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JOHN MADDOX

Born: 8 Apr 1888 –  died: 23 Nov 1955
Clothed - 5 Oct 1909
Solemn Vows- 23 Apr 1914
Priest - 15 Jul 1917

Father John died at the Priory, Workington, on 24th November, suddenly, sitting at table. His brethren were just in time to anoint him before he passed away.

The openness and kindness which shone through Fr John made of him a character that drew everyone to him like a magnet. After his death several large boxes of photos and snaps were discovered in his room; no one had known of their existence. These pictures were taken of all kinds of persons in all kinds of places. Priests at Warrington on 'Walking Day', officers in their mess, boys in camp, clerical shooting parties, grand-ducal drawing-rooms, Royal wedding, beaters in a boar hunt, notabilities at the Ampleforth Exhibition, brancardiers and pilgrims in Lourdes, etc., etc. It isn't just that in each of these innumerable photos you recognize the beaming features of Fr John, the point is that his presence on the scene is somehow the explanation or excuse for all the others to be there, and they, everyone knows it and seems to proclaim it.

No wonder then that he made friends. For instance in the infirmary: with the patients, with the staff, with the Anglican parsons, with the children. (Fr John had but to put his nose round the corner and all the children would flock around.) He made especial friends with the old folk and with the down and outs. His character was so open he could never countenance favouritism in any form. With all these social virtues no wonder he was such a favourite himself.

He hated snobbery and he hated insincerity. If anyone made a mistake he could correct with sympathy; and always the correction would be wholesome and constructive. In regard to aesthetics ( - how he suspected that word!), Fr John abided by one firm principle. Anything which smacked of insincerity was, to him, certain anathema. And surely a lot of art-nonsense has been knocked out of people by the frankness and bluntness of Fr John in the process of applying his own criteria. And indeed he could be blunt!

In matters liturgical he was content to remain good 'low-church'.

And all the time, in his own line he himself was a superb artist. With his discerning knowledge of life and manners he responded instinctively to the talent of the great actors he had admired on stage or screen. How often have we sat and marvelled at his histrionics, his pathos his grand tragic manner, his comedy, his satire, his prodigious memory, the songs he knew, the verses he could spout. The stage attracted him from early youth. He died four days before the dress rehearsal of The Gondoliers which he was producing for the parish.

There has been no one to come near him as a mimic or raconteur. Those stories of his. Each bon mot perfectly timed and perfectly phrased. And always some joke that was quite new like a coin straight from the mint. The mischievous look in his eye is what made your sides ache.

Fr John's early years were spent in Wales. He was born in [1888]. He had a sister, and an elder brother, Joe, who went with him to Bedford. Good Anglicans, they really knew their Bible, and the Maddox brothers sang psalms in the choir.

In his youth he worked in an architect's office in Cardiff. Two things were destined to happen there. First, through his acquaintance with Laurence Turnbull he was converted to Catholicism. And secondly, a number of young feminine hearts were broken when their gay and handsome Jack Maddox withdrew from the world to embrace the monastic state at Ampleforth.

At Belmont he was clothed by Prior Raynal and was given the name Brother Cyril, thus becoming the fellow-novice of Brother Louis d'Andria and Brother Joseph Bond. The reader can imagine him undergoing the dura et aspera which are the novice's lot, and making the most of the mitigations afforded by boating on the River Wye, or on the briny at Caswall Bay. Soon after Belmont he was sent to improve his French at Oxford where he resided at Parker's Hall, Beaumont Street. It was probably here that Brother Cyril and Brother Stephen Marwood began to forge their long and popular partnership.

Theology lectures and classes in French were now the order of the day at Ampleforth. At his ordination in 1917 Brother Cyril changed his name to Father John in an effort to distinguish himself, from the, then, venerable Father Infirmarian.

For many years the Maddox-Marwood productions went on the stage at Ampleforth. (Altogether Fr John must have been involved in producing over seventy 'shows', from The Frogs in 1914, to The Gondoliers in 1955.) His work with the O.T.C. established contacts with Northern Command and the War Office, and he was notably persona grata in any Officers' Mess. He became the second Housemaster of St Aidan's after the death of Fr Augustine Richardson in 1928. Was he perhaps a little peppery with the House Monitors over the breakfast table? Soon Fr John was running his series of Ampleforth Pilgrimages to Lourdes, and these continued till he was moved, at Easter, 1938, to Parbold where he began his 'mission life' which was to continue for another seventeen years. In September of the same year he joined Fr Cyprian Murray and Fr Roger Lightbound at St Benedict's, Warrington. In 1942 he became rector of St Alban's in the same town, and six years later returned to St Benedict's as rector. In 1952 he joined the brethren at the Priory, Workington, and established himself in the affections and regard of all. The Cumberland air was kinder to his chest and with improved health he spared himself not at all in doing the rounds of his district. Great was the number of mourners who came to his Requiem and funeral. He lies buried - sharing Fr Basil Mawson's grave - at Salterbeck.

We offer our condolences to his brother and sister-in-law in their bereavement. May he rest in peace.



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Details from the Abbey Necrology


JOHN MADDOX                 23 November 1955
               
1888    8 Apr       Born in Penarth
1898-               to 1902 Educ Bedford Sch
               Received into the church
               Postulant at Ampleforth
1909    5 Oct       Habit at Belmont
1910    6 Oct       Simple Vows
1914   23 Apr       Solemn Vows
1917   15 Jul       Priest
1912-14             Studied French at Oxford
       21 Jan$$     to 31 Aug OC OTC
1928      Jan       Housemaster St Aidan's
1938      Apr       Parbold
          Sep       St Benedict's Warrington
1942      Apr       Charge of St Alban's Warrington
1948           St Benedict's Warrington
1952      Feb       Assistant at Workington
1955   23 Nov       Died suddenly at luncheon table at Workington
               Buried at Workington
               


Sources: AJ 61:1 (1956) 33
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