Feast Day: May 5

1535

Martyr of England, a companion in death of St. John Houghton at Tyburn.

He was an elderly secular priest, the vicar of Isleworth, Middlesex, when he was arrested by King Henry VIII’s men.

John was executed at Tyburn.

He was beatified in 1886.

The Revd. Maurice Child, M.A., F.R.G.S., was a graduate of Oxford. He was educated at Sherbourne; St. John the Baptist's College, Oxford; and at Cuddeston College. He was ordained by the Bishop of London in 1909.
He served curacies at St. Andrew's Haverstock Hill, Kentish Town; St. Michael, Plymouth; Holy Trinity, Sloane Street; and St. Mary, Pimlico. He was librarian at Pusey House, Oxford and General Secretary of the Church Union. He was appointed as Rector of St. Dunstan, Cranford in 1935.
Fr. Maurice Child was much travelled. In 1912 he took part in the Yale Expedition to Peru. Before the First World War he worked in South Africa, the South Sea Islands and Australasia. During the First World War he was with the British Expeditionary Force in France serving as a Liaison Officer. After the Armistice he was in the United States and in 1922 went to India and Burma.
He also organized the first Anglican Pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1924.

Fr Michael Dean was Rector of Cranford from 1957-64. However, his association with the Parish goes back further.
Whilst a boy, his family worshipped at St Mary's Bourne Street where Fr Maurice Child was curate. Fr Child was well connected, and a friend of his, the philanthropic propprietor of the Birmingham Post, Sir Charles Hyde, asked him to select one or two boys from "deserving" families whom he could finance through public school and university. As a result Michael, and his brother, were sent to Public Schools.
In the summer of 1935 Maurice became Rector of Cranford and Michael would cycle from his home near Sloane Square to visit him.
In 1935 Michael went up to University College, Oxford, where he read Modern History. Whilst there he entered a now vanished world, becoming friendly with John Betjeman and the influential Principal of Pusey House, Canon Freddy Hood.
Pusey House was very important to him, and it was there that he finally discerned his Vocation to the Priesthood, and so went to Cuddesdon Theological College.
He was ordained Deacon to serve at All Saints Clifton, Bristol, in 1939. His Incumbent, Fr Fabian Jackson asked Fr Michael to become Headmaster of All Saints Choir School, which he did from 1943-46.
Between 1946-52 he was Priest Librarian of Pusey House, Oxford, and Chaplain of Christ Church.
In 1952 Fr Michael moved to be Vicar of St Stephen's Bouremouth until in 1957 he as invited to be Rector of Cranford, and so follow the ministry of his friend and benefactor, Maurice Child.
Fr Michael saw the Parish through a difficult time. In 1960 plans were made to route the M4 through the Parish, severing St Dunstan's Church from the north of the Parish. Fr Michael campaigned to have the M4 re-routed, but to no avail. In the end a pedestrain sub-way was built to enable parishoners to attend church. To this day it is known as St Dunstan's Subway, and its existence is in no small part due to Fr Michael's efforts.
From 1958-62 he was also St Antholin Lecturer, at the invitation of Canon Freddy Hood.
In 1964 Fr Michael moved to be Vicar of St Mark's Regent's Park.

Stephen James Shelton Beebee was born in London on 26 December 1917. Having been aware since childhood of a vocation to the priesthood, he read Theology at University College, Oxford before going to Cuddesdon (now Ripon College, Cuddesdon). During his first curacy at All Saints, South Acton, he met and married Marjorie Wiles (died 4 May 1998), and during their time at St Mary’s South Ruislip, they had two children: Chris (died 30 October 2003) and Jessica.

Father Stephen served all his life within the Diocese of London, first as vicar of St Michael and All Angels, Bedford Park, and then as Rector of Cranford, where he and Marjorie are buried. After his retirement as parish priest he was chaplain to St Joseph’s Convent and nursing home, Chiswick. He was also a Prebendary of St Paul’s Cathedral.

On 18 April 1985, during Eastertide, Father Stephen died suddenly in his sleep. The previous evening he had written a sermon on the Road to Emmaus, which ends with the question ‘Shall not our hearts also burn within us when we meet Christ?’

Fr Nicholas Wheeler came to the Parish in 1993 and moved in 2002. He prepared for Ordination at Lincoln Theological College and served curacies in Hendon and Wood Green before moving to Cranford,

Fr Luke was Instituted and Inducted as Rector of Cranford on 4th September, 2003.
He prepared for Ordination at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, West Yorkshire and was ordained in the Diocese of Monmouth, South Wales. Having served as Assistant Curate of Abertillery, Cwmtillery and Six Bells, he became Minor Canon of St Woolos Cathedral, Newport, before moving to Cranford. 
He is a Priest of the Society of the Holy Cross  (Societas Sanctae Crucis, SSC), and a Priest Associate of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham