A Change of Patron

Dame Helen Mirren has been the patron of the Leigh-on-Sea Endeavour Trust since then Chair Mike King invited her to take up the role in 2021.

Dame Helen remains as active as ever and that left little time for her to give much attention to the Trust. The last contact we had was a thank you for our birthday wishes on her 80th birthday last July. Our chair, Cameron wrote thanking her for having held the role, explaining that it was felt that the Trust needed a local patron that would be able to be more active in supporting the Trust.

To that end, we are delighted to be able to welcome to the role the Revd Fr. David Wylie RN. Born and brought up in Westcliff-on-Sea, after a short career as Chartered Accountant in the City, David became a priest in the Church of England. Parish ministry in central London was followed by the Navy as a Chaplain in 1998.

During 19 years full time service he trained and worked mostly with the Royal Marines from arctic to deserts and jungle. His operational experience included Northern Island, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq , Afghanistan and Sierra Leone. He moved to the reserves in 2017, and returned to Parish Ministry in Leigh at St. Margaret’s. He also acts as Chaplain to the Sea Cadets and Royal Marine Cadets, the Royal British Legion both in Leigh and at county level.

He hopes that his patronage with the Endeavour trust may enable some mutual support across key local groups and people which honours our past helps build up community life today for the benefit of our successors to come. 

We know we speak for all of our members when we welcome Father David to the Trust and look forward to working with him in future.