Chaplain John Northey Oates was born at Gateshead in February 1908 and trained for the Ministry at Paton College, Nottingham. Ordained at Bakewell, Derbyshire in 1935, he moved to Hanover, Stockport in 1939, an appointment that was interrupted by war service as a Chaplain to the Royal Air Force from 1942. Opting to stay in the Service, Oates went on to serve in South East Asia and finally retired in 1959. He was latterly Vicar of Amble and died in July 1981, aged 73 years.