The Reverend William Miles Myres – ‘his name a household word for his kindliness and goodness’ – became rector of the parish in 1879. He was born the son of Mr. J. Myres, of Preston, on November 6th 1838, and after an education at Preston Grammar School he gained a B.A. at Brasenose, Oxford, in 1861, and an M.A. in 1864. Ordained as a deacon in 1863, in 1864 he was made a priest by the Bishop of Ripon, with this being the year in which he would marry Jane, the daughter of the Reverend Henry Linton, rector of St. Peter le Bailey, Oxford. In 1867 he was appointed to the Vicarage of St. Paul’s, Preston, and becoming very active in the spiritual welfare of his parish there he would not only involve himself greatly with education but, amongst many other pursuits, he would also establish a book club. A son and a daughter were borne by his first wife, but after her death in January 1871 he then in May 1873 married Mary Weight, she being the third daughter of the Vicar of St. George’s Church, Wolverton. However, leaving a son she survived for only a year, whereupon to assist the Reverend Myres in his many commitments her sister moved to the Vicarage. Through the introduction of the Dean of Ripon, in 1879 the Reverend Myres was nominated by Lord Cottesloe to the living of Swanbourne where once again he would be much assisted by Miss Weight, perhaps even more so after his appointment as the Rural Dean of Mursley in 1883. In fact it was at this period that a new vicarage came to be built in the village adjacent to the churchyard, and interestingly during the construction in order to pay the men and to monitor progress the architect, from a firm in Oxford, would travel every Friday by train to Swanbourne, to be met at the station by a horse and trap. Yet not only was there now a new vicarage in the village but also a new churchyard, which was consecrated on April 15th 1887. Apart from his many clerical pursuits the Reverend Myres also found time to be an author, and ‘Memorials of the Reverend R. Brickel, of Hoole, Lancashire’, in 1884, and three years later ‘The Book of Common Prayer compared with the First Prayer Book of Edward VI’, would be accounted amongst his works. Having caught a chill, whilst on a visit to his brother in law, (who was the Chancellor of St. David’s), in the autumn of 1900 his health then began to fail, and on again becoming ill in January 1901 during the following month he wisely decided to seek the healthier climate of Folkestone. Indeed, the new situation soon seemed to improve his condition, but nevertheless he returned to Swanbourne and there, following a perhaps inevitable deterioration, he had to take to his bed. Aged 62 he died on Thursday February 21st, and on the day of the funeral as a mark of the respect in which he was held the blinds were drawn in every house of the village. With the flag on the tower at half mast, a muffled peal was rung by the church bells, and as an appropriate choice at the beginning of the service Mr. Falding, the schoolmaster, played ‘I know my Redeemer liveth.’ A wreath was placed where the Reverend had once sat, and with 40 robed clergy in attendance the Bishop of Liverpool, as one of the Reverend Myres former curates at Preston, helped to officiate. Despite the onset of rain, in a polished oak coffin the Reverend’s mortal remains were then committed to an earth grave, at the north west corner of the church tower, and from his estate, of a gross value of £9,361, his representatives would subsequently present pulpit lamps, a vestry table and a churchyard lamp to the church, several volumes to the parochial library, plus a portrait of Queen Victoria, purchased by the Reverend in 1887, and a standard lamp to the National School.