Cecil Ernest Gill
Gartness Hall 1919-1921
St Anselm Hall 1921-1922
The only child of William Gill, a managing clerk, and his wife Alice, Cecil Ernest Gill was born in Poole, Dorset in 1890. Little is known about his early life except that he grew up in Poole and initially worked with his father before becoming an architect’s draughtsman.
Cecil joined the Honourable Artillery Company in September 1915, when he was twenty-six years old and served until the end of the war, being appointed to the Ordination Test School in December 1918. From there, Cecil became a student at the University of Manchester and a member of Gartness hall. He transferred to St. Anselm Hall during the 1921 merger and graduated with 2nd class honours in Modern History in 1922. That year he had also been secretary of the University Lawn Tennis Club.
Cecil went on to become a Vicar, but sadly his tenure was short. In the summer of 1926, he contracted Encephalitis Lethargia (Sleeping Sickness), a 1920s epidemic which led to coma, and, ultimately, for Cecil, heart failure. He died at home on 21 May 1926, aged 36. In remembering him, the students of St Anselm Hall noted ‘A careful student, a true sportsman, a loyal friend, a man of God, we mourn his loss… Requiescat in Pace.’
George Goode
1919-c.1922
Born in Broadwell, a hamlet of Leamington Hastings, Warwickshire, in 1886, George Goode was the eleventh of the thirteen children of George Goode, an agricultural labourer, and Amy his wife. At seventeen George left home to join the Church Army, an evangelical Christian organisation who worked among the poor. In 1911, George was a Church Army Worker living in Stockport, Cheshire, but by 1912 he was working in Rochdale, near Manchester. 1912 was also the year that George married his first wife, Clara Jackson. They had one son together, Alec. Shortly after their marriage, George and Clara moved to Fillongley, Warwickshire, where they continued their mission work.
George and Clara were separated for much of the First World War, with George serving as a Stretcher Bearer, in the course of which he was wounded three times. Clara, meanwhile, worked as a nurse in Fillongley and Birmingham whilst also continuing her Church work.
The couple remained separated after the end of the war, however, as George transferred to Knutsford and then went on to study at the University of Manchester. He joined St Anselm Hall,and is recorded as a resident there in 1921. On leaving Slems, he continued his theological studies at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. George was ordained Deacon at Wakefield Cathedral in 1924 and appointed curate of All Souls, Halifax. In 1925, George was appointed curate in charge of Calder grove, in the parish of Chaplethorpe, Wakefield, Yorkshire. On his departure in 1925 the parishioners are said to have presented him ‘with a study table desk and a cheque.’
From 1929 until 1936, George was vicar of East Hardwicke and afterwards he was made vicar of St John’s, Ravenhead, in the Merseyside town of St Helen’s. On leaving the parish in 1948, George offered some advice to married couples ‘To Wives- Don’t become [lazy], it’s tragic… To husbands, don’t forget her cup of tea in bed… Do wash up.’
In 1948, George was appointed back to his home parish of Leamington Hastings. He remained there until 1957, when Clara’s failing health made it necessary for him to retire. During his time at Leamington Hastings, George was also chaplain to the Stockport & Bradwell branch of the British Legion.
After Clara’s death in early 1960, George lived in semi-retirement at Kenilworth, with one of his responsibilities being travelling chaplain to the Commonwealth and Continental Church Society, where he supported British church communities overseas. On his 76th birthday, in 1962, George announced his intention to marry again, this time to 37-year-old Mary Chambers. He was quoted in local press as saying of the marriage ‘You’re only as young as you feel; it’s the heart that matters.’ George and Mary lived together until George’s death, at the age of 92, in 1976. After his funeral, his ashes were interred at Leamington Hastings.