DID you ever hear of a seminary whose foundation stone was laid by royalty and blessed by an Anglican Bishop? That in fact is what happened in the case of the White Fathers' missionary college at Bishop's Waltham, though, be it said from the start, neither royalty nor Anglican prelate dreamt that the stone on which so much royal and ecclesiastical ceremony was lavished would indeed one day be at the foundations of a Catholic seminary !

This is the Story of It.

In the wave of humanitarian undertakings of last century, some good people hit on the idea that a hospital was needed at Bishop's Waltham : the hospitals at Portsmouth and Southampton were just that much too far away to take the less serious cases and something was needed to "provide for the poor of the district those comforts in time of illness which can only be secured for them by an organised establishment". So they resolved to build a small hospital, to be known as the Royal Albert Infirmary. A site was chosen overlooking Bishop's Waltham. It was certainly an ideal spot, with commanding views of the wooded countryside for miles around.

The prime mover of this scheme was Mr. Arthur Helps, who had a country house at Bishop's Waltham. He was secretary to the Privy Council and was the author of a collection of memoirs and speeches of the Prince Consort. Amongst his donations to building the new infirmary were the proceeds from the sale of his book. When the time came for the laying of the foundation stone, Mr. Helps was able to solicit the presence of royalty for the ceremony. So it came to pass that, in August 1864, the main street of the little country town of Bishop's Waltham was gay with bunting and high above the small-paned windows of its country shops, towered a triumphal arch of evergreens and flowers. Across the top of it a broad banner saluted the Queen.

The Queen herself, however, was far away at Osbourne House in the Isle of Wight, plunged in her endless mourning for Prince Albert. But she had consented to be represented and when the bells in the grey flint tower of St Peter's echoed across the chalky red tiles and hard blue slates of the jumbled roofs of Bishop's Waltham, it was to ring out a welcome to Prince Leopold. He was accompanied by Princess Louisa of Hesse and the Earl of Grenville. It was his first public engagement.



Amongst the personages under the awning on the building site were the mayors of Portsmouth, Winchester and Southampton. The young prince went through the formalities of laying the foundation stone, the Bishop of Winchester said a prayer and, almost an unwittingly prophetic touch, the hymn "All people that on earth do dwell" was sung.

The following year, in November, royalty were there again for the formal opening of the building and the unveiling of the statue of Prince Albert in the niche over the entrance. This time it was young Prince Arthur who came for the ceremony, with Princess Helena and Princess Louisa. A painting of them, now in the National Portrait Gallery, commemorates the occasion. Rarely can such a modest establishment have been launched with so much dignified ceremony and notice. And rarely could any institution have been so short-lived. For within a few years the whole idea of a hospital was dropped. The statue of Prince Albert was removed, leaving a gaping niche between twin badges of royal orders. The property was sold and became a private residence. Its new owners called it "The Priory"— its style was vaguely reminiscent of monastic rather than domestic architecture. With the disappearance of even the name Royal Albert Infirmary to keep alive the memory of its brief regal occasions and its place in the annals of public benefactions, Bishop's Waltham resumed its rural retirement in the hollow of the wooded Hampshire hills. Shepherds drove their close-packed flocks in from the downs, brewer's dray and farmer's wagon ground ponderously over the gravel roadway, oldest inhabitants succeeded each other on the seat round the old oak opposite the harness-maker's shed. Trees grew steadily round "The Priory" to give greater seclusion to its terraced lawns and rose gardens even in these tranquil surroundings. Just four times a day the quiet air was stirred by the muted clatter of the railway engine drawing its single coach slowly over the level crossing to come to rest in the tiny terminus station with a discreet, almost apologetic hiss. So the years went by.

Then, one day in 1912, two bearded strangers alighted from the train. One was from North, the other from Central Africa. They were two White Fathers in search of a suitable property where they could found a missionary college. "The Priory" was on the market again and they had come to Bishop's Waltham to look at it. It proved to be just what they wanted — a house big enough to make a start with and plenty of ground for building. Bishop Cotter, the Bishop of Portsmouth, had already given them permission to look for a place and was only waiting the opportunity of consulting the Chapter before authorising the foundation. By September 17th this had been done and "The Priory" had become the property of the White Fathers. On October 2nd Father Travers, one of the original two, with another Father and four Brothers moved in. Ten days later two more Fathers arrived. So it was thus on the feast of the Motherhood of our Lady that the business of launching the new foundation began in good earnest.

The old coach house and stable were turned into a carpenter's shop and the Brothers set to work to make desks, tables, cupboards, bookshelves, altars, vestment presses. Soon a small farm was started to provide the needs of the Community. Almost immediately plans were put in hand for the college buildings.

