HELSBY pensioner has become one of the oldest students in the region to graduate after a decade of hard work.
For years Rev Sidney Gilbert travelled across England and Wales working in churches in Brymbo, Bwlchgwyn, Penley and Bettisfield.
Now after more than a decade of research the 76-year-old has graduated from Glyndwr University with a degree in Psychology of Religion.
Proudly watched by his wife Gill, the retired cleric was presented with his MPhil by a board of external examiners who praised his extensive research in the changes in lifestyles of clergy members once they had reached retirement.
Sidney said he hoped his research would help clergymen and women as they approached retirement, saying: “I have been collecting this material for more than 10 years.
“When I started there had been very little written on the subject, so I was breaking new ground on the material I was collecting. There were some unusual hobbies, but a lot of the people I spoke to devoted their time to activities which were related in some way to charity and helping others.”
Dr Emyr Williams, who supervised Sidney’s work, said that the university would support him in writing his work up so that it could be published at a later date.
