Born in London and brought up by his father, a priest, after his mother died, John spent much of his childhood sick with tuberculosis. He opted to become a clergyman when he was 24 and was ordained three years later, working in an industrial parish in Newark. In 1940 he joined the RAF and after three years had a number of overseas postings, becming an RAF chaplain in Rome. After the war, he spent six years as chaplain of St Luke’s in Haifa, before returning to the UK to finish his career in Hempstead. Although well liked, he was not a natural vicar – one resident who remembers him says that he “couldn’t preach for toffee”.
In 1949, John Ryecart married Vera Maria Gablenz-Thuerheim . She gave birth to two sons before they moved to Haifa. Their life there helped her gain a deeper understanding of Palestinian issues and an empathy for the Palestinian quest for justice, dignity and freedom, inspiring much of her subsequent poetry. The was described as a “much-loved, if unconventional, vicar’s wife” and eventually retired to near Harwich , where she indulged her love of writing poetry. Her collection Vera’s Best contains some of her best poems, covering a wide range of issues from religion and politics to art and precious childhood memories.
Patrick Ryecart, the actor, is one of John and Vera’s sons.
