Just as the journal was in the press for our last issue, we received word of the death of Fr. Adrian Beauvoisin, who after some months of failing health passed away at the Presbytery, Brynmawr, on April 21st. A very large congregation assembled at St. Mary's Church on the occasion of the funeral. The Requiem Mass was sung by Canon Lucan, and after a sermon preached by Canon Wade, the interment, conducted by Fr. Austin Way, who was assisted by Canon Colgan, took place in the new cemetery at Abergavenny. Fr. Wade described the deceased Father as possessed of great talents and having gone through the most difficult tasks in the schools with such ease that it was an astonishment to his friends. He was an accomplished Greek scholar. What he had done at Brynmawr, and how it had been done, no one but God and himself knew. Of his devotion to that mission they knew better than he did. Through his efforts a new altar had been erected and the church had been made more attractive for the congregation. Then the schools and every part of that mission had had his personal attention. He had worked and striven. There were not many rich men amongst them to make large donations. With some strange mysterious power he had been able to keep the mission going. He had died penniless, and when he had gone forth and asked them for money he had been asking it for God. They owed him a deep debt of gratitude for what he had done for the mission. He had given his life for it. One of the principal traits in his character was that he was always willing to sacrifice himself for others. He had seen Fr. Adrian working as if his whole life depended upon it.
Fr. Adrian was born at Sheffield on October 10th, 1852, and was the son of Henry d'Argenson Beauvoisin. He came to Ampleforth in 1865, and, after his college career, went, together with some of his classmates, to the novitiate at Belmont. He received the habit from the Prior, Fr. Bede Vaughan, and after his return to Ampleforth, was raised to the priesthood by Bishop Cornthwaite in 1879. He laboured on the mission at St. Mary's Warrington, at St. Anne's, Liverpool, at Cleator Moor, Coventry, Merthyr Tydfil, Brownedge, and finally was appointed to Brynmawr in South Wales, where he spent the last ten years of his life. While at Cleator Moor, Cumberland, he was elected a member of the first County Council there, thus earning the distinction of being the only priest in England elected to such a position at that time. After his appointment to the diocese of Newport, he was Correspondent to the Brynmawr Catholic Schools, and a member of the Breconshire Education Authority, and for some time past he had fought strenuously for the staffing and maintenance of these schools.
R.I.P.
Bernard Adrian BEAUVOISIN 21 April 1906 1852 10 Oct born in Sheffield 1871 28 Sep Clothed 1875 8 Dec Solemn Vows 1879 8 Mar Priest 1882 St Mary's Warrington 1883 St Anne's Liverpool 1886 Cleator 1889 Coventry 1891 Merthyr Tydvil 1893 Brownedge 1896 Ampleforth 1897 Brynmawr 1906 21 Apr died