Peter Horsley Phelps was born in 1908 and brought up with his two brothers in Worcestershire where his father was a doctor in Great Malvern. After Felsted School in Essex, Peter went on to follow his father to study classics at Queens College Oxford. He was a first class sportsman, playing county cricket, and had since childhood great musical ability. During this period he came in touch with The Oxford Group, later known as Moral Rearmament and Initiatives of Change. He used to tell of how one day a fellow student in the Group said to him, ‘I think you’re meant to give your life to this work’, when he was very undecided about it. He said he had a strong sense of an inner voice saying to him: 'Come this way’.
After several years he moved to Westcott House Theological College in Cambridge to train for the ministry. However in 1939 he went to Canada for an MRA conference and thereafter devoted his life to working with MRA until his death in 1987.
Peter travelled to many countries with MRA campaigns including India, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea.
His magnificent singing voice enhanced countless occasions including several major MRA musicals and plays and his deep and strong faith, supported by unswerving discipline and commitment provided great strength to all who met him.
