The Church Of Ireland
Press Release

The death took place on Monday, 17 January of Canon R. W. M. "Billy" Wynne, M.A., LL.D., who founded the Samaritans in Ireland in 1970. He was aged 80. Canon Wynne is survived by his wife, Cecil, and three sons, John, Peter and Stephen.

The funeral will take place on Thursday, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, at 11.00 am. The address will be given by Canon Cecil Hyland, Rector of Howth, who was Canon Wynne’s curate in Monkstown.

From a clerical background Canon Wynne was born in Navan, Co. Meath, where his father, the Revd. G.R.L. Wynne, was Rector. He was educated at Portora Royal School and Kingstown Grammar School. He left school at 15 and became an apprentice in a seed merchant’s shop in Dawson Street, earning as he loved to recall the princely sum of seven shillings and sixpence!

Later he felt called to the ministry and in 1940 became a student at Trinity College Dublin, from where he graduated in 1944 with a BA degree. That same year he was ordained and served as curate of Clontarf for five years, followed by a second period of three years as curate of Rathmines. In 1952 he was appointed Rector of Delgany and six years later he moved to Monkstown where he was rector for 20 years. In 1978 he became Vicar of St. Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, just across the road from where he worked as a boy. He held this post until his retirement from the full-time ministry in 1987. While at St. Ann’s he pioneered a number of social ministries. Even in retirement he was still deeply involved in many areas of church life, particularly in the Missions to Seamen. He also wrote a much appreciated faith column in The Irish Times.

It was while Rector of Delgany in 1955 that he first became interested in the Samaritans when he was asked by an elderly woman to pray for those thinking of committing suicide. That was at a time when he had been toying with ideas of establishing a telephone ministry.

Some time later through a chance encounter, while helping a former colleague he met the Revd Chad Varah, the founder of the Samaritans. He asked Billy to start a branch of the organisation in Dublin, and for eleven years he pioneered this work from his home in Monkstown.

"People wanted to help but they’d lose interest when there wasn’t enough for them to do. The turning point came when I was a guest on The Late Late Show in 1969 and from there the idea took off. I had great encouragement from the late Archbishop George Simms, and then from others, such as Fr. Jack Brennan, SJ, and Vincent Grogan. With their help we gained support for the establishment of a branch of the Samaritans in Ireland. This eventually happened in 1970," was how Billy recalled the early days of the organisation at its 25th Anniversary celebrations in an address in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1995.

In recognition of his outstanding work he received a numbers of honours. In 1976 he became Prebendary of Dunlavin in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He also received a People of the Year Award and a Dublin Millennium Year Award. In December 1996 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Laws by Dublin University.

A colourful character he was renowned for his sense of humour and was one of the best known clergymen in the Church of Ireland.