In 1936 he went to St Benet's Hall to read history. The academic life was no distraction to him and he made his solemn vows a year later in 1937. He returned to Ampleforth in 1939 to take up the life of a junior monk, the routine of choir and community being enriched by a little teaching, continuing study for the priesthood and time for the countryside. He was ordained in 1942.
In 1946 he joined Fr Peter Utley and Fr Gabriel Gilbey in the Junior House, where he stayed for ten years. His recollections of those days are recorded with characteristic self-effacement in a previous AmpIeforth Journal [98:2 (1993) 191-93]. In 1956 he was made housemaster of St Cuthbert's, in succession to Fr Sebastian Lambert, who had himself been housemaster for the thirty years since the foundation of the house in 1926. Fr Walter was to remain there for 32 years, until in 1988 he moved to the nearby parish of Easingwold as assistant.
It is not easy to put into words whatever it is that a housemaster gives to his house. Anecdotes about Fr Walter abound, and some will be found elsewhere in this Journal, but they cannot adequately capture the stability, depth of understanding and simple humanity which Fr Walter, monk and priest, brought to his house and to his brethren. Many shared his delight in the life of the countryside, were grateful for his humour, patience, forgiveness, welcome. Some were perhaps most appreciative of his nelsonian eye. None would deny that his readiness to encourage rather than to reprimand, to give hfe and hope and simple affection to others was rooted in the life of prayer and in his devotion to the Mass. He would not want much more said than that. He was a private person, but only in the sense that he preferred to say little and to think less (one guesses) of himself than of others, of God and the things of God.
Because of his regal surname the story got about among Ampleforth boys that he was the 'rightful King of Scotland'. He had some Stuart blood, but no claim and even less desire for the throne or any other trappings of state or position. He won enduring loyalty and affrction by his unostentatious qualities as friend. father-figure and man of prayer. He was not in the least remote from ordinary people. His friendship extended to many in the countryside around Ampleforth: it was said of him that he knew who lived in every house in the Vale of Pickering. And yet he took pleasure in the genial task of celebrating Christmas each year with the Stirling family at Keir. He was at home in cottage and in castle.
Fr Walter was a complete lover of nature. Anyone who has journeyed with him knows he saw more in the fields and cared more about. what he saw than others. His mind and prayer lingered in the eternal present of the seasons and animal life. In fishing he had the patience and slow satisfaction of unfussy skill, with an eye for the run of the river; and all these he liked to teach. He knew beagle puppies and hounds as few others, with a swift judgment that guided the pack to many prizes over the years at Peterborough and the Great Yorkshire Show
Fr Walter was for 47 years, l941-88, the Honorary Secretary of the Ampleforth College Beagles, making him the longest serving hunt secretary in the whole of the British Isles. He started running with the hounds when he came to the school in 1923, and by the 1931 season was Master. A fair part of its standing as one of the great foot-packs in the country, and of the committed local followimig it attracts, must be attributed to him. And yet when the time came in Fr Walter's last months to bring that chapter of Ampleforth College history to a close, he himself indeed had long foreseen and accepted. its inevitability. His concern was for the burden falling on those who had to carry through a difficult and painful decision. How pleased he must be at the outcome.
Sixty years a monk, fifty years a priest, forty seven years as hunt secretary, thirty-two years a housemaster, seventy years man and boy within a few miles of Ampleforth: not a life to enter the headlines, but one founded on the rock of faith and lived humbly in unfailing devotion and charity.
Fr WALTER: an appreciation
Mark Ainscough (C 75) writes:
Fr Walter as we all know was a countryman and sportsman whose own interests were concentrated around his hounds, his fishing rod and his gun. He got pleasure and satisfaction from educating boys in these pursuits and was able to share his knowledge of these and the countryside in general. But his interests, cares and concerns for these rural matters were undoubtedly matched by his devotion to St Cuthbert's House and all the boys who came and went under his guidance. He was immensely proud of all the boys and their achievements both at and after school.He had a wonderfully wry smile and a humour to match. One felt that he really rather appreciated schoolboy humour which led to him having a soft spot for some of the 'shifty' characters of the house. There was the occasion when a dead rabbit was placed carefully in the garden at the back of the House to look as though it was sunning itself on the lawn. It was of course only too simple for us sixth-formers to fool Fr Walter into rushing for his gun and then for us to watch in laughter from the window while he stalked the dead rabbit. Having shot it, he then found, pinned to the rabbit, a note advertising the prank. All good clean fun and exactly the sort of trick he would love to have played!
One would never immediately connect Fr Walter with ball-sports, apart from possibly his great pride in the playing fields over which he presided. However he did fancy himseff as a bit of a cricketer and many happy hours were spent late in the evenings playing with a tennis ball, poker as cricket bat and fireguard as the wickets. In the confines of the housemaster's room it is not surprising that occasionally windows became broken but this was accepted as an occupational hazard quickly cured by a call to the estate yard the following morning. I recall the day when one of the estate men came to mend a window but had to inform Fr Walter that he couldn't do the job because the window was only cracked -'sorry, estate policy'. Fr Walter grunted, picked up the poker and thrust it through the offending pane. The job could then be completed within the rulebook!
He was a very shy man and never got involved in the big school events unless he had to. Exhibition was possibly his least favourite weekend in the year, when he had to try to force himself to be available to parents at times when he would have loved to have hidden himself away at the lakes: needless to say he managed a compromise and did a bit of both! He had a wonderfully individual way of doing most things: watching the hounds he would normally be far from the majority of the field but nearly always in the best vantage place; watching a rugby match he would park by the black gate some time after kick- off and, be gone before the final whistle but he always knew the result; cricket was the same, he watched from a huge distance for only very short spells but always knew the scores and who had done well, especially if they were Cuthbertians. This I am sure was the secret of his long and successful time as housemaster of St Cuthbert's: the ability to read and assess a situation quietly and from a distance gave him the time to decide on how best to act. This enabled him to be fair with the boys, punishing where necessary but offering constructive criticism or advice where possible. For this he invariably earned the respect and in many, many instances the friendship of the boys.
The huge congregation at his funeral was a wonderful tribute.
Speaking to
Old Boys afterwards it was obvious that the relationships we
all had
experienced with Fr Walter both at school and afterwards were
very important
and dear to us. For those of us Old Boys, Fr Walter had been
one of, if not the
most influential individual of our schooling. It was a
privilege to have been
taught so much by him, experienced his great friendship and
witnessed his
lovely humour.
Charles Walter MAXWELL STUART
1913 Apr 4 born. Arundel
1923 — 1932 ed Ampleforth
1933 Sept 25 Habit at Ampleforth Abbot Matthews
1934 Sept 26 Simple Vows
1937 Sept 27 Solemn Vows
1940 Jan Tonsure & Minor Orders
1940 Jly 25 Subdeacon Bishop Shine
1941 Jly 20 Deacon
1942 Jly 19 Priest
1936 -1939 St Benet's Hall Oxford History
1946 -1956 Junior House Assistant
1956 Sept Housemaster St Cuthbert's
1988 Sept Easingwold parish Assistant
1994 Jan 11 died at Ampleforth