Ray Dadswell receives the Lord Lieutenant of Sussex’s Certificate for Meritorious Service

Last October, just days after his milestone birthday, Counties’ senior evangelist, Ray Dadswell, received the Lord Lieutenant of Sussex’s Certificate for Meritorious Service. Only later did he learn quite how significant the honour was. Reading from the official programme, Ray discovered that the certificate was instituted to recognise members of the Reserve and Cadet Forces whose efforts are not acknowledged by the twice-yearly honours list. “Apparently,” he says, “this honour is just one down from an OBE.”

That realisation was deeply moving. “I get a bit emotional over all of this,” Ray admits. Coming from “a Sussex farming family,” he never imagined being recognised at such a level. “To be raised up to this level of importance is brilliant,” he says. The certificate, he learned, ranks second only to the King’s honours list, a remarkable public recognition of work carried out faithfully over many years.

For the past decade, Ray has served as chaplain to 54 Squadron RAF Air Cadets in Eastbourne. His involvement began almost accidentally. While doing chaplaincy work with local theatres, he met the wife of a theatre director whose son was an RAF cadet. The squadron had no chaplain. “She said, ‘I’ve given them your name,’” Ray recalls. “So there was no choice from then on.” Ten years later, he has just celebrated a decade in the role.

Ray describes his responsibility simply: he is “responsible for the moral and spiritual welfare of the squadron.” That includes close to 100 cadets and more than 20 adult volunteers. One of his formal duties is overseeing enrolment ceremonies, when cadets make a declaration of loyalty to “King, Country, God, and the flag.” These occasions, attended by parents and relatives, are especially encouraging for him.

A central part of Ray’s ministry is “Padres Hour,” a regular session in which he is given complete freedom. “I can do anything I like,” he explains. While it is not always explicitly Biblical teaching, it is rooted in Christian wisdom and lived faith. Ray uses the time to speak about “discipline, gratitude, relating to other people,” and how to navigate life well. “When I have a crowd of 50 young people in front of me,” he says, “that’s too good an opportunity to miss.”

Ray draws on a lifetime of experience. He lived and worked in Thailand for many years during the 1970s and 80s in church mission, later qualifying to teach English as a foreign language. On returning to the UK, he worked with the Christian Union at Sussex University and has been involved in almost countless charities.

What stands out most for Ray are moments of spiritual impact. One evening, he received a Christmas card from a cadet who was moving on to more intense military training. The young man wrote to thank him, saying, “You’ve given me more of an understanding about God and spiritual things than I ever had before.” Ray describes that moment as deeply encouraging.

Another moment left him “knocked… for six.” When Ray’s wife died three years ago, the squadron lowered the flag in her honour, a gesture that spoke powerfully of the community he had come to serve and love.

Ray comes from an evangelical background, shaped by a Christian schoolteacher who first took him to church. He acknowledges that many armed forces chaplains come from more traditional denominations. “To be recognised and to be accepted as an evangelical in the armed forces,” he says, “that encourages me an awful lot.”

Asked what the award means to him now, Ray is characteristically understated. “There’s life in the old dog yet,” he says. The certificate does not mark an ending, but an affirmation, of faithfulness, of service, and of a calling lived out week by week among young people.

As Ray continues to walk alongside the cadets of 54 Squadron, the recognition he has received stands as something far larger than he ever expected, a public honour for a life quietly devoted to God and to others.