Chad's Life and Work
Chad Varah, pioneer
Chad Varah is
considered a pioneer of talking therapies.
Despite having no formal
psychiatric qualifications, he initiated this form of support,
based on his wider experience in the church, and through
establishing the Samaritans service.
He found that if a
distressed individual could be given time and be listened to,
without judgement, they could start to find a way through even the
most difficult feelings.
Suicide was illegal in 1950s
Britain, making the discussion of related thoughts and fears
incredibly difficult for individuals. Chad Varah’s ground-breaking
approach to resolving this contributed immeasurably to fundamental
changes in the law and attitudes towards this difficult
subject.
Moreover, Chad’s role in
creating an international network of charities to help people in
emotional distress and at risk of suicide worldwide, means that it
is no exaggeration to say that global society owes him its
collective thanks.
‘Chad was quite simply an extraordinary man.
His vision – of a society in which people are able to explore their
feelings without fear or prejudice, in turn respecting the feelings
of others – has touched millions of people since we started to
offer emotional support. His legacy is a strong Samaritans which
seeks to make emotional health part of everyday
conversation,"
Former Samaritans Chief
Executive Dominic Rudd
Fulfilling his
vow
Despite an initial
reluctance to follow in his father’s footsteps, the young Chad was
persuaded to study at Lincoln Theological College after graduating
in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Keble College,
Oxford.
The first funeral Chad Varah
took as a curate prompted his lifelong commitment to suicide
prevention and education. The funeral was for a 13-year-old girl
who had taken her own life because she feared she was seriously
ill; in fact she had started to menstruate.
Chad vowed at her graveside
to devote himself to helping other people overcome the sort of
ignorance and isolation that had ultimately caused the young girl’s
death.
Offering a listening ear
The opportunity to act on
his earlier promise to help people in emotional need came in 1953
when Chad was appointed Rector at the Church of St Stephen Walbrook
in the City of London.
In the early 1950s, three
suicides a day were officially recorded in Greater London; suicide
was still an illegal act and sex education hardly existed. Chad
advertised in the press for people to help – not as trained
counsellors, but as ordinary human beings offering a listening ear
and emotional support.
Inundated with offers of
help, he opened the first drop-in centre where emotionally isolated
and distressed people could go to find a sympathetic ear – and
Samaritans was born.
Chad continued to run
Samaritans until 1987, thereafter remaining an active member of the
organisation and retaining a watchful eye over it even after his
retirement.
Promoting sex education
An early proponent of sex
education, Chad Varah alerted society to the approach of the
permissive society, usually associated with the 1960s, with an
article in the Picture Post in 1952. Far more important to
him than the outraged responses of conservative society were the
235 people who wrote in afterwards to bare their souls, 14 of whom
showed signs of considering suicide.
 |
At work at St Stephen Walbrook in
the City of London,
where Samaritans was born in 1953 |
A lifetime of honours
Chad Varah received many
honours as awareness of his achievements grew and more and more
people voiced approval of his work:
- Born in Barton-upon-Humber
in 1911, he was awarded the Freedom of the City of Lincoln in
1999.
- Chad was presented with a
Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2000 Pride of Britain
ceremony.
- Also in 2000, The
Sunday Times listed Chad as one of the 100 most illustrious
and influential Britons of the 20th century.
- In the Millennium New
Year’s Honours List, Her Majesty the Queen awarded the Reverend
Prebendary Dr Chad Varah the Order of the Companion of Honour for
Services to Samaritans. He considered his CH the greatest of his
many honours.
- In 2003 the Bishop of
London presented him with the Cross of St Erkonwald to mark his
long and valued service to the Church of St Stephen Walbrook in the
City of London.
Key dates
| 1911 |
Born Edward Chad Varah in Lincolnshire, the eldest of nine
children |
| 1935 |
Begins lifelong career in the ministry at St Giles,
Lincoln |
| 1940 |
Marries Susan (Doris) Whanslaw. The couple go on to have a
daughter, triplet sons, and a younger son, and later Susan plays a
key role in the Church of England as World President of the
Mothers’ Union |
| 1940s |
Begins ‘second career’ as a comic scriptwriter for Eagle &
Girl & Hulton Press |
| 1953 |
Starts a ‘999 telephone service for the suicidal’ at the Church
of St Stephen Walbrook and Samaritans is born – at a time when
suicide is illegal |
| 1963 |
Elected as Samaritans’ first Chair |
| 1972 |
BBC television series Befrienders, one episode of which
featured Chad’s play, 'Nobody Understands Miranda” |
| 1974 |
Founder Chairman of Befrienders Worldwide and President of
Samaritans |
| 1984 |
Writes the handbook Samaritans: Befriending the
suicidal |
| 1987 |
Thanks to his role as an early advocate for sex education and
campaigner for people with HIV/AIDS, Chad was appointed Patron of
Terrence Higgins Trust, UK's largest HIV/AIDS charity. |
| 1992 |
Founds a new organisation, Magmog (Men Against Genital
Mutilation of Girls). |
| 2003 |
Retires after 50 years as Rector. |
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