The Rev Chad Varah:The Rev Chad Varah, who has died aged 95, was a Church of England clergyman who founded the Samaritans, the counselling service that is often a last resort for people contemplating suicide.
Prince Charles, who is a patron of the charity, summed him up accurately after his death on Thursday, describing him as "an utterly remarkable man" and "an outstanding humanitarian".
Varah founded the Samaritans in 1953 "to befriend the suicidal and despairing", from the crypt of St Stephen Walbrook Church in the City of London. At the time, suicide and attempted suicide were illegal acts in Britain, as in many other countries, including Ireland.
Varah was inspired in his actions by the experience of his first funeral as a curate - a 13-year-old girl who took her own life because she believed she had been infected with a venereal disease, when in fact she had just started to menstruate.
The tragedy prompted Varah to vow to help others break out of the kind of isolation and lack of knowledge he blamed for causing her death.
Varah opened a drop-in centre where volunteers offered emotional support to distressed people. Later a telephone service was developed. Today, the Samaritans is a well-established port of call for people experiencing severe emotional distress, and for those who are depressed or contemplating suicide. The service is confidential and non-judgmental.
The Samaritans now has 202 branches in Britain and Ireland, with 15,500 volunteers providing emotional support around the clock. Its international arm, Befrienders Worldwide, works in more than 40 countries. Varah continued to run the organisation until 1987.
Chad Varah was born at Barton-upon-Humber in Lincolnshire, England, the eldest of nine children. He read politics, philosophy and economics at Keble College, Oxford, before studying at Lincoln Theological College and being ordained in 1936.
Varah served successively as a curate at St Gile's in the City, Lincoln, Putney in London, and Barrow-in-Furness, and as the vicar of the Holy Trinity in Blackburn and St Paul's, Clapham Junction, south London.
He was also an early advocate of sex education, campaigned for tolerance towards HIV and Aids sufferers, and was appointed patron of the Terrence Higgins Trust in 1987. In Queen Elizabeth's millennium honours list, he was awarded membership of the order of the companions of honour for his services to the Samaritans.
Varah had one novel interest outside his vocation as a vicar and his service to the Samaritans. To subsidise his stipend in the 1940s, he built a second career as a children's comic scriptwriter, helping to create the spaceman Dan Dare featured in the Eagle comic from 1950 onwards.
In 1940, he married Doris; they had four sons, including triplets, and a daughter. His wife died in 1993 and his eldest son Michael died in April this year.
Varah died peacefully in his sleep. He is survived by four children, 12 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Edward Chad Varah: born November 12th, 1911; died November 8th, 2007