Sydney Evans (priest)
Sydney Hall Evans, CBE was the Dean of Salisbury in the Church of England from 1977 until his retirement in 1986.
Evans was born on 23 July 1915 and educated at Bristol Grammar School and Durham University He was President of the Durham Union during Michaelmas term of 1937. Ordained to the priesthood in 1940, his first posts were curacies in Bishop Auckland and Ferryhill. He was then a Chaplain in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve from 1943 to 1945. Following this he was Warden of King's College London's post-graduate college at Warminster and then Dean of the whole college until 1977 and his elevation to the Deanery. He died on 6 January 1988.
Evans' career at King's made him one of the most influential churchmen of his generation. It is realistically estimated that he trained over 1,000 priests, the last of whom will be retiring by the end of the present decade. He was also primarily a pastor and a nurturer of the potential he saw in people. He personally interviewed candidates for Theology at King's and personally made offers ahead of 'A'-level results. A low requirement, of perhaps only two 'A'-levels, would ensure than many men got the chance of a university education who otherwise would not have. The first year at King's was designed to sort 'the sheep from the goats' so that some would continue to the degree and ordination qualification combined with others pursuing the AKC for ordination without the BD also.
