One of Britain’s first female priests will retire this month.

Canon Sheila McLachlan, the parish priest for St Michael and All Angels in Kingsnorth, and St Peter and St Paul’s Church in Shadoxhurst, will take her last service on Sunday, June 14.

She has been the leader of the two churches for 21 years, and says she will miss the people the most.

The 62-year-old said: “I will miss helping people grow in faith and leading people in worship.

“It makes me feel very humbled and privileged that people allowed me to stand up and lead them.

“I love the diversity of the people that come here. It is multi-cutural and we love that.

“We can learn so much together and from one another.”

The Rev Sheila came to Kingsnorth in 1994 after being ordained priest at Canterbury Cathedral.

She said: “They were brave here. They appointed a woman who had no parish experience.

“I had to learn on the hoof.

“They gave me a try and I take my hat off to them.”

"They were brave here. They appointed a woman who had no parish experience. I had to learn on the hoof." - Rev Sheila

She says her arrival was not met without opposition, including from the previous vicar.

She added however: “When he died I took his memorial at his request. It was a humbling moment.

“Another woman who was very vocally against me sent me a letter asking for forgiveness. She said she’d made a mistake.”

The Rev Sheila has kept that letter to this day.

She has taken six curates under her wing over the last 21 years.

She also made some changes to the church when she arrived, adding: “It was very dark when I came.

“I believe we’ve restored it sympathetically. We moved the font to its original place.”

Before joining the church, Sheila trained to be a nurse, before becoming a nursing tutor.

She said: “In the 60s, there weren’t a huge amount of options open for women. It was either be a nurse, secretary or teacher.

“I wanted to teach and do nursing and that’s what I did.”

Although already involved in her local church, it wasn’t until a near-death experience that Sheila felt compelled to dedicate her life to God.

While on a working party in Lee Abbey, in Devon, with 120 students, Sheila and a colleague became trapped in the sea when they got cut off by the tide.

“I remember thinking if ‘I get out of here alive and no one is injured I will see if I can dedicate my life to the church’." - Rev Sheila

Neither the lifeboat nor the coastguard could reach them, and they had to be rescued by the RAF helicopter.

She explained: “I remember thinking if ‘I get out of here alive and no one is injured I will see if I can dedicate my life to the church’.

“I didn’t know at the time but the other lady was making the same pact. We both kept our promises.”

She then enrolled at university to study theology for the next three years, adding that her family thought she was “a nutcase”.

She said there were three women and 98 men on her course.

“I was ambitious,” she said. “I had worked my way up in the nursing profession but there wasn’t really a future for women in the church.

“Openings for women were at schools, hospitals or universities.”

She later become the chaplain at the University of Kent as well as deputy master of Rutherford College.

She was ordained in 1994 at Canterbury Cathedral, and then moved to Kingsnorth.

She was installed as an honorary canon at Canterbury Cathedral in March 2008.

Of her retirement, she said: “I am of an age to retire. I think it is time for this church to experience life without its vicar. For some they have only known me.”

She plans to move to New Romney with her mum and dog, Horace. She added: “There are things I would like to do while I am still active. I want to visit Peru and Russia and I love Greece.

“I have always envied people who can visit the Christmas Markets, and have already booked a trip to Luxembourg.”