Rev J R S Stranack
Priest-in-Charge 1930-1933

John Robert Shuckburgh Stranack (JRSS) was born in Derby in 1897. He was the son of Rev Charles Walter Montague Stranack and Evelyn Blencowe Wood. Rev Charles had been born in Bombay, India, in 1861, as were his siblings. Their father, Richard Brown Stranack was a merchant in India when he married Catherine Fulcher in 1859. 

By age 14, JRSS was one of forty boy choristers boarding at St Pail's Cathedral Choir School in the City of London. Two years later (1913) he became a boarder at Lancing College in Sussex. Among his achievements at Lancing was becoming a Sergeant in the Officers' Training Corps. This led to his commission as an Acting Captain in the 3rd Seaforth Highlanders Regiment after he left Lancing in December 1915. During the First World War, JRSS served in France and Belgium, was mentioned in dispatches and was subsequently awarded the Military Cross.

After his wartime service, JRSS became an Organ Scholar at Oriel College, Oxford. It is recorded that he was an Organist at Pusey House (described on its website as a community "Living and working in the catholic tradition of the Church of England"). After graduating from Oxford, JRSS married Joan Agnes Savory - the marriage service was conducted by his father.  He was then made a Deacon and served his first curacy at St Martin's, Upton Park in East London where he was subsequently Priested. In 1927 he moved as a curate to the parish of Basingstoke, taking up residence in Church Square with his wife and daughter (2 further daughters would be born while the family was in Basingstoke). 

From material recorded by Joh Pearce from issues of the Basingstoke Parish Magazine of the time, it appears that the appointment of a priest to be responsible for All Saints', following the departure of Rev W R L Palmer, was not an easy decision for the Parish Vicar (Rev Boustead). The question of a self-supporting All Saints' Church (which had been encouraged by Rev Palmer previously) remained, with a further appeal having been made for those who had not already done so to join the Church Roll to help attain the goal of self-support so that a priest-in-charge could be appointed again. At a meeting to discuss the priest-in-charge position for All Saints' Rev Boustead had pointed out that with the existing staff of clergy and the six church centres to serve, it seemed to him "...a mistaken policy to allot the whole time of one of the Clergy to one of the six centres. With Rev A Lindsay in charge of Cowdery Down and Rev L Tonkin with Mount Tabor and May Street, St Michael’s, All Saints and St Andrews remained to be divided between the Vicar and the Rev J R S Stranack". Resolving the controversy, Rev Boustead decided to ask  Rev Stranack to take charge of All Saints "...with the hope that the Parish as a whole would not suffer".

It was announced in November 1932 that Rev S. Stranack had been appointed Vicar of All Saints, Alton. At the same time, it was also announced that Rev Tonkin, another clergy staff member, was leaving for a parish in Cornwall. Rev Boustead said he understood prayers were already being offered at All Saints' for a new priest-in-charge. His comment was “excellent” but there still seems to have been stresses and strains in the Parish as he asked: “Pray all of you that a Priest with a large vision might be sent, who sees the needs of that vast number of souls in the new villages around us — eyes that see from Hackwood to Merton Farm, from Coronation Road to South Ham.” 

Rev Stranack left All Saints in December 1932 after a productive couple of years galvanising the congregation. He took up his new post as Vicar in Alton, where in 1940 he was also appointed Rural Dean. From there he moved to Southampton, in 1946, to become  Rector of North Stoneham with Bassett, a position he held for 6 years. From Southampton, he went on to St Katherine's, Southbourne where he stayed until 1959 when he was appointed to Christ Church at Emery Down near Lyndhurst in the New Forest.  Rev Stranack died in Blandford, Dorset in 1990.