| The first curate
in St Augustine's was Father Thomas Hopwell, an
Englishman born at Leicester on 26th February,
1859. He studied classics at the grammar school
there, at St Mary's College, Rugby and at Ratcliffe
College, near Leicester. Ratcliffe College was
run by the Rosminian Fathers and it may well have
been here that he discovered his vocation and
decided to join that recently founded Order. This
would explain his departure for the Collegio Mellerio
di Duomo d'Ossola, in Piedmont in northern Italy,
a College in the care of the Rosminian Fathers.
After three years there his studies of philosophy
and theology were interrupted by the need to return
to England in 1884 to receive medical treatment
after a serious accident.
We next hear of him as a student
at St Peter's College, Partickhill where he completed
his studies and was ordained by Charles Eyre,
archbishop of Glasgow on 23rd June 1889. The specific
reason for his arrival in Glasgow is not recorded
but he may well have been one of the men persuaded
to come north of the border by the archbishop
faced with a desperate shortage of native priests
to care for the ever-increasing Catholic population.
That same year another two Englishmen (James Humble
and Hugh J.Kelly), two Germans (Ludger Kuhler
and Martin Jansen), one Irishman (Thomas Lee),
one Welshman (David Morris) and two Scots (John
McBain and Michael McCabe) came to Glasgow. There
may be a message here for the contemporary church!
Father Hopwell's first appointment was to St John's,
Glasgow. His next move was to St Mary's, Hamilton.
In 1892 Father Hopwell came to
St Augustine's where he celebrated his first baptism,
that of Hugh Dillon, son of John and Mary Dillon
(Clifford). As the child was ill, this first baptism
was celebrated in his home on the day of his birth,
18th September, and the other ceremonies were
later supplied by Father Hopwell in the Church
on the 13th October.
In 1894, five years after ordination,
he left St Augustine's to take up his first appointment
as parish priest at St Bridget's, Kilbirnie where
he was to spend the next twenty-five years. He
is remembered there as "an eloquent preacher
and as a musician of note". Like so many
of his contemporary priests he made a significant
contribution to education and the promotion of
catholic schooling. He died on the Feast of the
Immaculate Conception, 8th December 1919, aged
60, and was buried in Dalbeth Cemetery, Glasgow.
At a distance of 110 years we pay homage to a
good priest and a founder member of our parish.
Those who are interested should take a look at
the writings of Rosmini who inspired Father Hopwell's
vocation - all 100 volumes !! JF.
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