Hugh Murtagh came to Ampleforth to join the community in September 1932. After the novitiate he worked for a short time in the Procurator's office, making use of training he had had before deciding to become a monk. He went then to Oxford and in 1939 was placed in the Second Class in the Honours School of Modern History. He returned to work on the School Staff, and after his ordination to the Priesthood in 1942 he had charge of the School Shop, where his influence was deeply felt by the boys who worked with him. In September 1945 he left Ampleforth for St Mary's, Cardiff, where he was Chaplain to the Catholic Undergraduates in the University and three years later moved to St Benedict's, Warrington. In September 1949 he went to St Anne's, Liverpool, and on 29th August 1950 he died at the early age of 41. He was buried at Ampleforth.
So much for the easily recorded events of his life since he joined us. It is less easy to give a just tribute to his personality. Unknown to any of us when he first came to Ampleforth, Br Charles quickly made friends in the novitiate and community by his quick and ready wit and his cheerful bearing. This hid a much deeper and more complex character, of which the outstanding feature was, perhaps, a capacity for friendship combining a depth of feeling and of sympathy for others with a will and ability to communicate it rarely enough found together. Everywhere Fr Charles went he made strong friendships, especially among those who found themselves in need of help and sympathy and understanding, and there are many people who are deeply grateful to him for the help he was able to give. He had a power of expression of a high order, and the letters he wrote to his friends will bear the hard test of re-reading many years after. This power of expression was of service too in the work of evangelization especially, perhaps, among those who were his intellectual equals, and were for that the more difficult to convince.
He had a quick perception and an enquiring mind which he could turn with equal penetration and verve from the criticism of anti-Catholic historical writing to the composition of rhyming couplets for a home-made pantomime. If he had a fault it was, perhaps, that of impatience of intelligences slower than his own. He was direct and caustic in criticism of what he disapproved, and the depth and strength of his feelings and opinions found a good deal of which to disapprove in what is, after all, a far from perfect world.
There was nothing insipid in Fr Charles; but the strength and vitality of his character were not matched on the physical side, and his almost constant ill health during the later years of his life formed the basis of many disappointments. He could not resign himself to be a 'passenger', and so it was, perhaps, the sort of death he would have wished that came so suddenly. His naturally active nature already suffered from the restrictions put upon him by his ill health and repeated operations, and he would have hated to become an invalid.
He died with tragic suddenness during a holiday to recuperate from an operation and while making a good recovery from pleurisy and pneumonia. He had been anointed at his own request a few days before his death, and though his relatives and friends among our old boys, our parishioners, ourselves and many others, will feel the loss of his sympathetic understanding, we know that we still have his friendship, and have gained something more truly useful in his now more effective prayers for us to gain us the graces we need. May he rest in that Peace which the world did not give him.
HUGH CHARLES MURTAGH 29 August 1950
1909 7 Jun Born Burnley Lancs
1932 19 Sep Habit at Ampleforth
1933 21 Sep Simple Profession Abbot Matthews
1936 21 Sep Solemn Vows " "
1937 9 Sep Tonsure & Minor Orders
11 Sep " " "
28 Sep " " "
1935-39 Studied at Oxford - 2nd History
1940 21 Jul$$ Subdeacon
1941 20 Jul Deacon
1942 19 Jul Priest
1945 17 Sep Assistant at St Mary's Cardiff
1948 Oct Assistant at St Benedict's Warrington
1949 Sep Assistant at St Anne's Liverpool
1950 29 Aug Died while on holiday at Llandudno
Buried at Ampleforth