THE FIRST VICAR
The Patronage of the new living was at first vested in Keble College Oxford. Subsequently it was found that the Ecclesiastical Commissioners were unable to make any grant towards the Vicar's Stipend because the College was regarded as a private patron, and the patronage was transferred to the Trustees of the Guild of All Souls, in whose hands it still remains.

Keble seems to have experienced some difficulty in making their one and only appointment, and the clergy of Swanley village continued to be responsible for the services at St. Mary's for some months after the consecration. The first priest to accept the living changed his mind, and became the Vicar of St. Patrick's Hove instead. Finally however, the Reverend A. F. W. de Spailer was appointed and inducted as First Vicar of St. Mary's on St George's Day 23rd April 1902. From that time St. Mary's became a separated Parish. 

From the beginning the practice and teaching of the Church were on definitely Catholic lines. Sung Mass became the chief Sunday service from Fr. de Spailier's first Sunday and it is our proud boast that it has never ceased to be so. The Eucharistic Vestments were worn (the first set came from St. Alban's Holborn, and there are many indications in the Service registers of the time of what were then distinctly 'advanced' practices. A Processional Cross was one of the earliest gifts to the church. The Feast of Corpus Christi was first observed in 1902 and on All Saints' Evening, 1904 Vespers of the Dead was said. Incense was first used in the following year.

A MISSION AND MUCH OPPOSITION
After six years Fr. de Spailier sought to consolidate the word that had been going on by holding a Parochial Mission. In Lent, 1908, a ten day Mission was conducted by the Mirfield Fathers. The Reverend W. Guy Pearse, CR., was assisted by a priest from a well-known North Country Parish, St. Gabriel's Heaton, Newcastle, the Reverend Charles Medd. There were at least two Masses every morning, a Women's service, a children's service and a Mission Service every day, and on the last morning of the Mission, a weekday, 97 people received Holy Communion.

But all this did not go on without a great deal of Protestant opposition largely stirred up by the followers of Mr Kensit. Meetings of protest were organised in the Parish, on one occasion at least, the preacher at an open-air service was the target for rotten apples and tomatoes, and notices appeared on trees and walls with arrows pointing to St. Mary's bearing such interesting slogans as "This way to Rome". We cannot be too thankful for the resolute way in which Fr. de Spailier and the congregation of those days withstood this attack.

YEARS OF CONSOLIDATION
Fr. de Spailier resigned the living in 1912, and on 12th June of the same year the Reverend Montagu Butler was instituted and inducted as the second Vicar of St. Mary's. His time here seems to have been one of comparative peace and quiet after the storms of the earlier years, and is marked by a steady growth and advance.

His first years coincided with the First World War. One happy result of this was the institution in September 1914, of a daily Mass. Father Butler also founded our Ward of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, the first seven members being admitted on 27th October 1917. It was also in this year that the Blessed Sacrament was first permanently reserved.

It was in Father Butler's time that Miss Lynch first became Churchwarden of St. Mary's. She held the office from 1912-1930, and no history of our church would be complete without mentioning her name. During those years she was truly a pillar and mainstay of the Church, and a pattern and example to all of the Catholic way of living. During her time as Matron of White Oak, the close and valued connection between the Hospital and the Church began, which was so faithfully continued by her successor, Miss Kennett, during her 21 years of office.

ADDITIONS TO THE CHURCH
No Vicar of St. Mary's has ever been able to contemplate carrying out Archbishop Temple's instructions in his Consecration sermon to complete the building of the Church. Fr. Butler was, however, able to make some interior improvements. The original Church had only chairs for the Choir. The Clergy and Choir Stalls were installed in 1919. He also designed the pulpit - a memorial to those who gave their lives in the first War, (sadly this was disposed of by the Reverend Peter Edwards along with many other items of historical and personal interest - it seems without Faculty permission!), the original pulpit was a very poor-looking affair. However Fr. Butler never lived to preach in his new pulpit, and it was dedicated by the Assistant Bishop of Rochester, Bishop King, six weeks after his death.

Fr. Butler had a long illness in 1923 and conducted no services from the middle of May until the beginning of October. Once back again, however, he was working right up to the last Sunday but one of his life, 3rd February 1924. He said Mass at 8.00 that morning and Matins at 10.30, preached at 11.15 and sang Evensong. It was the last Sunday he ever ministered in St. Mary's. A fortnight later he passed to his rest, an example of dying in harness that any priest would envy.