NECROLOG

REV DAVID JOHNSON

The Reverend David Johnson, an eccentric and troublesome priest, died in April 2020 aged 66. Described as an attention-seeker and an exhibitionist, his sartorial style resembled a 1920s clergyman. His wardrobe included high starched collars, stockings, buckled shoes, a stalking cape, frock coats and a straw boater; he was frequently observed smoking a pipe in a theatrical manner.

He was born in 1953 in Ponteland in Northumberland to a civil servant father and Scottish mother; he was both embarrassed and proud at being a northerner. He read Divinity at Selwyn College, Cambridge; when Archbishop Donald Coggan visited the college, Johnson hung the organ scholar’s underwear