Page 2 of Guided Tour

Early Years

As a young boy he used to tramp the Cumbrian fells with his brother and two sisters which generated in him a deep-rooted love for the country and its birds - hawks, falcons, and buzzards. In later days his poetry reflected these early joys. After his primary school John went to Greshams, a private secondary school in Norfolk. Towards the end of his schooling in 1939, the war broke out. Thus he went straight to the Army instead of to University.

Gurkha Days - World War II

In 1940, John found himself with a Commission in the 9th Gurkha Rifles in the Indian Army and was soon in Malaya with the 2/9th Gurkhas. The Japanese invaded Malaya, Singapore fell, and John and his men were told to pair off and to avoid capture. He spent a whole month in the Malayan jungles, living off roots and a little fruit - village rice when he could get it. He and another Gurkha Officer captured a sampan and attempted to sail across to Sumatra. They were shipwrecked and washed ashore in true Pauline style. Some days later they made a second attempt with some "Jocks" from a Highland division. This time they made it, and the last British Destroyer to leave Sumatra took John to safety.

It was at this time that I met John back at our Gurkha Regimental Centre in Dehra Dun amid the lovely foothills of the Himalayas. I had a gramophone record - light music. John took one look at it, and made as though to throw it out of the window and put on Johann Sebastian Bach's "Jesus Joy of Man's Desiring"! Bach was the tops for John - he had made it - his music reached the celestial heights, always to the praise of God. Thus our friendship began. It was March 1942.

The Seeker

Undoubtedly, his war experience, Indian mysticism and the sheer grandeur and beauty of the Himalayas played their part. His brother Philip did not detect any religious vocation in John prior to this escape from Malaya. Soon he was to be back in the thick of the war again. This time "Broadway" in Burma. General Wingate inspected the men of John's brigade before they "crashed" into Burma in gliders. Wingate singled out John on parade, shook him by the hand and congratulated him on his escape and his M.C. (Military Cross). The World does not give M.C.'s to the likes of John -it was conveniently over-looked.

In Burma, a fellow officer said that John in the thick of battle was mostly bird watching, singing psalms, and attending to the wounded. He had in-credible courage but no taste for the weapons of war. Gradually, his search for God led him to en-quire about Monasticism and the Catholic Faith. The war ended and John, back in England, found Buckfast Abbey to be near to the place of his father's retirement in Devon. Buckfast welcomed him and Dom Raphael Stones, O.S.B. took him in and gave him a job in the monastery garden and cemetery whilst he prepared him for his reception into the Catholic Church, which took place on the feast of Christ the King 1947.

John's real goal was the Carthusians - they were solitaries and so was he. They sang the praises of God too - a great vocation! John went to Parkminster to the Charter-hQuse in Sussex. He stayed as a working layman for four months at the Monastery acting as door-keeper. John however felt the urge of the spirit to move further in his search. The Prior finally advis-ed him to go to Rome and to pray at the feet of St Peter for guidance. Thus the Carthusians set him upon Stage II of his life.

The Pilgrim

He had a ticket to Rome where Peter indicated Jerusalem ! The other pilgrims were quite enchanted by John and so they passed the hat around to help him on his journey. He reached Cyprus with their alms and there at Famagusta met a merchant, Third Order of St Francis, who took him in. A week later, he was in an open grain boat chugging its way to Haifa. John had a gladstone bag, a recorder, a picture of Our Lady and a spare shirt.
He walked from Haifa to Jerusalem. Young Israel, liberating themselves from the British, thought he was a British spy ! John had to spend a night in a Military Prison but soon dispelled thier suspicions - he was set free. Then Nazareth and Jerusalem his goal. There he asked the way to the Benedictines on Mount Sion. He was mis-directed to a little Order by the name of "Our Lady of Mount Sion" especially founded for the
conversion of the Jews. John loved the Jews since Christ was from Jewish stock. He longed for their
conversion to Christianity. John just loved signs from God. He took it as a God-given sign that he should enter this little Order. They sent him to their Novitiate in Louvain, Belgium. He was there over a year when a very discerning Novice Master said "John you are not for us, you are either a Pere de Foucauld (a desert Hermit)
or a Benedict Joseph Labre - the Pilgrim Saint. Go back to Rome and pray again".

John the pilgrim was on the road again. He walked and begged from Louvain to Rome. St Peter indicated Jerusalem once more but, no boat, no alms. John made his way up into the Appenine foothills at the back of Naples and was taken in by a kindly priest in a mountain village. His room was to be the organ loft of the small Church. He wrote poems and letters using the fixed wooden seat as a table. Here he stayed for a whole year until his father died. He loved to play the organ in the night. In this mountain Church he vowed to 'wed' Our
Lady by his poverty and Chastity. He claimed to have had a vision of Her in his wartime days.
After laying his father to rest in Ottery-St-Mary, Devon, John tried to live as a hermit on the fringe of Dartmoor but no raven fed him. Maybe he should try a Monastic Order again ? He went to Prinknash, the Benidictine Monastery overlooking Gloucester Abbey. The Monks were then in a country house whilst building a new Abbey. It was not the life for John. The Spirit moved him on again to London, this time playing madrigals on his
recorder as he went. A short sojourn with Burns Oates enabled him to discover Westminster Cathedral. The Choir enthralled him. Could he join it ? He signed on as a Sacristan - 5th Sacristan as he called it, in the hopes that he might br able one day to lend his voice to the praises of God.

What happened ? He bumped into Cardinal Godfrey ! The Cardinal at once took a liking to John and asked if he would become caretaker of his Elizabethan Country Home - Hare Street House, near Cambridge. Oh yes, he could live in solitude; he only had to caretake. John was in bliss living in Robert Hugh Benson's Study with two harmoniums. He served the Cardinal's Mass upon his rare visits to Hare Street, sang, and wrote poems to
God and Our Lady. Two and a half years of solitude and then? Renovation of this lovely Elizabethan Manor was begun. Builders, noise, architects, chaos. It was then that John wrote to me, since I was by now, a missionary in Zimbabwe, to enquire if there was a vacant cave in Africa.

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