Combes was
ordained in 1974 and was a
curate at
St Paul's, Onslow Square,
Holy Trinity Brompton, and
Holy Sepulchre with
All Saints,
Cambridge. He became
Rector of
Silverhill, East Sussex, in 1983 and was the
Archdeacon of Horsham from 2003 until his retirement in 2014. Combes was associated with the running of the
Iwerne camps,
evangelical Christian holiday camps aimed at children from British
public schools. He was one of the eight people to be circulated the Ruston Report in 1982, detailing the abuse of children at
Winchester College and elsewhere by chairman of the
Iwerne Trust John Smyth. Combes later stated to a 2020s
Church of England Independent Review that realising the nature of the report, he chose not to read it as he felt that victims would be embarrassed if he knew the details, so he did not know just how serious the allegations were until the details became public in 2017. ==Personal life==