People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 30 March 1911, Page 585

People We Hear About

Lord Camoys, who kept his 27th birthday in January, is the fifth holder of a barony created nearly 530 years ago. Sir Thomas de Camoys, the first baron, was a soldier in the times of Richard 11., Henry IV., and Henry V. •■■ ■ The last-named gave him command of the left wing at Agincourt, and for his part in the victory installed him a Knight of the Garter. Of the part he played at the siege of Calais, William Gregory, Lord Mayor of London in 1451, gives this quaint record: ' Ande the 12th daye of Juylle the Lorde Camyse whythe othyr moo knyghtes and squyers went owte whythe a goodely" mayny unto the Bastyle, and wanne hyt manfully, and sette hyt a fyre.' The chapel at Stonor dates from 1349, and is 'the second oldest in England to be used continuously for Catholic worship. t On Wednesday, December 21 ; Archbishop Ireland celebrated the 49th anniversary of his ordination. The Archbishop's entire 49 years of service have been in the northwest, he having been ordained to the priesthood at St. Paul on December 21, 1861, by Bishop Grace. The anniversary recalls the fact that only two members of the Catholic Hierarchy in the United States are older in point of service than Archbishop Ireland, they being Cardinal Gibbons, of Baltimore, and Bishop Hogan, of Kansas City. The St. Paul prelate was born in Ireland, September 11, 1838, and went to America in 1849 .with his parents, and settled in St. Paul. He was educated in the Cathedral school at St. Paul and in France. During the Civil War he served two years as chaplain of the Fifth Minnesota Volunteers. Hon. W. J. Denny, Attorney-General of South Australia, who delivered the St. Patrick's Day oration in Sydney, is a fine speaker, and a young man only in the thirties (says the Catholic Press). The Christian Brothers of his native city of Adelaide educated him. Politics attracted him early. First he dabbled in municipal affairs, being an alderman of the Adelaide City Council; but "for some years past he has been a member of the Legislative Assembly, being always returned by big majorities, and last election topping the poll. He is a strong, uncompromising Catholic, and his rapid rise is a lesson to the tender-footed Catholic politicians in the other States. He is spoken of as the coming Premier of his State. Mr. Denny was editor of the Adelaide Southern Cross, and it was while holding that job he studied for the law. He is to-day one of South Australia's most successful 'awyers. He is unmarried. He has a brother a priest— 11. P. Denny, of Adelaide, who was educated theologically at St. Patrick's College, Manly. Sir Francis Cowley Burnand, recently observed his 74th birthday. He is an example of one of many Englishmen of French Huguenot descent who have found., their way back to the Catholic Church. The conversion of Sir Francis took place 53 years ago, when he was studying for the Anglican ministry at the College of Cuddesdon, then recently founded by Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, and since that time the nursery of innumerable converts. For a time young Burnand turned his thoughts towards tho priesthood, and he was actually a postulant with the Oblates at Bayswater, where traditions are still preserved of his inveterate love of joking. Called afterwards to the Bar, he soon found his real vocation in the writing. His unceasing flow of humor found vent in the pages of Punch, of which he became editor in 1880. During his quarter of a century's tenure of the editorial chair, the whole tone of the comic journal, which had been for years notorious for its violent and spiteful attacks on Catholicism, changed. Viscount Feilding, of the Coldstream Guards, who married Miss Imelda Harding last month, is the eldest son and heir of the Earl of Denbigh, and prospective head of a noble family which has been Catholic for just sixty years, and has during that time been always distinguished for devotion to the Church. It was in the year 1850 that the eighth Earl of Denbigh, grandfather of Lord Feilding, and himself then known by that courtesy title, was received into the Catholic Church by Bishop Gillis, at St. Margaret's Convent in Edinburgh. .His wife, born Miss Louisa Pennant, and heiress to a large estate in North Wales, was received with him and one of the first acts of Lord and Lady Feilding after their conversion was to hand over to the Catholic authorities a beautiful church which they were building at Pantasaph, near Holywell. This church is now served by the Capuchin Fathers. Lord Denbigh some years later built a fine church attached to his Warwickshire seat, Newnhara Paddox, in thanksgiving for the birth of his son and heir, the present Earl. The latter, who married a sister of Lord Clifford of Chudleigh has always been known as a staunch Catholic. He was a Lord-in-Waiting both to Queen Victoria (whom he attended on her memorable visit to Ireland) and to King Edward VII., and was held in high regard by both sovereigns. The young bridegroom of last month was educated at the Oratory School, Edgbaston, and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford, before getting his commission in the Guards.