The life of my friend Terry Perry, who has died aged 94, was a fine example of the triumph of faith and determination over adversity. Having had a troubled childhood, in which he spent much of his time in care, he eventually found his calling in adulthood as a minister in Congregational churches across Sussex, Hertfordshire and Surrey.
Born in Reading, Berkshire, to a single mother, Jessie Willis, Terry was handed over just a few weeks after his birth to a children’s home and, aged five, to the Perry family of Dalston, north London. Proving to be a disappointment to them, he was often told he would be “sent back” to the home.
At the age of eight, after an NSPCC inspector noticed he was limping, the bones in his left leg were found to be diseased and he spent much time in hospital, thereafter having to wear a heavy surgical boot. When not in hospital he attended a school for children with disabilities, where he mostly learned basic manual skills.
At 13 his foster mother died, leaving him at the mercy of her violent husband. Two years later Terry ran away and, working as an optician’s frame-maker, lived in various lodgings across southern England, plying his trade, reading voraciously and seeking a spiritual home.
His odyssey ended in Surrey, where he discovered Sutton Congregational church, whose minister Glynmor John was to become like a father to him. Glynmor encouraged him to train for the Congregational ministry at New College, Hampstead.
After college he ministered at Hassocks Congregational church in West Sussex, where I first met him, and later at Barnet Congregational church in Hertfordshire.
In 1955 he married Maureen Elves, who had been a fellow member of the Sutton church, and, becoming a father of three children, enjoyed the happy family life that he had never experienced himself. From Barnet he moved to Caterham United Reformed Church in Surrey, where as always he was renowned for his powerful preaching and keen sense of humour.
The deaths in 1979 of his oldest daughter, Jane, from an overdose, aged 19, and then his severely disabled son, Mark, two years later from a heart attack, also at the age of 19, cast a dark shadow over his life.
It was some consolation that he could take Mondays off to do what for him had always been therapeutic: oil-painting. After retirement this became virtually a full-time occupation: he held two successful exhibitions in Eastbourne.
He is survived by Maureen and by a grandson, Sam. His other daughter, Alison, died in 2017.
