A PRIEST with over 60 years service in south-west Scotland has died peacefully aged 88. Canon Eugene Mathews died in Ainslie Manor nursing home in Girvan, where he was parish priest for 25 years. And in his time he served in parishes including Maybole, Kilmarnock, Kilbirnie, Kirkconnel and Saltcoats.

Canon Mathews was involved in the day-to-day work of the Sacred Hearts parish in Girvan up until three years ago. But even after giving up these duties, he continued to attend parish events, visit friends, and contribute his popular column The Lighthouse, to the Carrick Gazette newspaper. Dumfries-born Canon Mathews studied at the Scots College in Rome before World War II. But when Italy entered the war in 1940, he continued his studies in Bearsden and London. However, the young priest returned to Rome in 1946, making him the only student to have been at the Scots College both before and after the war.

He held a degree in canon law, and was recognised as an authority, both in the Diocese of Galloway, and in Scotland as a whole. Canon Mathews became a respected figure both in Girvan and Maybole, where he was parish priest from 1963-67. He was known for his polite and gentlemanly bearing. But he was also someone who could dig in his heels over issues on which he held strong views. And his strong character and fierce independence kept him going when lesser men would have called it a day.

Canon Mathews wrote his autoibiography in two volumes, and led many pilgrimages to Lourdes, a place he loved. He was happy to assert: “I want to die in harness.” And these were not idle words from a man of great character who was also ‘a character’ in his own right.