Getting to know....Richard Challoner

Our churchwarden Richard Challoner’s connections with both Nice and Holy Trinity are deep and long-standing. As a youngster, he passed many times through Nice en route to visiting family in Italy. From 1974, school holidays were spent at Le Broc above the Var and when his father became British Consul here and his parents moved to Nice, Richard spent more time here. He remembers first visiting the presbytery in1980 with his father when Fr John Pelling was chaplain, and also his great delight at discovering the English-American Library. Morag Jordan spoke with Richard about his many roles in our community and what it is that drew him here.

Our Resident Archivist

Richard moved permanently to Nice twenty five years ago and started attending Holy Trinity regularly. He became a volunteer librarian and later a member of the library committee. At that time he also began helping George Fortune sell books at Vide Greniers. In 2014 George asked Richard if he would be interested in taking over Holy Trinity's Archive and a whole new 'chapter' began. Confronted with a jumble of boxes and documents, over the next few years Richard gradually restored order, separating financial material from historical and beginning the process of indexing and cataloguing, which is still in progress. Now baptismal, marriage and burial registers are all indexed so that whenever Holy Trinity receives a request for a family record a name can be instantly searched for and located in its register, without having to search through and potentially damage these fragile and valuable records.

Our Historical Sleuth and Author

As a trained historian, Richard is absolutely passionate about libraries, archives and historical records. He enjoys continually learning new things and likens research to detective work, requiring hard work and patience, some tangential thinking, and often a great deal of luck. His detective work has included successfully tracking down five boxes of materials missing from the archives, uncovering stories from Holy Trinity's history and people related to it, and discovering an unknown letter written by Horatio Nelson while he was researching on Holy Trinity in the National Archives in Kew and Richard wrote an article about this discovery which was published in ‘History Today’. Richard is both the author of our website’s History section as well as a series of articles about Holy Trinity and Nice, the first of which “Holy Trinity and the Promenade” was recently published; there are more such articles to come, so watch this space.

Richard also plans to write a new short History of Holy Trinity from 1822 to the present day. Although begun before Covid, his research for this was interrupted by all the work he had to undertake during the interregnum before Fr Jeremy was appointed; however, he will soon resume again so watch this space for publication news in a couple of years!

Our Film Projectionist

Film Night was originally started by Fr Peter Jackson as a monthly event and was a great success. The COVID pandemic brought it to a temporary halt but once life started up again, with Fr Peter's blessing, Richard took it over. Richard shows a DVD from either his own collection or from those given to Holy Trinity or contributed by fellow enthusiasts. Richard says “It can be difficult sometimes to find a film that everyone will enjoy. In these trying times I generally look for “feel good” movies but also try to intersperse traditional classics with more challenging films. Film Night is a fun occasion but also I think, a form of outreach as it attracts newcomers to Holy Trinity, even those who would not normally come to a church.”

Our Churchwarden

Richard joined our Church Council in 2016. Since he was working so often in the archives he also used to help our wardens around the church, so in 2018 when Michael Killbourn stepped down

as warden he and Jill Pirdas persuaded Richard to become Church Warden. Richard explains “It has been a very steep learning curve as I really had little idea what was involved; but thanks to the great support and kindness of Fr Peter, Jill and Michael, I have learned a great deal, not least about myself and what I am capable of. I am continually learning and it is a privilege to be part of a great team at Holy Trinity. It is such a pleasure and so satisfying to see the church thrive, to help protect its heritage, enhance the church and to make it more secure by for example installing the electronic gates and net fencing on Rue de la Buffa”. 

Richard also greatly enjoys his work as sacristan on Saturdays, preparing the cruets, ciborium and other elements for the Eucharist and setting them out on Sunday mornings. These are times of peace and contemplation which he feels, helps bring him closer to God. The time that Richard also spends in the church carrying out repairs, such as replacing tiles and working on DIY, means that he knows the church intimately like an old friend. Richard says that spending this time in the church has allowed “the space and time to think about my faith in peace and has given me something to focus my mind on”.

What Drew Richard to Holy Trinity?

Richard’s early experience of religion at school was difficult and negative and began a life-long struggle with his faith. Although he has found warmth and kindness in Catholic Churches, the openness and acceptance of the Church of England, as well as the Ordination of women, attracted Richard; and so Holy Trinity, having featured so long in his life, became a natural home. Holy Trinity is now the church Richard has attended most regularly throughout his life and here he has been able to develop his faith by learning from others and by seeing different ways of looking at scripture through, for example, bible study groups and the many wonderful chaplains he has known here.

Richard values Holy Trinity’s community immensely. Initially through his parents and then over the ensuing years, Richard got to know many of Holy Trinity’s long-standing members. Today he is delighted to see so many new people joining our community which he finds so loving and supportive. “Holy Trinity has always been a special place, and I think embodies the best that the Church of England has to offer. It never ceases to amaze me how close and vibrant the community of Holy Trinity is. We are a family and it is a pleasure and a privilege to be part of it.”

And of course as a historian, Richard loves Holy Trinity’s history and legacy, its buildings, the sense of peace and welcoming atmosphere, but he looks to the future too and as Churchwarden does all he can to help build and grow our church family for the generations to come.