Remains of tv actor and clergyman to be cremated

 

VETERAN actor and retired Anglican priest Roger Grainger, who died on Sunday night in a freak flash flood on Achill Island,  is to be cremated and his ashes flown to his native Wakefield, Yorkshire, where they will be interred with the remains of his wife, Doreen, who died a number of years ago.

Luminaries  of stage and screen are expected in St. Thomas Church, Dugort, Achill, on Saturday at 11 a.m. when a funeral service for Rev. Grainger will take place.

On Monday, two of Rev Grainger's sons, Matthew and Daniel, will bring the cremated remains to Wakefield Cathedral where a service of holy communion, organised by his family, will take place next week.

Rev. Grainger is mourned also by his two other sons, Toby and Ben, and his former wife, Pamela.

The Achill community, with whom Rev Grainger had a close bond, is expected to turn out in large numbers for Saturday's church ceremony.

Rev. Grainger, who was RADA trained and starred in a string of TV dramas including 'Last of the Summer Wine', 'Heartbeat' and 'Emmerdale', was drowned in the village of Dugort, Achill, around 10 p. m. on Sunday night after driving into floodwaters as he drove home from visiting friends.

During a long, energetic and varied career, he also worked as a registered drama therapist, counselling therapist and a psychiatrist chaplain to the Stanley Boyd Hospital in Wakefield, West Yorkshire