As senior chorister, Pat Magee was one of the soloists when the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was first broadcast from King’s College, Cambridge, in 1928. A brilliant raconteur and accomplished mimic, he was to delight his friends with stories about the two architects of the annual Christmas Eve service, the dean, Eric Milner-White, and the organist, Dr Arthur Henry “Daddy” Mann. He once said that his “most valuable achievement” was to have made so many friends throughout the world.

Patrick Connor Magee was born in Stornoway in the Western Isles and spent much of his childhood in Scotland. His mother came from St Ives in Cambridgeshire and as a girl had often worshipped in King’s College Chapel. When her son’s beautiful singing voice and easy musicality became apparent, she thought of the college choir and sent him for a trial when he was 8. He was accepted and it was the start of his lifelong connection with King’s. After school at Sedbergh in the Yorkshire Dales where his tenor voice developed, he returned as a choral scholar in 1934. He graduated in 1937 and prepared for ordination at Westcott House, Cambridge, where he was to instruct students including Robert Runcie, the future Archbishop of Canterbury, in how to sing divine service.

In 1939 he was appointed curate to St Paul’s, King Cross, Halifax, and remained there until he joined the Navy. He was chaplain to the 7th Submarine Flotilla and then moved to Combined Operations. He took part in the D-Day landings and later was posted to the First Assault Group with which he sailed to the Far East. He was among the first into Rangoon and claimed merrily to have landed in Singapore a day before the Japanese official surrender to be told by a senior British PoW: “You’re early.”

After the war he returned to King’s as chaplain where he helped many of his fellow ex-servicemen to adjust to civilian life and guided some towards the ministry. With his ready wit and seemingly inexhaustible energy he was at the centre of college life. His parties, where he initiated many into the intricacies of “the Game”, were legendary.

Although he felt he was doing a useful job, he realised he could not remain there for ever and in 1952 accepted the college living of Kingston upon Thames in Surrey where he was to stay for eight years. He was a good parish priest and was influential in improving the church’s music as well as playing a leading role in local education. He wanted to be more involved with education and the young and so accepted the chaplaincy of Bryanston School, Dorset. The aim to fulfil the talents of every pupil suited him ideally as did the importance that the school gave to music, drama and the arts.

He stayed at Bryanston for ten years and then had short spells as vicar of Ryde in the Isle of Wight and chaplain of Tiffin School in Kingston upon Thames. In 1973 he was invited to become team leader of an important parish in the Salisbury diocese. St Michael’s, Bemerton, which included a large and difficult council estate, was considered a challenge for someone of almost 60. That the poet George Herbert had been incumbent in the 17th century probably helped him to accept the challenge. Magee gathered a talented team around him and revitalised the large community centre, which solved some of the problems. At the same time he took part in the musical life of the cathedral, of which he had become a canon.

Magee was a great traveller, particularly in the Arab world. On many of his later journeys he was accompanied by Mohammed Koubichate, a Moroccan who had offered him a lift on his motorcycle. He looked upon Mohammed, his wife and sons as his family and spent part of each year with them in Agadir. Eventually he settled in the College of St Barnabas, a home for retired clergy in Lingfield, Surrey.

Canon Patrick Magee, clergyman and chorister, was born on January 31, 1914. He died on March 19, 2008, aged 94