(William) John Kinchin

28/01/1938 - 08/11/2022

William John Kinchin (always known as John) was born on 28th January 1938 in the Hospital of Saint Cross in Rugby and grew up an only child in Yelvertoft, Northamptonshire. He joined the church choir as a boy, and when his voice broke, decided to try his hand at bellringing.
Whilst in the RAF on National Service at Gaydon as a Navigational Instrument Fitter (working on Valiant Bombers) he convinced the powers that be to classify bellringing as a sport, so whilst everybody else was running around he was out bellringing with his friends!
He travelled to and from the RAF camp (and to bellringing) on his trusty motorbike. The registration was KRP and it was known as “Kinchin’s Roaring Putt-Putt”. On one occasion, he was taking a friend on the back of said motorbike to go bellringing. They entered a narrow country lane across a field – seeing the road on the other side of the field in the distance, Dad assumed the road was straight and opened her up!!
Unfortunately, there was a slight hill in said field, and just over the brow of the hill the road did a tight hairpin turn! There was no way Dad could take the turn, so he did the sensible thing and kept going straight across the field! I guess it was rather a rough ride, as apparently his passenger called him some colourful names and decided to walk back to camp! He never rode pillion on Dad’s bike again!
In 1961 he left the RAF and started work at English Electric in Whetstone. In the same year he married Mary Wilford and they moved to Braunstone Town on the outskirts of Leicester. They both joined the band at St Andrew’s Aylestone, where in those days Surprise Major was often rung for Sunday Service. Dad ultimately became Tower Captain.
In the mid-eighties, he joined the band at St Peter’s in Whetstone where the bells had recently been augmented from 6 to 8. Again, Dad got involved, and on occasion the practice nights at Whetstone were like Aylestone from the 70’s with some cracking ringing! Who can forget “Uncle Jim’s” super-fast touches of Stedman with impeccable striking!
Dad was never happy with the sound of the two new trebles at Whetstone, they sounded rather harsh and didn’t really fit with the rest of the bells. When Mum passed away early in 2021, we, as a family, decided to donate two new bells to replace these. The resulting bells are super and really sing out. We are so grateful Dad was able to ring on these bells and hear them. Even though the bells are in memory of Mum, we will always think of them as being in memory of Dad as well. He was so pleased with the finished result, and proud he was able to don his overalls and assist with the hanging.
He wasn’t a prolific peal ringer, but he rang 20 full peals and numerous quarter peals. His first peal was in 1953 at Stanford on Avon and was 3 doubles methods. He was always a stickler for excellent striking – he would rather ring well struck call changes than badly struck surprise! He regularly visited us in Sheringham and was a valuable asset to the ringing at the newly rehung Upper Sheringham, assisting with the teaching of many of the learners there.
In the spring of 2022, Dad started to get a little breathless. Nothing much, we didn’t think, he was 84 after all. He started to struggle a little with walking up hills, but was still going bellringing and climbing the ladder to wind the church clock every week!
Unfortunately, he ended up in Glenfield Hospital diagnosed with lung disease which progressed alarmingly quickly. He passed away in hospital on Tuesday 8th November 2022. He leaves 2 daughters (Anne and Sue), 5 Grandsons (Christopher, Nicholas, Michael, Richard and Simon) and a great-granddaughter Evelyn. All except Evelyn are bellringers, and we imagine as soon as little Evelyn is big enough she will continue the family tradition.


Author: Sue Morton