Midday Sun - Richard Turnbull told me this man's story - 'He had first met this strange, itinerant English priest in 1935 in one of the remoter parts of the NFD, trudging along a sandy track carrying a small Gladstone bag, a ground-sheet and nothing else. He wore a crumpled, threadbare suit that hinted at a clerical cut, and a pair of sandals. A trader's lorry had dropped him at a duka where water could be had by digging for it, and the next source of water was 50 miles farther on. He had promised, he explained, to look up the sons of Mohamed Ahamed of the Habier Sulieman clan, and did not like to disappoint the family. In gentle tones he added: 'I hope it will not embarrass you if I tell you that I put my faith in God and that God looks after me. It's a funny business, but I've never queried it, and it has always worked.' So Dick Turnbull left him in the desert, but sent out two tribal policemen to follow him at a discreet distance and to go to his aid should aid be needed. That same evening Padre Cheese, as he was known, came up with a Somali 'village' - a family group on the move, with all its possessions, in a never-ending search for camel-browse. The people were on their way to the Lorian swamp and should by then have reached it, but a freak storm had brought up some unexpected browse and so they had delayed their departure. The tribal policemen returned to camp, reporting that this was a very holy man and that it was the will of God that no harm should come to him. In all Padre Cheese's time in the North he made two Christian converts. But he never despaired, nor did the nomads ever refuse him food and shelter. His grand design was to translate the Gospels into Somali, but as this tongue still lacked a written orthography he was obliged to settle for the use of Arabic characters. He translated the Gospel according to St Luke and the whole of Pilgrim's Progress, retreating for the purpose to Lamu, where a hospitable Arab provided him with a room and writing materials. In appearance he was a pale, thin, ascetic-looking individual with a shy and diffident manner. He had entered Kenya in 1930 from Ethiopia, having been a missionary in Addis Ababa and in Palestine before that. ..... he had been ordained in 1902, so must have been a man of over 50 when he took to the nomadic life, and nearly 60 when Dick Turnbull came upon him carrying his small Gladstone bag. 17 years later, Dick found him living in Lamu and looking older than his 70 odd years. On Sundays he would preach to a handful, a very small handful, of Christians, consisting usually of the DC, one or two followers of the Salvation Army, and the DC's staff of Goan clerks, who were Roman Catholics but came to the services to give the old man pleasure. Padre Cheese preached long and rather rambling sermons, and then adjourned to Sunday luncheon with the DC, probably his only square meal of the week. He died in 1959 on his way back to England and was buried at sea. 'He had no aim in life but to serve God' was the Somali verdict.'

Curtis - Paddy Schofield - Life at Lamu in the Inter War years - ...... Gregory (Gregory-Smith) waded ashore to greet him and within a short time they'd discovered they'd both been at school at Rugby. Thus we met John Ethelstan Cheese. Jack Clive was to nickname him 'St Ivel', and he was probably the nearest thing to a saint that any of us will ever meet. Years later, when back in Kenya in 1967, I heard and read something of his early background. He came from quite a wealthy family, went to Aden as a missionary, and whilst there so fell in love with the Somali people that he decided to devote his life to them, and to model his life as nearly as possible on that of Jesus. He travelled all over Ethiopia and Somaliland with no money and no possessions other than a change of clothing, living with the people and teaching them about his God. It is probable that he never made a convert amongst those dedicated Muslims, but they recognised him as a good man. On Sundays Cheesie loved to hold 'a little service' in our living room. The Clives came and we sat in a row, on hard chairs, listening to long and rambling sermons, which took us on safaris round and round Ethiopia but seldom had any bearing on the text.

Foster - ordained in 1902. CMS Missionary to the Muslims of the E Coast of Africa and Somaliland. He died in May 1960

Web - John Ethelstan Cheese first arrived in Jerusalem in 1912, a quiet curate on sick leave. He died aboard ship in the Mediterranean in 1958, worn out by years of travel, mostly on foot, a wandering pilgrim to the last. He was spartan, quixotic, unpredictable, yet deceptively resilient and dauntless beneath his gentle exterior. He blessed all who knew him with his Christian fidelity even when he challenged them with his utter simplicity of life or exasperated them with his idiosyncracies. Ethelstan Cheese represents many other holy and humble members of our Church. Others have been more able, more expert, more predictable than he. Few have been more dogged, more self-effacing, more spartan. Constance Padwick wrote "he was one of God's mystery men" Truly he travelled light. Money was nothing to him, nor ease, nor fame. With stooping gait and a tawny beard, he was looked on as a wali, or holy man, as he walked over the countryside. Ain Anoub in Lebanon, Hargeisa in Somalia, Aden, Mombasa, Cairo, Muscat, Damascus, Addis Ababa - wherever it might be - he came and went, happy to fill a gap, to act as chaplain, to befriend the needy, to share his faith and compassion. His way disconcerted some officials. But ordinary people loved him for his transparent honesty and his rugged gentleness.

Web - Deacon 1901, Ordained 1902; 1901-1915 Curate of Freshwater, Isle of Wight; 1922-25 Chaplain at Beirut and Missionary in Jerusalem Diocese

Gazette 1 Mar 1960 probate

Cambridge Unive Alumni pens. at ST JOHN'S, Sept. 1, 1896. 4th s. of James Albert (above), clerk. B. Nov. 19, 1877, at Gosforth, Cumberland. School, Rugby. Matric. Michs. 1896; B.A. 1900; M.A. 1932. Ord. deacon, 1901; priest (Winchester) 1902; C. of Freshwater, Isle of Wight, 1901-5. Chaplain at Beyrout and Missionary in Jerusalem diocese, 1922-5; at Addis Ababa, Abyssinia, 1926-8. Living at 234, Eastfield Road, Peterborough, in 1933, with his brother Albert (1886). Address c/o A. Cheese, Esq., Crossways, Moor Farm, Hereford, in 1939. (Crockford, 1939.)