Reverend John Graham: 'Araucaria', whose prolific puzzle output foxed and delighted enthusiasts for nearly half a century

As Mike Hutchinson, the Independent's Crossword Editor, put it in a tweet, "one of the brightest stars in the crossword firmament has gone out." John Graham, "Araucaria" to his many fans from 1970, died peacefully this week of the disease he had announced in one of his own crossword puzzles last December.

Throughout a compiling career that only properly began in 1958 he enlightened the whole of the crossword community, young and old, novice and expert, student and professional. Finding the byline "Araucaria" beside the day's grid evoked joy among his innumerable fans. To get an idea of this charming man's relationship with his public, you only have to read the comments at thefifteensquared.net website. To those who only met him through solving his puzzles, they have lost a close friend. Those who did have the good fortune to meet him saw how kind, gentle and self-effacing he was. To younger setters he was inspirational.

As a language-loving schoolboy who had been taught the eccentricities of cryptic clues by my parents, I happened upon the great man in 1976 on a rainy family holiday in Herefordshire. Local newsagents had sold out of mum and dad's newspapers of crossword choice, so we opted for The Guardian, and a wonderful experience followed. A puzzle, themed on the rhyme "Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor…", tantalised and amazed. So began a long correspondence with John Graham.

It was typical of the man that he responded so quickly to each of the letters and amateurish crossword puzzles that "Enigmatist" sent him, and with patience, kindness and warmth. At about the same time he was in correspondence with Mark Goodliffe, six times crossword champion of the Times Crossword Championship. Later he was largely responsible for kick-starting the Guardian careers of John Young ("Shed") and John Halpern ("Paul").

John Galbraith Graham was born in Oxford in 1921 to Eric, Dean of Oriel College, and Phyllis. A feature of the early family life of he and his five younger siblings was setting and solving word puzzles, and learning to solve the Times crossword from their parents. After St Edward's School in Oxford, his years at King's College, Cambridge (reading classics, and then theology) were interrupted by the War: he joined the RAF in 1942, and flew as an observer/navigator with 55 Squadron. Shot down behind enemy lines, he was "mentioned in despatches" (John used to say that the phrase simply meant that you were "hiding" – as he was, with an Italian farming family) until being "found" in 1945.

He was ordained in 1948 and followed his vocation through a variety of placements in London, later taking up the chaplaincy at St Chad's College, Durham, which he held until 1952. In that year, he married his first wife and moved south: for 10 years, he was Chaplain of Reading University, moving to Cambridgeshire to take up a rectorship in the early 1970s.

By then crosswords had become a significant part of his life. He had won an Observer compiling competition for two years in succession in the late 1950s, and set his first puzzle for The Manchester Guardian in summer 1958. His sideline was to become his main source of income: he and his wife divorced at the end of the 1970s, with the result that he was forced to leave the priesthood. He moved to a cottage in Long Preston, near Skipton, North Yorkshire with his new partner Margaret, whom he married in 1983.

He began a monthly crossword subscription service based in Settle, later to become 1Across magazine, which he and I launched in 1984, and to which he contributed two puzzles per issue until recently. By then, each month he was setting eight puzzles for The Guardian, and six (as "Cinephile" – anagram of "Chile Pine", another word for the Araucaria tree) for the Financial Times. All his puzzles were original, sometimes mischievous, regularly thematic, and often featuring his popular Alphabetical Jigsaws, numberless inventions of his own where each answer was clued by its unique initial letter and had to be fitted into the grid "jigsaw-wise, wherever it will fit".

By the time Margaret died in 1993, he had returned to Cambridgeshire and had resumed many of his church duties. He worked indefatigably on behalf of his parishioners, while maintaining his output as a compiler. In 2005 he became the second compiler to be recognised in the Honours List, receiving an MBE.

At the end of 2012, in the solutions to a puzzle for 1 Across republished in The Guardian, he revealed that he had been diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus. His last Guardian puzzle was published two weeks ago. The answer to 18 down was TIME TO GO.

The last time I visited him this summer, we realised we had something else in common: chess. "Do you fancy a game?" he asked. Mindful of limited time (I'd a cab booked), I hesitated, but agreed. Three-quarters of an hour later, a pawn down and entering the endgame, I was lost. The taxi pulled up. "Let's call it a draw", he said. How typical.

JOHN HENDERSON

John Galbraith Graham, crossword compiler and priest: born Oxford 16 February 1921; MBE 2005; married 1952 Ernesta Davies (marriage dissolved; deceased), 1983 Margaret Entwistle (died 1993); died Somersham, Cambridgeshire 26 November 2013.