Tributes to vicar whose church career took him across the world

A retired vicar who served in five parishes across the Manchester and Blackburn dioceses - creating a new church in Flixton - has died, aged 89. Fred Cooke, whose colourful church career also took him to the Middle East and the Far East, died peacefully at his home in Canterbury Gardens, Salford, said his wife of 64 years, Helen. She said Fred and his late sister Jean were born in Prestwich to Ronald and Dorothy Cooke, and he went to Eccles Grammar School, where he became head boy.

He then did his national service in the RAF, becoming a flying officer and he learned to fly a Harvard plane while serving in Canada. He later became a regional chaplain for the Air Training Corps in the north west. At 20, Fred went to Selwyn College, Cambridge, to study natural sciences and he completed his degree in just two years before he felt the calling to join the ministry.

He then spent a year studying theology and another year teaching at Salford Grammar School before returning to Cambridge for two years of theological training. He was ordained as a deacon in 1961 and priest in 1962 and became a curate at St Michael’s Church in Flixton. In 1964, he became curate in charge of St John’s Church, then a small daughter church in the parish.

Helen said he was determined to build a new church and, undeterred when told there was no money available, launched a major campaign to raise £50,000. (Image: Family) “It was a real community outreach project,” said Helen, who was a ballet teacher. .