The Rev. Kirkbride (1942 - 1949) came from Canada and was rector for a comparatively short time. Like his predecessors, he liked cricket.  He did like children, however, and particularly encouraged them in gardening.

Audrey Rann remembers: "Rev. Kirkbride, put me on the road to Christianity, which, like my love of gardening, has been with me all my life. Charlie Cassell lived opposite the Sun Inn in Hulverstone and on Saturdays he and I used to help the Rev. Kirkbride in his garden. When it was Mothering Sunday or Easter, we would pick flowers, primroses and grape hyacinths, from his garden and make into bunches. He would say, “Let`s sit down now,” and he would sit in a chair and we would sit on the grass either side of him and he would tell us a story, mostly about his life in Canada. There was always a Christian theme running through the story which would mean something to us.

What I have remembered all my life is what he told us which was, 'If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well.' Whenever I`ve done anything which hasn`t gone right, I`ve remembered that saying and have done it again, correctly. My husband used to say that I was a perfectionist and I would tell him that it had to be done properly."