downthetubes is sorry to report the death of Reverend Edward Chad Varah, who co-founded and wrote comic strips for Eagle, and Girl, and was what he himself once described as “Scientific and Astronautical Consultant” for “Dan Dare”. He was 95.
While also undertaking his duties as as vicar of St Paul’s Clapham Junction and Chaplain of St John’s Hospital Battersea he recalled that “When I wasn’t running an ‘open’ youth club, or bawling prayers at geriatric patients, or teaching in my Church School, or cycling around giving Holy Communion to the sick, I was pounding my typewriter up to 2 or 3am earning my living, as my stipend was only enough to pay my secretary.
“There was no time to discover whether I was happy or not, and I’ve managed to keep it that way.
“Chad Varah… was with me from the first,” Eagle founder Reverend Marcus Morris once decclared, “and brought his considerable powers of mind and invention to write not only the scripts for our Bible stories but also to take on the scripting of Dan Dare at a moment’s notice.”
Dan Dare was originally conceived as an Anglican chaplain, described as “Chaplain Dan Dare of the Interplanet Patrol”, such were the Christian ideals of the Eagle’s co-founders.
“I had the pleasure of meeting Chad at a couple of events over the years,” recalls downthetubes contributor Richard Sheaf, “and he was always very approachable and happy to talk about his Eagle days.”
Varah, who dedicated his life to both education and the provision of emotional support, founded The Samaritans in 1953 with one telephone line “to befriend the suicidal and despairing” and saw it grow into a world-wide organisation helping thousands of people to avoid the ultimate act of desperation. He insisted it should not be a religious organisation.
The Movement is now a household name, with 202 branches in UK and Ireland, and around 15,500 Samaritans volunteers providing confidential, non-judgmental, emotional support, around the clock.
Chad wrote most of the “Dan Dare” story, “Marooned on Mercury”, after Hampson wrote and drew the first two weeks’ continuity, before succumbing to the first of his two long absences with overwork. Varah took over the writing for him and the art was by Harold Johns and Greta Tomlinson.
(This continued until the end of the story, after which Hampson returned to start “Operation Saturn“, before succumbing a second time, this time leaving Don Harley to take over).
Chad supplemented his income by working as a scriptwriter not only for Eagle, also writing a religious feature on the back page bearing his by-line, but its three sister publications, Girl, Robin and Swift, until 1961. Some of his other stories included “Adelaide”, the story of the woman who became the most powerful woman in Europe, “Lone Mission” (the story of Gladys Aylward), “Bride of Ireland” (the story of St Bride), “Angel of Mercy” (the story of Florence Nightingale) and “Marie Curie”, all drawn by Gerry Haylock, and “The Travels of Marco Polo”.
More controversially, but in line with a long-standing commitment to sex education, he was for the better part of three decades a member of the board of reference of the British edition of the adult magazines, Forum and Penthouse Forum.
In 1972, he received enormous publicity when the BBC televised eleven episodes of The Befrienders. The attention meant that he was included in the Sunday Times list of “1000 Makers of the 20th Century”.
Dr Varah retired from the Samaritans in 1986. He was awarded an OBE in 1967, and CBE in 1995; and the Queen Order of the Companion of Honour for Services to the Samaritans in the Millennium New Year’s Honours List, in 2000. He had previously been awarded the Albert Schweitzer Gold Medal in 1972, and in 1981 Keble College made him an Honorary Fellow. The Daily Mirror gave him its Pride of Britain Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990, and an honorary doctorate was conferred by Leeds University in 1995.
Edward Chad Varah, CH, CBE Born 12th November, 1911, died 8th November 2007, in Basingtoke. He is survived by four sons and one daughter, Felicity.
Monday 23rd September 2024 Update: in 2023, a commemorative plaque to honour Chad Varah was unveiled in the town where he was born. The plaque at the station in Barton-upon-Humber, North Lincolnshire, marks 70 years since the Rev Chad Varah took the charity’s first phone call, on 2nd November 1953 | BBC News story
Web Links
• Wikipedia: Reverend Chad Varah
• Before I Die Again: The Autobiography of the Founder of Samaritans
In his autobiography, Chad Varah tells how he founded the Samaritans in 1953 after reading that there were three suicides a day in London alone. He also wrote The Samaritans: Befriending the Suicidal, Samaritans in the 70s and provided an introduction for SOS: The Samaritans
• The Times: Samaritans’ Chad Varah: a daughter’s view (Subscription Required)
The charity’s founder spent his life helping people. His daughter talks about his career, affairs and legacy
• Marooned on Mercury: A Story Guide and Review by Martin Crookall
2007 Tributes to Chad Varah
• Bear Alley: A Tribute by Steve Holland
Steve’s tribute offers more detail on Reverend Varah’s strip credits
• BBC News: Samaritans founder dies aged 95
8th November 2007
• The Church Times
15th November 2007
“All his life, Chad Varah, said what others were frightened to say, and it earned him much calumny. Courageous, outspoken, devout, and abrasive, he was one of the best-known priests in England and beyond.”
• The Guardian
9th November 2007
• Independent Catholic News: Founder of the Samaritans has died
The Prince of Wales, who is patron of the Samaritans (now King Charles), paid tribute, saying: “Chad Varah was an utterly remarkable man who founded an organisation which has saved the lives of countless people since 1953. He was an outstanding humanitarian and a great Briton.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said: “Chad Varah made a unique contribution to the life of our whole society, changing attitudes to suicide and bringing a distinctively pastoral and wholly non-judgmental approach to people in need.”
Obituaries also appeared in the Daily Telegraph (9th November 2007) and The Independent (9th November), no longer available on the newspapers’ websites
Item with thanks to Jeremy Briggs. This article was updated on Monday 23rd September 2024 with thanks to Martin Crookall, for additional information on the creation of “Marooned on Mecury”
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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