BISHOP BRINDLE, D.S.O.

New Zealand Tablet, 1 July 1915, Page 51

BISHOP BRINDLE, D.S.O.

It has been officially announced that the Right Rev. Dr. Robert Brindle, D. 5.0., who has been Bishop of Nottingham since 1901, has taken steps to effect his resignation (says the Universe). Dr. Brindle is seventyeight years of age, and his advanced -years and dictates of health are the cause of his wish to be relieved of his responsibilities.

Since his ordination at the English College, Lisbon, in 1862, the aged prelate’s experience .in war service is unique in the annals of Army chaplains. After serving in the diocese of Plymouth, he commenced his military work in 1874, and from 1876 to 1881 was in Nova Scotia’. A year later he accompanied Lord (then General) Kitchener’s Sudan Expedition, and was present at the two engagements of Kasassihy at the battles of El-Teb and Tamai in 1884, and under fire during the campaigns of Suakin, the Nile, and ‘Guineas. Lie marched with the Royal Irish Regiment across the Bayuda Desert to Metemineh, and was an eye-witness of the action of 1886, which for the time being broke the Dervish power in the neighborhood of Wady Haifa and'drove them back to Dongola. During the Nile campaign Father Brindle, as he then was, pulled stroke in the boat of the Royal Irish that gained Lord Wolseley’s award of £IOO for the quickest time from Wady Haifa to Korti. At the conclusion of this campaign he was again in Aldershot and Colchester, where for many he acted as spiritual director to the Catholic troops. In 1896 he again joined Lord Kitchener in the Sudan, and served through the Dongola Expedition. A terrible time was experienced during the long wait of that year at Surras with cholera and the terrific heat, but Dr.* Brindle kept up the spirits of the men with his inexhaustible energy and good? humor, and was in fact the most popular man in the camp. During the campaign under notice the Sirdar gave Dr. Brindle. the command, of a gunboat carrying a detachment of the South Staffordshire Regiment.

His services in this expedition secured him the decoration of the Third Medjidie, and for his conduct on the field at Atbara in 1898 he was made a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order, the first Army chaplain to obtain the distinction. Twice promoted for courage and coolness finder fire, he is also the first Catholic chaplain to receive a pension for distinguished and meritorious service. For the 1882 campaign he also received the British war medal for Egypt with three clasps, and the Khedival Bronze Star, and for the later war was awarded the Egyptian war medal with three clasps, i.e., Halfir, Atbara, and Khartum.

- He finally severed his connection with the Army in 1899, and on March 12 of that year was consecrated by Cardinal Satolli in Rome as Bishop of Hcrmopolis, and acted as an auxiliary Bishop to the late Cardinal Vaughan.

He was appointed to the See of Nottingham on the resignation of the late Archbishop Bagshawe on December 6, 1901, being solemnly enthroned in'the Cathedral on January 2, 1902.

An interesting event took place in 1906, when he received Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain into the fold, for which he was awarded the Order and Cross of Isabel the Catholic by the King of Spain. He received the congratulations of the late Pope on attaining, the golden jubilee of his priesthood on December 27, 1912, and on January 15, 1913, was publicly presented with a series of addresses and a cheque for £1350 subscribed by the faithful of the diocese on the same happy event.