By December 13th 1913 the new building was ready for Bishop Cotter to bless. It consisted of a three storey block parallel to the old house and providing chapel, study, classrooms, infirmary and dormitory, and linked to the old building by a section containing the refectory, kitchens and recreation room. The old building now became the Community house and the new, of course, the school. In the empty niche over the main entrance a statue of our Lady was placed to preside henceforth over the training of future missionaries, and in the miniature belfry high on the new building, a bell rang out the Angelus for the first time in these parts. It was a thin voiced bell, the kind that comes cheap, but it had its vigorous say among the mellow peals floating from the towers of half-a-dozen pre-Reformation village churches far across the woods and fields. It was heartening, too, for the few Catholic families in Bishop's Waltham. Until the White Fathers came, Bishop's Waltham only saw a priest a couple of times a year, for their parish church was eight miles away. The Fathers gladly brought the people their priestly ministry, as what missionary would not. Since those early days Bishop's Waltham has been made a separate parish and one of the Fathers is appointed Parish Priest. It is a large area of countryside with a small number of scattered Catholics. Even so it has produced two priests — one, a convert Anglican clergyman, now a Jesuit, the other, Fr. Miller, a missionary in Uganda for thirty years and a nun, Sister Mildred, at present stationed in Liverpool.

The missionary college, then, was well and truly founded by the end of 1913 and hopes were high of filling it with students before long. But within a few months the 1914 war had broken out with all the disruptions it caused. It was certainly not the most favourable time to inaugurate such a work as this. Material difficulties worsened steadily throughout the country and the staff came and went, especially with the growing problems in the missions in Africa under war conditions. In the end it was realised that there was little hope of making headway until the war was over.

And indeed when peace did return, the Priory began to build up slowly and steadily. It opened in 1918 with seven students and one Brother postulant. Amongst the students were Alfred Howell, who was to make such an important contribution to the development of the Province in later years, and Arthur Hughes, destined to become the first Papal Internuncio to Egypt. By 1925 there were sixty students and the number soon rose to eighty.

But the increase in missionary vocations was much greater than that figure suggests, for in the meantime another missionary college had been begun to cater for the lower half of the school, so that the Priory now housed only the boys in the top forms. This new foundation was St. Columba's College at Newtown St Boswells. It had a double distinction: it was the first, missionary college to be founded in Scotland and Fr Walsh, the priest to whom the founding of it was entrusted, was ater to become a bishop. Fr Walsh's story has something unique about it. As a boy he lived in Aberdeen and went to the seminary for the diocese. Ordained at the Scots College in Rome after winning a doctorate in Philosophy and in Theology, he was appointed to St Mary's, Inverness. It was from there, in 1929, that his desire to work for the missions in Africa led him to the White Fathers' novitiate. After his novitiate he was on the staff at the Priory for a year. This brought him to the time for his profession with high hopes of a speedy appointment to Africa. But Providence had planned otherwise.

He was appointed to Scotland to make the White Fathers better known and to explore the possibilities of a foundation. With the blessing of Archbishop MacDonald of Edinburgh, he first settled at Melrose, in the valley near the old Abbey ruins. A house was rented awaiting the time when property could be found suitable for a college, and a small community moved in — Fr Walsh himself, Fr Drost, who had been on the staff at the Priory many years before and was to win the esteem and affection of many hundreds of Scots friends of the White Fathers, and Brother Modeste, one of the early members of the community at Bishop's Waltham. A suitable site was found in 1934, some three miles further along the Tweed, at Newtown St Boswells (the saint in question being Boisil, a monk of the seventh century Celtic abbey of Melrose, the nursery of many missionaries). So the little community left the house at Melrose and moved into the small farmstead on the newly acquired property, converted a byre into a tiny chapel (the homely peace of it will always haunt the memory of those who knew it) and, whilst keeping the small-holding going, busied themselves with the task of interesting Catholic Scotland in the proposed missionary college.

It was not until a year later that the foundation stone of St. Columba's College was laid and regular work on the building began. Meantime Fr Walsh spent himself tirelessly finding friends and donations to make the work possible.

In September 1936 part of the building was ready and the first of the St Columba's students arrived. Work progressed spasmodically but of necessity came to a standstill during the war. The architect met a tragic death in an air-raid during a visit to London. After the war the project was entrusted to one of Scotland's leading ecclesiastical architects. New plans were drawn and important additions have thus been made, in particular the chapel, blessed in 1954 by Fr Walsh himself, by then Bishop of Aberdeen.

Although plans allow for further extensions, St Columba's College already forms a complete and arresting building worthy of its magnificent surroundings. Standing on a hill above a bend in the River Tweed it is visible from many points in the famous Scot Country.

It was as well that we had the farm and some of the building done at Newtown St Boswells before 1940, for the time came when we had to evacuate the students from the Priory. The Jesuit Fathers at Mungret generously gave hospitality to our Irish boys and the others went to St Boswells. There, too, the Philosophy students came, for the war deprived us temporarily of the Seminary of Philosophy at Rossington Hall in the south of Yorkshire.

Many temporary measures were, indeed, imposed on us by the war. Amongst other problems was that of providing a transitional arrangement, for two years, for a group of students in Theology. This was solved by acquiring a house at Sutton Coldfield so that they could go from there to Oscott College daily to follow the lectures, an arrangement made through the kindness of Archbishop Williams of Birmingham and the Rector of Oscott. After this the house at Sutton Coldfield was used briefly as a novitiate and finally it became the house for Fathers lecturing and preaching on the missions and so on in England. This it still is.