MOURNERS led by Bishop Derek Bond and vicar, the Rev Barry Collins, packed St Peter's Church in Bengeworth for a funeral and requiem mass for retired priest, the Rev Sydney Lambert.

He served as an assistant curate in Oxford before taking the role of assistant master at Bishop Cotton School in Bangalore, India, from 1945 to 1949.

After a spell as assistant rector of the Church of the Advent in Cincinnati, he was appointed Chaplain to the Forces from 1950 to 1967.

In later life he served as priest-in-charge at Bourton-on-the-Hill and Todenham with Lower Lemington from 1978 to 1983.

His widow Isabelle said: "We retired to Bengeworth in 1983 and for many years he was able to take services at St Peter's.

"Indeed, there is not a parish church in the Evesham Deanery at which he has not taken services."