Francis Christopher Topping was a native of St Helens, being born on 23 January 1910. As a boy he became a joiner and worked for a builder's merchant. After a time he began to sense a vocation to the priesthood and went to St Michael's, Glossop, in order to acquire some Latin. He came to Ampleforth and was clothed for the novitiate by Abbot Matthews in September 1933 with Thomas Loughlin, Walter Maxwell-Stuart, William Price and Bede Burge, making his simple Profession on 26 September 1934, followed by Solemn vows three years later. He was ordained on 7 January 1940 by Bishop Shine of Middlesbrough.
At that time Gilling Castle (acquired in 1930 for the Prep-school) had become a kind of theological studium: the idea was that small boys were less demanding, and left room for Juniors' study: at least the boys went to bed quite early in those days, for none were older than ten or eleven. So with other Juniors, Br Christopher migrated there in 1936. It was an inspired choice. If ever there was a man suited to teaching young boys, Christopher was he, and he found himself in the company of experienced experts like Fr Maurus Powell, and so learnt fast. Perhaps the patience of the wood-worker suited the needs of the small people in his care. He was no mean musician: he greatly encouraged the use of recorders at Gilling, and made special racks for them. One former pupil remembers him making 'an African game-board with depressions into which you put beans', and recalls a problem with his friend and musical mentor Lady Read, whom he always so addressed. She asked for something less formal, but he, being reluctant, said slowly, 'How about Maggie?' and the negotiations came to an end.
Nearly twenty years later, when Christopher was forty-five, Abbot Byrne, in making moves for the benefit of the new foundation at St Louis, considered that a fresh start would suit him, and he moved to be an assistant priest at Workington under Fr Sigebert D'Arcy. In 1962 he moved south to St Mary's, Warrington, and in 1964 became parish priest of Bamber Bridge, where he re-ordered and renewed the cemetery, planting the many trees which now grace it. He established new Junior and Infant schools. He was also interested in culinary entertainment, and liked a good meal and a glass of wine. On one occasion the new Dean came to lunch. As the door opened he was met by an anxious Fr Christopher saying, 'Now you must tell me, do you cut or scoop?' Eventually the Dean discovered that Christopher was worrying how to serve the Stilton for the cheese course. He liked cooking, and when on holiday in Grasmere, where his niece owned a cottage, he would visit Smiths in Ambleside, not to buy a cookery book (he never owned one), but to memorise that evening's recipe. On another occasion he was invited to bless a yacht on Lake Windermere, which he did in faultless Latin. When his host inquired if it were too early for champagne, the quit reply was, 'It is never too early for champagne.' He always intervened quietly: he was an essentially gentle man, and indeed a gentleman. Fr Damian Webb, whose affairs were generally larger or more striking than usual, on lunching once at Bamber Bridge, found the drive obscured by an enormous pile of horse-manure. 'Oh,' says Fr Christopher quietly, 'just a little delivery.'
In 1976 he moved back to Warrington as Parish Priest of St Mary's. Here he stepped down to be Assistant again ten years later, until 1991 when the increasing infirmity brought on by Parkinson's disease made it convenient to bring him back to the Infirmary in the monastery. Here he delighted all by his unhurried ways and his delighted smile, as by his occasional flashes of wit 'All my contemporaries were keen on exercise, but I never was. And they are all dead', and 'It (the unheated church at Warrington) was like attending Mass daily on a football field'. Slowly he faded, serene as ever, until he slipped away, unobtrusive as ever, on 15 October 1996. One of his parishioners drew a fitting memorial from Chaucer:
Francis Christopher TOPPING 1910 Jan 23 b St Helen's Lancs ed St Mary's Blackbrook, St Helen's studied woodwork and employed as a joiner by building merchant St Michael's, Glossop (offshoot of Osterley) to learn Latin. 1933 Sept 25 Habit at Ampleforth Abbot Matthews 1934 Sept 26 Simple vows - 1936 Gilling Castle staff 1937 Sept 26 Solemn vows 1938 Jul 17 Subdeacon Li 1939 Jly23 Deacon Bishop Shine 1940 Jan 7 Priest 1955 Sept Workington 1962 Sept St Mary's Warrington Assistant 1964 Sept Bamber Bridge PP 1976 June St Mary's Warrington PP 1986 April retired from PP; St Mary's W. Assistant 1991 returned to Ampleforth, infirmary 1996 Oct 15 died at Ampleforth Note (FCT): Converted the cemetery overgrown with grass to a lower cemetery at Brownedge. Converted the large porch at Mary's Warrington to a chapel. Fitted two gas fires in the huge church; it was like attending Mass (daily) on a football field; it was very cold.