Henry Bede Polding, who died on March 24th, was born at Blackburn in 1859 and was educated at Ushaw and Ampleforth. He was clothed in 1877 at the novitiate house of Belmont and chose the name Bede, due doubtless to his relationship to Dom Bede Polding of Downside, who became first Archbishop of Sydney. On his return to Ampleforth he was ordained priest in 1885 and taught on the school staff for eight years. He then worked as curate in South Wales and Lancashire and was later appointed parish priest of Maryport and was there for eight years and at Goosnargh for twelve years. In 1930 he gave up this latter appointment on account of failing health but, after a short rest, cheerfully undertook the position of curate once again, this time at Grassendale. Later he retired to Brownedge and, his infirmity increasing, spent his last months in the nursing home at Bowden Vale and the Providence Hospital at St Helens. His last years were troubled with failing sight which became almost total blindness towards the end. This was doubly an affliction for him as an invalid, for Fr Bede was a great reader all his life. In his later years he would use a huge magnifying glass to assist him but when this became useless he had to depend on the kindness of friends who read to him and on the wireless.
Dom Bede had all the qualities that one expects from a man of Lancashire Catholic stock. He was bluff yet not thoughtless: fond of chaff yet not uncharitable. To the last there was something of the merry schoolboy about him and on his visits to Ampleforth his laugh could be heard above the surrounding group of junior monks at recreation time. One who remembers him in youth recalls how he despised the effeminate innovations of Association and Rugby football. While at Belmont his adventurous courage induced him to try out the ice on a pond before anyone else. His burly frame was too much for the ice to bear and the press photographer arrived just in time to make a fair catch. Prior Raynal first heard of the incident from the photograph of a 'Monk in a Fix,' with the result that Br Bede found himself in yet another 'Fix.'
As a priest Fr Bede was a man of great energy. Until he was seventy he undertook the chaplaincy of a large County Mental Hospital in addition to his parochial work.
His spiritual life was only partially concealed by his boisterous manner for he was of far too simple a nature to hide his good qualities. He was laid to rest by his brethren at Ampleforth.
HENRY BEDE POLDING 24 March 1939
1858 8 Oct Born Blackburn
1875-77 Educ Ampleforth
1877 5 Sep Habit at Belmont
1879 15 Jan Simple Vows
1880 19 Dec Minor Orders
1882 10 Feb Solemn Vows Ampleforth
4 Mar Subdiaconate
1884 23 Mar Diaconate
1885 23 May Priesthood
Taught & lived at Ampleforth
1893 Merthyr Tydvil
1895 St Alban's Warrington
1900 Canton Cardiff
1903 Brownedge
1905 Incumbent at Maryport
1918 Goosnargh
1930 Feb Retired to Ampleforth through ill health
Nov Assistant Grassendale
1935 Oct Retired invalided to Brownedge
1938 Nursing Home at Bowden Vale
1939 17 Mar Moved to the Providence Hospital St Helens
24 Mar Died at the Providence Hospital St Helens
Buried at Ampleforth