Legacies

In 2005 a very generous donation arrived in the post from Canon John Whelan, a retired priest living in north Wales. As far as we were aware, there had been little or no previous contact with Fr Whelan, but we wrote and thanked him, asking if he would like to enrolled in the Walsingham Partnership and receive copies of the Review (yes, please was his reply.) Sadly, a little over a year later, we received news of Fr Whelan’s death and then the news that in his will he had left the Shrine a very substantial legacy. Through contact with his solicitors and St Deiniol’s Library in Hawarden, the wonderfully adventurous spiritual life of this priest was revealed. Born of Irish parents, he was baptised and confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church. He trained, however, at an Anglican evangelical college! But in a working life that took him across the world – north Africa (as a dispatch ride in WWII with 14/20 Hussars), educational missionary work in Korea, a working retirement in Majorca and Malta (interspersed with stints as a curate in Bury, as a hospital chaplain in Manchester, plus cycling through Katmandu) – Anglo-Catholicism became more and more important to him with a growing devotion to Our Lady. His legacy is a gift for the future that will benefit all pilgrims. The Shrine is most grateful.

Unlike Fr Whelan, both Felicity Shettle (from Harrogate) and Kathleen Fenner (from St Leonards-on-Sea) were frequent pilgrims to Walsingham and supported the work of the Shrine in many different ways during their lifetimes – and through their legacies will continue to give support in the years to come. As will that from US Priest Associate Fr Robert Ruffie who was only able to visit the Shrine on infrequent trips across the Atlantic, but who had a life-long devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham. Nest Lewis (of Oxford) was a long-time worshipper at the Cowley Fathers’ Church in Oxford and a regular pilgrim to Walsingham. She specifically asked that on her death her legacy should go the Walsingham Appeal and her munificence will be celebrated in the naming of one of the rooms in the Milner Wing.

It is appropriate that the Shrine should record its gratitude to all those former pilgrims whose legacies have recently been received – Florence Phelps, Beatrice Davis, Frederick Turner, John Spilsbury and Ronald Hockley.

These stones that have echoed their praise are holy,

And dear is the ground where their feet have once trod;

Yet here they confessed they were strangers and pilgrims,

And still they were seeking the city of God.

If you would like further information about Donations, Gifts and Legacies or any of the special projects, please contact Peter Macken, the Shrine’s Development Director at 6 Common Place, Walsingham NR22 6BW (tel. 01328 824214; email dev@olw-shrine.org.uk)