The Reverand Pearson was one of the central characters in Bilton and a dearly loved man, who many of the older parishioners will remember well.

He was there throughout the 1940s and served as vicar until he died in 1959. A learned and saintly man, he apparently once took off his shoes to give to a beggar and walked home in his socks.

He lived in the former St John's Vicarage, adjacent to the church, with his sister Eleanor, who ran the youth club in the Sunday School. He regularly visited Bilton Endowed School (sometimes on an old motor bike) and tested the pupils on their knowledge of the catechism. He is buried in the churchyard at Spofforth. At his funeral, the number of people lining the roadside was amazing and indicative of the enormous respect that people had for him.