REVEREND VICTOR STORY: 1945-2023 - Funeral: 1pm 14th Dec 2023, St Mary's Church, Great Milton. OX44 7PB

A gentle giant, Victor was a down to earth, unassuming man who served as Rector of our churches for fifteen years. The sea was always close to Victor’s heart. He was born in Hastings into a seafaring family, he joined us direct from Rotterdam, where he had been a Chaplain for the Mission of Seafarers, supporting merchant seamen from around the world. On Sea Sunday each year, Victor returned to The Mission as a guest preacher. Victor loved his weekly visits to school to attend assembly. A bear of a man, he towered over the children – they were always astonished by the size of his shoes! A highlight for 14 Victor and the children alike was the Ascension Day walk and picnic, hosted in the vicarage garden. Children would run up to Mr Story and hug him around his knees. A calming presence, Victor took his role as a school governor seriously, no doubt calling on experience gained when he was a mathematics teacher in a senior school, prior to becoming a priest. Congregations will recall Victor trundling into church carrying a large leather bag with his surplice in a bundle under his arm. Serious sermons were interspersed with child friendly stories of town mice and country mice, and the famous coffee tycoon Maxwell Mouse. And the poignant story of an elephant on a ship en-route for Rotterdam Zoo. Victor had a sense of humour that could be best be described as “corny” but it had a schoolboy’s innocence. A skilled carpenter with a prolific output, reminders of Victor remain in our Church and School. Oak tables, constructed with precision, planed smooth and with highly polished finishes provide platforms for bibles, church and school records. Many a household is the proud owner of one of Victor’s rather weighty oak boxes. Victor retired from the parish in May 2015 and moved reluctantly to Chipping Norton. He was given a warm welcome by his new neighbours and soon made good friends with the shopkeepers – particularly the butcher! He was welcomed into the life of St Mary’s Church and would regularly lead the 8.00 am services in outlying churches, enabling a lie-in for the regular clergy! Victor passed away in the John Radcliffe Hospital on Thursday 16th November after a short illness. Rest in Peace Victor

By Jane Willis on behalf of St James' PCC