at the Carlton Ladies Club and undertaking charity work at St Martins in the Fields.

When her father became Commander-in-Chief of the Portsmouth Naval Dockyard, she was often invited to dinners on board HMS Victory.

It was in London that Gillian met her future husband, John Deave, a young lawyer.

They were married in 1958 and moved to a flat in Nottingham where John had joined barristers’ chambers.

Their son, Jonathan, and daughter, Toity, were born in the next few years and they moved to Stathern in 1962 and enjoyed almost 60 years of married life there together until John’s death in December 2019.

Gillian joined Stathern Parochial Church Council in about 1968 and had been closely associated with St Guthlac’s Stathern ever since.

She was admitted as a Reader in the Leicester Diocese in 1975.

While the children were growing up, she did part-time secretarial work at Nottingham University, mainly in the history department.

She often went to midday services at St Peter’s Nottingham and eventually joined the staff there, undertaking an ordination training course in the city.

In 1982, she was made a Deaconess (a lay minister) by the Bishop of Southwell and five years later she was ordained a Deacon (a member of the clergy) at Southwell Minster.

Gillian later became a part-time Chaplain at Nottingham City Hospital and was ordained Priest in 1994, in one of the first groups of women to be made priests in the Church of England.

From 1996 onwards, Gillian undertook unpaid ministry work in the Diocese of Leicester, concentrating on the parishes surrounding Melton and taking services in over 30 churches in the area.

She was the first woman to preside over Holy Communion in many of these churches.

In 2002, she completed a part-time Open University Degree gaining a 1st Class Honours in environmental studies, a subject dear to her heart.

Gillian was an energetic and popular woman, whose Christian faith was strong and who valued quiet peaceful prayer.

She undertook much pastoral work amongst the sick and supported those going through difficult times.

Gillian embraced modern technology, she enjoyed fully participating in local events, won prizes for her home-made cakes and jams and was an avid reader of novels.

After her husband’s death she would visit St Guthlac’s Church daily on her mobility scooter to say prayers for the village, as she did on the morning of her death, which was on January 30.

Gillian is survived by Jonathan and Toity, and two grandchildren, Ben and Laura.

A funeral service, with restricted numbers, will be at St Guthlac’s Church, Stathern, on Friday February 26, at 11am.