'Father of the Church' dies aged 104

The Church of Scotland’s longest-serving minister has died.

The Rev Alestair Bennett, who was 104, was ordained for 73 years and became the unofficial ‘Father of the Church’ in 2011. He was living in a care home in Cupar, Fife, not far from his last parish, Strathkinness.

Born into a United Free Church manse on February 19 1909, Alestair grew up in Tighnabruiach in the West Highlands and then in East Wemyss. He left school at 16 and spent five years in the Merchant Navy before enrolling at Glasgow University to study arts and divinity. He was ordained in 1938.

During the war he volunteered as an Army Chaplain, serving in Burma and in the Western African Division.

His ministry career took him to Newarthill in Lanarkshire, Woodlands  Church in Glasgow, Kilmacolm Old Kirk in Renfrewshire and finally Strathkinness in Fife, from where he retired in 1976. The Strathkinness Parish Church newsletter recalls him starting a youth club and a news sheet; and in encouraging women to become Elders.

He was married to Helen Cruikshank, whom he met at a student Christian conference, from 1939 until her death in 1997. Sadly one daughter, Kay, died in 1980. He is survived by a son and two daughters, nine grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

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