Rev AHM Hope - Rector 1926-1949  

Rev Arthur Henry Monger Hope was born in Australia in 1879 and was installed as Rector in 1926. He was a popular incumbent, with a slight figure, white hair, and a gentle kindly manner, and was greatly missed when he retired in 1950. He kept a diary which makes for interesting reading. In 1930 the tower, which had been virtually unusable, was cleaned, and a new staircase constructed by Mr Hillman, with vestries created on the upper floor. Electric lighting was installed in 1932. In 1935 the vestry door (now the kitchen door) was observed to be on fire at 6.15 am, and quickly put out – a narrow escape for the tower and church. In 1940 his son was killed in France. In the same year a bomb landed on Ealing Golf Clubhouse killing one of his servers and the boy's parents, and in 1947 a choirboy was tragically drowned on a parish outing. During his incumbency, the parish population expanded massively, from around 100 to almost 10,000. He suggested to Benskins Brewery Ltd in 1936 that they should call their new Inn after an ancient Perivale family – hence it became ‘the Myllet Arms'. The two old church bells were re-cast in 1949, with a third bell named after his son Edmund. He retired shortly afterwards, at the age of 70. An altar was installed in the church in his memory around 1972. It contains relics of St Rose of Lima, who was a Dominican nun who lived from 1586 to 1617. She was canonized in 1671, and was the first native saint of South America.

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