| Admin_History | Charles Sidney de Vere Beauclerk was born on 1 January 1855 in London. His parents were Charles Sidney de Vere Beauclerk, a Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge and the daughter of H.E. Senor Don J. M Zamora, Chief Magistrate of Cuba. He was educated at Beaumont College from 1865-1873. Charles had three brothers who were also educated at Beaumont College. His brother Henry (1856-1909) became a Jesuit, and another brother Robert tested his vocation as a Jesuit.
Charles entered the Society of Jesus at Manresa on 19 October 1875. From 1878-1881 he was at Garnethill, Glasgow, after which he undertook his philosophy studies at Stonyhurst (1883-1885) during which he found himself occupied with architectural problems at the College.
Having gone to St Beuno’s in 1887, he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest there on 23 September 1888, and after another year amongst the lay philosophers at Stonyhurst (1889), he went to the Holywell Mission in North Wales.
In Charles’ obituary Fr Peter Chandlery SJ (1846-1925) is quoted: “Under Fr Charles Beauclerk, who took charge of Holywell towards the end of 1890, something like the devotion of ancient Catholic days was revived, pilgrims in great number flocking from all parts of England and Ireland to the Shrine, attracted by the miraculous cures obtained. So great were the fervour and enthusiasm of the people that Holywell began to be known as the Lourdes of North Wales.”
In 1895, Charles also erected a parish school for local Catholics in Holywell. He made his final vows on 2 February 1898, before going to do parish work at Boscombe.
Brief spells at various locations followed. In 1901, he was at Roehampton before working at the College and being a military chaplain in Malta in 1902. In 1903, he arrived at Clitheroe. He then did eight years of parish work at Portico (1905-1913). After three years at Richmond, Yorks, and one in retreat work at Romiley, he went to the Sacred Heart, Accrington, where on 22 Novembe 1934, after many years of work in the parish, he died. |