Father Edward Parker died on 18th March 1958, just a week before he would have completed fifty years in the priesthood, and was buried at Ampleforth. He was born in Birmingham on 22nd August 1876, one of thirteen children of whom four became priests and one a Carmelite nun. He was in the school here from 1886 to 1891. He then spent nine years in a law office, during which he gave much of his spare time to service with the Volunteers. The knowledge he thus acquired of legal procedure and accountancy and of military drill was later put to the service of Ampleforth. In 1900 he entered the novitiate, and did his studies at Belmont and Ampleforth until his ordination in 1908. He had unresting energy and zeal, and his long, lean, straight, strong frame seemed proof against exhaustion whether by physical efforts or by hours at his desk. He was a model of monastic regularity, loved the social side of community life and took full part in the work and recreations of the school. When it was decided to form a contingent of what was then termed the Officers' Training Corps he was chosen to establish and command it. He also looked after the little congregations of Helmsley and (later) Kirbymoorside. Gradually his work became mainly secretarial, partly because his familiarity with legal and financial documents, together with his industry and accuracy, fitted him for it. He is thought to have introduced Ampleforth to the typewriter. Like some beneficent rainfall his industry seeped through the Head Master's office and the Procurator's and into the Strong Room, producing a harvest of up-to-date lists and orderly records, transcripts of important Deeds, maps and monographs to show the growth of the Abbey buildings and estate and the bewildering changes in the shape and uses of our interior spaces. Later he was Sub-Economus for nearly twenty years during which efficient management of current bookwork was maintained with unerring accuracy, and the property, funds and obligations of each parish examined, clarified and set on record. Anyone who has to go into some legal or financial problem in the story of our past invariably finds that Fr Edward has been there before him.
Aptitude was only part of the reason for the choice of work to be entrusted to him: in addition the range of his active life was increasingly narrowed by deafness. The cause, whatever it was, cost him much surgical treatment and severe pain, and the resultant isolation, which only the similarly afflicted can appreciate, must have been exceptionally trying to one so active and apostolic and sociable. That he retained so much of his vivacity and humour was one of the most edifying of his many admirable traits. He was a frequent pilgrim to Lourdes where he devoted himself to the service of the sick. For some months he was secretary to Cardinal Gasquet in his work on the commission for the revision of the Vulgate. He served to the best of his ability at St Mary's, Brownedge, from 1924 to 1933, at St Mary's, Leyland, for two years, and for nine years at Barton-on-Humber with his twin brother, Fr David. When that parish was surrendered to the diocese in 1949 his working days ended. There remained over eight years of increasing disability during which his fortitude was sweetened by his gratitude for help and frequent flashes of fun. We offer our sympathy to his surviving brothers, His Lordship the Bishop of Northampton and Fr Anselm, and to his sisters. May he rest in peace.
JOHN EDWARD PARKER 18 March 1958
1876 22 Aug Born at Birmingham
1886-91 Educ Ampleforth
1900 3 Sep Habit
1901 4 Sep Simple Vows
1904 5 Oct Solemn Vows
1908 25 Mar Priest
1909-10 Served Helmsley
1911 Founded OTC
1912 Invalided
1912-13 Secretary in Rome to Card Gasquet
Stayed at Good Shepherd Court, Finchley
1918 Ampleforth
1924-33 Brownedge
1938 Feb Leyland
Aberford
1940-49 Barton-on-Humber
1949 Ampleforth
1957 9 Mar St Mary's Home, Moston, Manchester
1958 18 Mar Died at St Mary's Home, Moston, Manchester
Buried at Ampleforth