Church Army remembers former chairman Admiral Sir Horace Law

Admiral Sir Horace Law, who died recently, aged 93, served as board member and chairman of Church Army from February 1973 until May 1987. He is fondly remembered by many who worked with him during this time.

Writing in the February 17 2005 issue of The Times, Bishop Michael Turnbull former Chief Secretary of Church Army 1975-1984 writes of Sir Horace, “ As a Church Army board member and then chairman in the 1970s and 1980s, he was never content to remain at headquarters. He travelled tirelessly to the hostels, shared meals with the homeless and gave encouragement to Church Army officers working in difficult environments.”

“His naval experience on the front line enabled him to understand the demands of that other front line among the poor and the hardships that had to be endured if that battle were to be won. In the Church Army his leadership and management skills were employed to the full but were given authenticity by his desire to see the sharp end for himself,” he stated. “Another mutual friend, the shipbuilder Sir Eric Yarrow, testifies to this integrity in Admiral Law’s negotiations as Controller of the Navy. It seems his life, though lived in vastly different spheres, was all of a piece, informed and inspired by a rigorous but never dour Christian faith.”

Speaking at his funeral, his eldest son Robert said,”My father fully committed his life as a disciple of Christ after a conversation on the quarterdeck of HMS Valliant at Gibraltar in 1931 with a fellow officer, Lieutenant Eric Hart-Dyke. What is clear from his journals, letters and his address at the Empire Youth Day service at Westminster Abbey in 1942, is that Dad made his faith central to his life and in all the decisions he had to make.”

Admiral Sir Horace Law, GCB, OBE, DSC, Controller of the Navy, 1965-70, was born on June 23, 1911, and died on January 30, 2005. His wife Heather died in 1996, and he is survived by their two sons and two daughters.

Click on relevant publication below to read the obituaries published in The Times and The Telegraph