John Comper

Reverend John Comper (1823–1903) was a priest of the Scottish Episcopal Church who dedicated his life to helping the street children and prostitutes of Victorian Aberdeen.

He was aware that without a university degree he would not be accepted for the priesthood in England, and therefore he turned his attention to Scotland, where the Scottish Episcopal Church was in need of clergy.

He moved from Kirriemuir to Crieff to take part in the educational work at St Margaret's College which had been started by the Revd Alexander Lendrum, embarking on a special course of study in preparation for Holy Orders.

In Nairn he was to take charge of a new Mission raised to mitigate the effects of a schism that had arisen within the newly formed congregation of St Ninian's Church[5] built in 1845.

[6] Comper was also put in charge of the newly created Mission at Cromarty before returning to the Brechin Diocese to fill the vacancy at Stonehaven in 1857.

Frederick G. Lee had absconded from St John's and his predecessor Patrick Cheyne,[7] had been prosecuted by Bishop Thomas Suther for his Tractarian "Six Sermons".

His biographer, "LTA", gives a risible account of the situation thus: "Comper's first act was to initiate the partial use of the Scottish Communion Office — the date being shortly before the General Synod of 1863, and an appeal against Bishop Suther's attempted objections was successful.

Firstly, a day school was built and dedicated to Revd Patrick Cheyne's forty years association with St John's.

Comper was more interested in the welfare of the poor and resigned the charge at St John's in 1870 to spend more time in the mission he had founded in the Gallowgate slums of Aberdeen in 1867.

It was bad enough making your way to church through wet washings, but you also had to hold your nose to prevent smelling the fish barrows parked along one side of the Gallowgate.

The Press & Journal wrote, "He sat in the park and expressed his admiration for all that he saw, saying how surprised he was that the vicinity of Aberdeen contained a place of such varied beauty.

Anthony Symondson[2] tells that thereafter his eldest son, Ninian Comper, signed all his painted glass windows with a wild strawberry, the leaves and stems entwining the date of execution.