Obituary: Canon Ralph Mayland, clergyman

Canon Ralph Mayland, who has died at 93, was Canon Treasurer of York Minster for 12 years and played a leading role in the team that organised the restoration and repair of the South Transept after the disastrous fire of 1984.

Born in Beeston, Leeds and educated at Crossflatts Elementary and Cockburn High schools, he was ordained Deacon in 1959 and Priest in 1960, having completing training at Ripon Hall, Oxford.

He served a first curacy in Lambeth, moving north to Worksop from 1962. In tandem with his parish work, he enlisted as a padre with the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, a role in which he would serve for 33 years.

Moving to the Diocese of Sheffield in 1968, he served as Vicar of St Margaret, Brightside, and then as Vicar of St Mary the Virgin, Ecclesfield. He was also a chaplain with the Sheffield Industrial Mission.

His appointment in 1982 as Canon Residentiary and Canon Treasurer at York Minster was literally a baptism of fire but he would later recall his pride at being able to invite the Queen to rededicate the South Transept in 1988, in a televised ceremony.

He retired in 1994, but remained characteristically active in ministry as honorary curate in the Durham diocese of Brancepeth from 1994 to 1996.

He and Jean, his wife of 60 years, had two daughters and three granddaughters.