Obituaries

Fr Eric Thacker
REV ERIC THACKER, who served first as a Methodist minister, then as an Anglican vicar before becoming a Catholic priest died on Wednesday 5 November. He was 74.
Eric Thacker was born on in Leeds in 1923 and was brought up as a Methodist. He became a lay preacher in 1950 and was ordained to the Methodist ministry in June 1957. He served on the Bolton Circuit before going to India as a missionary. After five years he returned to England to work in West Yorkshire and Manchester, resigning from the Methodist Church in 1976.
On 5 December 1976, Eric was ordained to the Anglican Ministry by the assistant Bishop of Manchester at Holy Innocents, Fallowfield. He worked as a curate in the parishes of Rusholme and Fallowfield before becoming a team vicar in Seacroft, Leeds in 1978. During 1981, he became vicar of Womersley and Kirk Smeaton in until resigning from the Anglican ministry in 1985; Eric and his second wife Jean (his first wife, Doreen died in 1969) were received into the Catholic Church on 13 December 1985. He was ordained to the Catholic priesthood on 3 November 1990 at the Immaculate Heart church, Moortown, Leeds. One of the chaplains at St James's Hospital, Leeds, he also assisted with parish work at Immaculate Heart and St Patrick's Leeds.
Due to ill health he retired from active ministry on 1 May this year. He is survived by his wife, two sons and three daughters.
Fr Stephen Diggins
LIVERPOOL BORN Stephen Diggins was educated at St Gerard's School and studied at St Edward's College and at the English College, Lisbon where he was ordained to the priesthood on 25 May 1929.
In June 1929 he was appointed as Assistant Priest at St Thomas of Canterbury, St Helens where he remained for 10 years until in October 1939 he moved to St Joan of Arc, Bootle. In May 1940 after the outbreak of war he became an Army Chaplain returning to the Archdiocese in /VIarhc 1946 as Assistant Priest at St Philip Neri, Liverpool. In June 1947, he returned to St Helens to be parish priest of St Vincent's, Derbyshire Hill where he was to serve for 35 years until his retirement in September 1932.
In retirement he first lived in Southport before moving to Ince Blundell Hall in 1993. He died at midday on Tuesday 30 September 1997. May he rest in peace.