Rev G M Wheeler
Priest-in-Charge 1909-1912

George Massey Wheeler was a grandson of Sir Hugh Massy Wheeler (1789 – 1857), an Irish-born officer in the army of the East India Company. Sir Hugh commanded troops in the First Anglo-Afghan War, and the First and Second Anglo-Sikh Wars. He lived in India from at least 1816 until his death 1857 when (according to his Wikipedia entry) his surrender to Nana Sahib during the Indian Rebellion led to the annihilation of almost all the European, Eurasian and Christian Indian population of Cawnpore, himself and several members of his family included.

One of Sir High's children (by his second wife) was Charles Eyre Wheeler, born in 1845 (and like all his siblings, in India).  Charles may have spent his early years in England - he married in Staffordshire in 1865,but by 1867 was resident in India (probably employed by the East India Company)  where he remained until his death in 1881. One of Charles' sons was George Massey Wheeler.

George Massey Wheeler (like Charles' other children) was born in India, he at Mhow in the Diocese of Calcutta in November 1867. Unlike his father and grandfather, he does not appear to have spent much of his life in India. The 1871 Census shows 3-year old George with his mother  in Staffordshire  at the house of hid mother's brother, Rev Richard M Grier, Vicar of Rugeley. Ten years later, George is a boarder at Kingsley College Priory, Northam, Devon.

George was ordained as a Deacon in Durham Cathedral in June 1898, and the following year he married Florence Mary Timms, before becoming a curate in the parish of St Nicholas, Guildford, where their son was born. Rev Wheeler and his family left Guildford in November 1907 and moved to the parish of Basingstoke. Rev Wheeler took on the responsibility for All Saints' Church when Rev E Lang left in 1909. The 1911 Census shows Rev Wheeler lived at 5 Church Square, Basingstoke  with his wife, Florence, son, Martin, and their cook and nurse.

An article headlined "Church Extension at Basingstoke - All Saints' Enlargement Scheme Approved" appeared in the 28th September 1910 issue of the Hampshire Observer and Basingstoke News. It reports on a meeting which was attended by Rev Boustead (the Parish Vicar) and Rev Wheeler. It recounts that it had been the intention of the previous Parish Vicar, Rev Cooper Smith (who had purchased the site and erected the "temporary" church), to have a permanent All Saints' church built by 1905. However, the urgent need to provide additional accommodation at St John's School resulted in the plans for All Saints' being shelved.  [By 1904, a parish committee had obtained plans for a permanent church from Mr Hodgson Fowler "... one of the most eminent architects of the day". The plans presented a church that "... was commodious, open and dignified". (From a report in the Hampshire Observer, April 1904)]. To provide room for the erection of a permanent building on the site, the "temporary" church had been constructed running north-to-south at the site's eastern boundary. The 1910 proposal was to extend the existing church from its southern end towards Southern Road, in order to accommodate larger congregations. The meeting closed with the intention of completing the extension by November 1st 1910 (All Saints' festival).

Rev Wheeler left Basingstoke at the beginning of 1912 and in February was "...inducted to the perpetual curacy of St Alban's., Hindhead".  The Hampshire Observer report of this event noted, in describing St Alban's, that at the time "... only the east end has as yet been built, but this gives some indication of what an imposing edifice the completed church will be". He remained as Vicar of Hindhead until 1918, afterwards becoming Rector of St Nicholas, Guildford (where he had previously been a curate), Chaplain of St John, Mentone, and (1933-1935) Rector of Lapford in Devon. By 1939, he was a resident of St Raphael's Lodge, a convalescent home in Torquay.  He died in a nursing home in Haywards Heath in 1955.