Of all the teachers I met during my time at Beaumont, the one who impressed me the most was Fr Gillick. After I left the school he became Beaumont's last headmaster and later worked for the Society in South Africa where he died in 2005. Earlier, in the postwar years, he was appointed the Jesuits' first official photographer in the UK.
This information was elicited with the utmost difficulty from the vaults of Google, but nowhere can I find any account of John Gillick the man. Perhaps somewhere in the archives of the pre-digital Beaumont Union Newsletter?
Fr Gillick was one of those people who would have risen to the top of any venture he cared to turn his hand to. He was a natural sportsman, a far better cricketer, golfer and rugby player than the rest of us. He was a superb history teacher, bringing the subject alive to even the most recalcitrant among us. At the same time he was possessed of a natural authority and no-one would ever have dreamt of taking the slightest liberty with him. Introducing the history syllabus at the start of a new year, Fr Gillick told us there were two ways of approaching the programme and we were entirely free to choose the one that suited us best. I can't remember what the first way was, but it was not "sold" with any great enthusiasm by Fr Gillick. "Or", he continued, "you can choose to learn history MY WAY". As in The Godfather, it was an offer we could ill afford to refuse....!
A wonderful teacher and a wonderful man.
This information was elicited with the utmost difficulty from the vaults of Google, but nowhere can I find any account of John Gillick the man. Perhaps somewhere in the archives of the pre-digital Beaumont Union Newsletter?
Fr Gillick was one of those people who would have risen to the top of any venture he cared to turn his hand to. He was a natural sportsman, a far better cricketer, golfer and rugby player than the rest of us. He was a superb history teacher, bringing the subject alive to even the most recalcitrant among us. At the same time he was possessed of a natural authority and no-one would ever have dreamt of taking the slightest liberty with him. Introducing the history syllabus at the start of a new year, Fr Gillick told us there were two ways of approaching the programme and we were entirely free to choose the one that suited us best. I can't remember what the first way was, but it was not "sold" with any great enthusiasm by Fr Gillick. "Or", he continued, "you can choose to learn history MY WAY". As in The Godfather, it was an offer we could ill afford to refuse....!
A wonderful teacher and a wonderful man.
I see what you mean - there doesn't appear to be an archive of old Beaumont newsletters on line. But they must still exist somewhere and I wonder if they were transferred to Stonyhurst at the time of the merger?
ReplyDeleteCalling Maytrees ! I feel if anyone knows you might!
Was there not an obit at the time of Fr. Gillick's death?
Greetings Barnaby and anon
ReplyDeleteFr. John Gillick was initially not too popular in my year as he was headmaster or maybe Rector when the Canadian SJ Provincal decided that Beaumont should close. Fr Gillick gave the sad news to parents and boys.
I was away at a Beaumont CCF summer camp with the army at the time and and remember well the army juke box playing 'Hey Mr Tambourine Man' when the news was broken to us.
However years later an old Beaumont boy Philip Noble a barrister then living in Wimbledon turned 50. he and I had done some difficult criminal legal work together some years earlier. Philip held a birthday party for about 4 of us plus wives and invited John Gillick too who happened to be staying with Jesuit Missions in Wimbledon on a break from South Africa.
We all were fascinated by Fr Gillick's account of how dreadful it was giving everyone the sad news about Beaumont.
He Fr Gillick worked in an HIV clinic in SAfrica for years and was I think in his 80s when he met us all again after which he returned to SA to work.
A great and holy man. Very interesting and a bit of fun too.
We all were pleased to have had the inside story from him so many years after the event.
Thanks so much for your comment, Jerry. I had left Beaumont by the time the decision to close Beaumont was made, or at least disclosed, but I can well remember the furore and bitterness it provoked. It must have been a thankless task trying to "sell" this decision, especially so soon after the subsciption to finance the building of the New Wing was launched.
ReplyDeleteAs a boy, I was too much in awe of Fr Gillick to feel more than great admiration and respect for him, though I am sure I would also have grown to like him a great deal if I had met him when an adult. The priests I had great affection for were, among others, were Frs Sass and Dooley and also an Australian priest called Fr Lewis.