Alfred Wilson was born in York, in [1831]. His father was Mr George Wilson, a builder and contractor of that city. They were Catholics - and Alfred would often mention how, for some period of time, he used to serve the daily Mass, at Fulford, of Bishop Briggs, Vicar Apostolic of the District of York, and afterwards first Bishop of Beverley. He came to Ampleforth in 1847, as a boy of seventeen - clever, inquisitive, with a considerable amount of formed opinion, and very handy in all manual arts. He formed part of a class in which he had as companions the late Fathers Wilfrid Brown and Romuald Woods. He made good studies; his Latin was above the average, and his proficiency in Natural Science was remarkable. Even before he entered college he had been accustomed to literary effort. When The Lamp was founded, at York, in 1850, by Thomas Earnshaw Bradley, Alfred Wilson, then a youth at Ampleforth, was not only one of the original subscribers, but contributed to its early numbers a series of papers which he entitled Monks and Monasteries. He was also a musician - but although he had a violin, and played the flute and the organ, he never made much progress as an executant. He was also fond of cricket. As a good Yorkshireman and admirer of George Lillywhite, he took up the round-arm bowling - and he and Romuald Woods, who had a swift underhand delivery, were often opponents of each other on the primitive Ampleforth cricket ground of 1849-50. He was a promoter of the College MS. magazine of his day; the pages of the Union contain some of his writing; and one of his essays had the distinction of being torn out and destroyed by the Prefect, as being tainted with Chartist teachings.
He took the monastic habit at Ampleforth in 1851, together with Wilfrid Brown and Romuald Woods. As a young Religious, he went through the usual philosophical and theological studies, chiefly under Father Augustine Bury. Although a well-informed theologian, Father Paulinus Wilson had many views of his own which were somewhat at variance with those commonly held. These views he was very cautious in putting forward, and he never set up as an innovator. He was ordained at York, by Bishop Briggs, at Christmas, 1857, and almost immediately afterwards was sent upon the Mission. His first Mission was Weobley, in Herefordshire. He was transferred to St John's, Bath, in 1861, as assistant to D. Clement Worsley. In 1862 he left Bath to take charge of Abergavenny. He became incumbent of Rhymney in 1868, and remained in that position for nine years. At Rhymney, besides enlarging the church, he built an excellent school at Pontlottyn, in the lower part of the Mission. In 1876 he was appointed to the important Mission of St David's, Swansea, where he spent seventeen years of strenuous pastoral work. He was a good preacher and catechist, with a forcible, homely style. He organised his various Missions with care and regularity. In money matters, he was trustworthy, capable and exact. He never rested until his church, school and presbytery were as comfortable as they could be made, and he kept them in most careful repair. He was a member of the Swansea School Board for several years. He built a commodious school in the Dan-y-graig district of the Mission of St David, and after a long and spirited contest forced the authorities to place it on the grant list. He had a great fondness for promoting musical and dramatic entertainments in his flock. In superintending these, he not only found an outlet for his own remarkable practical talent, but by intercourse with his people so endeared himself to them that wherever he laboured, but especially at Swansea, he has left affectionate memories.
He became a Canon of the diocese of Newport and Menevia in 1875. From 1887 to 1896 he was Diocesan Inspector of Schools, and represented the diocese on the Catholic Poor School Committee. He was Vicar-General of the diocese from 1882 to 1884. He was given the dignity of Cathedral Prior of Worcester in 1901.
When the new organisation of the English Benedictine Congregation came into force, the mission of St David's, Swansea, fell to the charge of St Edmund's Abbey, and Canon Wilson left the flock with which so many years of his life had been spent, and to whom his chief missionary work had been dedicated. He went for a year or two to the chaplaincy of Rotherwas, a few miles from the Cathedral Monastery of St Michael. When the Rotherwas mission was given up, in 1896, he was sent to Knaresbro'. Here he laboured for another seventeen years. He enlarged the school and the presbytery. Advancing age and failing powers caused him to leave Knaresbro' in 1913. He spent some time at Brownedge, in retirement. At the beginning of 1915 he went back to Ampleforth, and there, without any serious malady except that of old age, he died on September 18th. He was at the time of his death the oldest living Laurentian and English Benedictine; his fellow novices Fathers Wilfrid Brown and Romuald Woods had already been called to their reward. Having spent so many of the best years of his life in the diocese of Newport, he was warmly attached to the clergy and flock of that diocese; and, on their part, the clergy - not only his own brethren, but also the secular priests of the diocese - deeply appreciated his abilities, his sterling work, and the genial spirit which he showed to all in the various relations in which they were brought together during so long a time. - R.I.P.
We are grateful to be allowed to add some quotations from the very kind letter, so highly appreciative of Father Paulinus, written to Father Abbot by the Very Rev. Father Wulstan Richards of Downside. After offering his condolence on the loss of the venerable Dom Paulinus, the patriarch of the familia, and of the English Benedictine Congregation, the writer continues: 'Probably few men knew him more intimately than myself, for I was his colleague for nearly twenty years on the Swansea Mission, and the friendship cemented there we have both preserved and renewed from time to time till the end. Like his Ampleforth contemporaries he was one of marked individuality of character, and solidity of attainments. He was essentially a strong man, a straight man, and a fearless man; of great kindliness and warmth of heart, but with an entire absence of emotion or gush. For near twenty years he was a strong bulwark of Catholicity in Swansea, and a redoubtable champion of the rights and claims of Catholic schools and children. I never knew a man who could hold his own so strongly against opponents without giving offence, or work out a purpose more persistently, or one who was more modest in his bearing, when success crowned his efforts. His people loved him and were proud of him, so entirely did he devote himself to them in the work of the ministry, and as their representative in public life. His gifts were varied, but all of a practical kind. To his priestly endowments he united a keen love of music and of the drama. His choir was a joy to him, and the most efficient in the town. The performances of his children owed their attractiveness to his careful training. But he was first and foremost a true monk and a holy priest, - one aspect of his character always struck me, his tranquility of mind and soul. He had fewer of those littlenesses which sometimes mar a fine nature. May God rest his soul. I hope on Thursday to sing the Requiem Mass for him in our Church Choir. Upon me falls for a little time the patriarchal place he held in the Congregation. May we meet again as colleagues in God's good time and place.'
ALFRED PAULINUS WILSON 18 September 1915
1831 31 Jan Born York
Educ Ampleforth
1851 16 Nov Clothed
1852 20 Nov Prof
1857 29 Dec Ordained Priest Bishop Briggs
1858 Sent on the mission to Weobly
1861-62 Bath
1862 Abergavenny
1868-76 Rhymney
1876-93 St David's Swansea
1893 Rotherwas
1875 Canon
1882-84 Vicar General of Newport etc
1896 to 1913 Knaresborough
1901 6 Mar Cathedral Prior of Worcester
Retired to St Mary's Brownedge
1915 Jul Came to Ampleforth
18 Sep Died at Ampleforth
Buried at Ampleforth