Dr Grub's unrivalled historical knowledge and genuine Churchmanship were of greatest value". Grub's genial humour came out in the account he gave of the Bishop who bade his presbyter, like a naughty boy, "take off his vestments and put out his lights." In the end the lights were saved, but the vestments surrendered. Two significant events took place during the first years of Comper's incumbency at St John's. Firstly, a day school was built and dedicated to Revd Patrick Cheyne's forty years association with St John's. Secondly, in the year 1863 the first sister arrived from the Society of Saint Margaret, the foundress of St Margaret's Convent, 17 Spital, Aberdeen (closed in 2003). The Gallowgate mission Comper was more interested in the welfare of the poor and resigned the charge at St John's in 1870 to spend more time in the mission he had founded in the Gallowgate slums of Aberdeen in 1867. Wright describes the scene as follows; "The whole area enjoyed an evil reputation. No one ventured out after dark. It was bad enough making your way to church through wet washings, but you also had to hold your nose to prevent smelling the fish barrows parked along one side of the Gallowgate. Often rats were scavenging in the barrows." From this mission, St Margaret's, Gallowgate, emanated the subsequent mission at St Clement's-on-the-Quay, which eventually became an independent congregation erecting a church on the quayside with money bequeathed by Sir George Reid's widow, Margaret Best, one of Comper's ardent admirers. He became the chief motivator in the organisation, eventually raising the Episcopal charge in 1870 dedicated to St Margaret of Scotland. Comper was the first clergyman in Aberdeen to organise a congregation social meeting, which he called a "Refection". His other memorable project, apart from St Margaret's and its Convent, was his work for foreign aid which banded together many of the Church's Women's Organisations in common cause. A kenspeckle figure in Aberdeen city and a veteran clergyman of the Aberdeen Diocese, he enjoyed meritorious respect from all classes of the population. Death The Revd John Comper died suddenly in the Duthie Park on Monday 27 July 1903, where he had gone with his wife. Coincidentally, it was the first visit he had made to the park as he had been tempted to enjoy the fine weather Aberdeen was experiencing at that time. The Press & Journal wrote,