Ronald Ayres

That distinction aside, his ministry was marked by sensitivity and the quality of his pastoral care.

The younger of two children – he had an elder sister – he was born in Wimbledon and evacuated during the war to both Chichester and Cornwall.

Mr Ayres, who has died aged 80, excelled in drama and English when he was at school and became an authority on Shakespeare, never missing an opportunity to visit Stratford-Upon-Avon.

After leaving school at 16, he worked in Chelsea library, and when he was 21, he trained as a Baptist Minister at Spurgeon’s College. His first appointment was to Merstham, in Surrey, where he developed a large youth club and produced open-air Christmas nativities.

In 1964 he accepted an appointment as minister of Normanton Baptist Church. He married in 1970, but his wife Pauline died just five years later from inoperable cancer.

A sensitive man whose pastoral and spiritual care were of the highest order, he became an occasional retreat conductor at Scargill House in the Yorkshire Dales, and was a member of the pastoral care team at Fieldhead hospital.

In Normanton he formed an active Baptist church youth club, and produced and directed plays for the newly-formed Normanton Players drama society.

He helped to run holidays for PHAB, the charity which brings physically handicapped and able-bodied people together, and was renowned for his ability to include the most disabled of people in an acting role.

The first play he did was Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas.

A member of the religious drama group Radius and the Pamela Keighley Players, Mr Ayres recognised the important role drama can play in the life of a community. He was also a governor of Freeston Academy in Normanton.

A man with an infectious laugh and a warm sense of humour, and who always kept an open house, he touched innumerable lives through the many sides of his ministry.

He is survived by his sister Audrey and his ever faithful dog, Bob.