his hitherto mild adherence to Christianity was turned into firm evangelical faith. "This strange book spoke, its words glowed on the page, and I knew that from that moment my life was bound up for better or worse with the Man who is described there." In the RAF he served as a corporal in the force's police, and then volunteered for aircrew duties. After training as a navigator, he was commissioned as a flight lieutenant. He flew reconnaissance missions over Burma from Calcutta. During this period he became an Anglican lay reader and sought ordination as a priest. In 1943 he married Brenda Gertrude Coyte. His biographer R H L Williams writes, "Their years of wartime separation were bridged by a remarkable correspondence in which they explored their faith together." Priest On demobilisation Blanch was accepted for ordination training at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. His ability impressed the principal, Canon J P Thornton-Duesbery, who arranged for him to be matriculated at St Catherine's Society. He obtained a first class degree in theology in 1948, and was ordained priest in 1949. After three years as a curate in the Oxford parish of Highfield, he was appointed vicar of Eynsham a few miles out of the city. He remained there for five years, building up a small congregation into a large one, described by The Times as "thoroughly committed to Christian outreach." He formed close ties with the local Roman Catholic, Baptist, and Methodist churches. This was Blanch's only experience as a parish priest. While he was at Eynsham three of the Blanches' five children were born, all daughters. He was a part-time lecturer during this period, and his lectures on the New Testament led to an invitation to return to Wycliffe Hall as tutor and vice-principal to F J Taylor, who had succeeded Thornton-Duesbery as principal. Blanch took up the appointment in 1957 The chairman of the governing body of Wycliffe Hall was the Bishop of Rochester, Christopher Chavasse. Nearing the end of his twenty-year reign at Rochester, Chavasse wished it to culminate in the foundation of an evangelical theological college for mature students. He persuaded Blanch to become the founding head of the college and Oriel canon of Rochester Cathedral. Blanch was Warden of Rochester Theological College from 1960 to 1966. The Independent'''s obituary of Blanch said of this period: During this period, the Blanches had a son and a daughter.