Rev J Michael Stephens, 9 June 1929 – 9 April 2026
May 3, 2026 9:38 pm | by Terry Brown | Posted in Tributes
This tribute was updated in June 2026
John Michael Stephens (known as Michael) was born in Ilford, Essex on 9th June 1929 to Leslie and Millicent Stephens, the eldest of three siblings. At the beginning of WW2, to keep the family together, Michael and his family moved to Kempston, Bedfordshire, initially to stay with his mother’s aunt until their new home became available. In 1945, at the age of 15, he took up ringing at All Saints’ Church, Kempston under the tutelage of Pearl Inskip, Tower Captain, with a band of very good pre-war ringers. His brother Richard and sister Mary also took up ringing.
Michael could handle a bell well enough to ring rounds for VE Day (8th May 1945) and by VJ Day (15th August 1945) he was ringing simple methods for the occasion. Within a year of starting to ring, Michael achieved several notable milestones at Kempston. He rang his first Quarter Peal (on the 2nd to Minor in three methods) on 3rd February 1946 and this was followed shortly afterwards by his first Peal (on the 2nd to Minor in six methods) on 9th March 1946. His first Quarter Peal as Conductor followed on 17th August 1946 (Plain Bob Minor with two members of the band – Walter and Clifford Izzard – ringing their first Quarter Peals).
Michael rang 125 peals (Conducted 37) – this total includes 51 (Conducted 27) for the Bedfordshire Association and 42 (Conducted 6) for the Guild of Clerical Ringers. Michael rang consistently and accurately, and he expected this of others too. His first Peal as Conductor was Plain Bob Minor at Stagsden on 26th August 1949 with Stephen Ivin ringing his first Peal. On 11th January 1951 at Ickwell Green, Northill, Michael and his brother were in the band which rang the first Peal on bicycle bells. This set of handbells was the result of 14 years’ work by Mr G William Wagstaff who was Churchwarden and Tower Captain of Northill. The set was made entirely of bicycle components – the clappers were made out of the spokes and the handles were straps from the panniers. At Kempston on 2nd June 1953, for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Michael rang a Peal of Plain Bob Major which he conducted from the 2nd, his sister rang the 3rd, his brother rang the 7th, and his tutor (Pearl Inskip) was on the 5th. At Bedford on 10th October 1987 he rang in the Guild of Clerical Ringers’ first (and only) twelve bell Peal.
In the 1950s, Michael organised the Bedfordshire Young Ringers’ outings for six years – the name came from a description in The Ringing World of the time. They spent a week, all on bicycles, staying at Youth Hostels and ringing at about two dozen churches – in 1952 they cycled to Devon where one of the original members had married a farmer and the girls were put up in the farmhouse while the boys stayed in the hayloft! In recent times, in retirement, Michael organised reunions of the “young” ringers, but no longer on bicycles. Michael was the Bedfordshire Association’s Secretary and Treasurer from 1952 to 1955 and also from 1959 to 1962.
In 1954, Michael was working as a Surveyor in Deal, Kent where he met his future wife, Molly Thursby, at their lodgings, and he taught her to ring. They married in 1957 at St.Peter-in-Thanet, Broadstairs, Kent and they subsequently moved to Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire for work. They had four children – Janet (1958), Christopher (1961), Martin (1964), and Ruth (1966).
Following selection for the Church of England ordained ministry in 1962, Michael spent two years at Lichfield Theological College with Molly and two children left behind in Bedfordshire – Michael wrote to her, and them, weekly postcards. Michael was ordained in 1964 and moved back to Kent. After his curacy at All Saints, Birchington (8 bells), he was posted to St.Stephen’s, Tovil (1 bell), and later to Brabourne (6 bells) with Smeeth (1 bell). His children remembered one five-bedroomed Victorian vicarage with a huge garden which was a joy to them, but they had to put up with frost on the inside of the windows in winter though.
Following retirement, in September 1994 Michael and Molly moved to Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire where their neighbours were John Sinfield (one of the original Bedfordshire Young Ringers) and his wife June. Following John’s death in 2003, Michael took over the position of Tower Captain and served in that capacity until 2014. Michael’s wife, Molly, sadly died in 2021. Michael remained active as a priest until the Covid epidemic in 2020 and helped with transport for a local church social group.
On 5th May 2023 at Kirkbymoorside, at the age of 93, Michael rang a Quarter Peal of Plain Bob Doubles on the eve of the Coronation of King Charles III, thus becoming one of few ringers to have rung for two Coronations – a feat which resulted in him being interviewed in the ringing room by the regional TV news programme, BBC Look North. It was the unenviable task for the new vicar at Kirkbymoorside to tell Michael that the steep wooden staircase to the ringing room was unsafe for him. It was pointed out that since Michael was receiving communion in the pew because of his reduced mobility, the stairs to the ringing room were certainly too much. The next week Michael presented himself at the alter! With the support of his family and ringers from the District, Michael rang for one final occasion at a ground floor ring the day before his 95th birthday.
Michael had many happy memories of the Guild of Clerical Ringers’ annual outings in Low Week; and over the past 25 years, Michael was a regular contributor to “Thought for the Week” in The Ringing World. His last contribution was in the Christmas 2025 edition in which he reminisced about his 80 years at the end of a rope. Outside his study door, copies of The Ringing World magazine since 1995 were stacked. His valedictory article, published last Christmas, had alongside a reprint of his first from 25 years earlier. A frequent theme of Michael’s “Thoughts” was the connection that ringing has as a reminder and call to the worship of Jesus Christ, whom he served faithfully.
Michael died peacefully in his sleep on 9th April 2026 at the age of 96. His funeral and a celebration of his life was held at All Saints’ Church, Kirkbymoorside on 27th April 2026, this date also being the 69th anniversary of his and Molly’s wedding day. The funeral, attended by about 90 mourners with many more on-line, was followed by a burial in the civic extension to the churchyard, where Michael was interred beside his beloved Molly. The Kirkbymoorside band rang the bells half-muffled before and after the service. As his body was laid to rest in a willow casket, birds were singing on this spring Eastertide afternoon. Michael, may you rest in peace and rise in glory.
Quarter Peals in memory of Michael were rung at Pickering and Bedford on 26th April 2026, and at Macclesfield on 4th June 2026.
Richard Hillson
Acknowledgements:
The Ringing World (5796-7.472), BellBoard, PealBase, Ann Fletcher, Martin Stephens,
Mary Elliott (née Stephens), Phyllis Jones (née Gray), Dale Barton, and Jonathan Rose.