Canon Dick France - Telegraph Richard Thomas France came from a Welsh background, though he was born on April 2 1938 in Londonderry, where his father was a tax inspector. Following the outbreak of war the family moved to Bradford, where Dick went to the Grammar School. He retained a lifelong affection for Yorkshire. At Balliol College, Oxford, he took a First and a Second in Classics and also secured a First in Divinity from London University. He then went to Tyndale Hall, Bristol, to prepare for Holy Orders and from 1966 to 1969 was a curate at St Matthew's church, Cambridge. While there he completed a doctorate at Bristol University. Thus equipped, he began his long academic career as lecturer in Biblical Studies at the University of Ife in Nigeria. After four years he returned to England as librarian of Tyndale House, Cambridge, an international centre for biblical research which has one of the largest theological libraries in the world. In 1976 he returned to Nigeria as senior lecturer in Religious Studies at Ahmada University; but although he greatly valued his time in Africa , he felt drawn back to Cambridge in 1978 to become Warden of Tyndale House. This was followed by seven years (1981-88) as lecturer, senior lecturer, then Vice-Principal of the London Bible College - an evangelical institution which trains students from a wide variety of backgrounds for many different forms of Christian ministry. France's intellectual gifts did much to strengthen its reputation. Then, from 1989 to 1995, he was Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, which has close ties to the university and where many of the Church of England's leaders have been trained. Under his leadership ordinands received a top-class education in biblical studies, instruction in the art of preaching and a good general preparation for parish life. Evangelical exuberance among the students was tempered by the demands of scholarship. It became a matter of great concern to France when, a few years after his retirement, this tradition appeared to be threatened by a less firmly grounded approach. In 2007, after several staff resignations, he and two other former principals wrote to the chairman of the Hall's council, the Bishop of Liverpool, urging him to save its reputation by calling for the resignation of the principal. This did not happen, though the council investigated the situation and insisted on a new regime. After leaving Oxford in 1995, France moved to Shropshire as rector of Wentnor (which chanced to be the birthplace of his father), combined with six other rural parishes close to the Welsh border. The contrast between this and his previous ministry could hardly have been greater, but he enjoyed putting his teaching into practice and exercised a much valued ministry. When he finally retired in 1999 he moved to Llwyngwril in north Wales, where he played a leading part in the restoration of an ancient church, learned sufficient Welsh to be able to conduct services in that language, and became an honorary research fellow of the University of Wales at Bangor. He was also able to indulge his love of mountain walking . He is survived by his wife, Barbara, and by a son and a daughter. Canon Dick France, born April 2 1938, died February 10 2012