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FATHER JOHN DRINKWATER
Father John Drinkwater died suddenly on Sunday, loth November 1963, aged 75 years and in his fortieth year as parish priest of St Michael's, Wolverhampton. He had been taken ill early in the clay and, ignoring his doctor's urgent advice to stay in his room, insisted on singing the Requiem Mass for the dead of the two world wars ; later in the day he suffered a heart attack and went to Gad as his parishioners were leaving the church after evening Mass. He ended his life as he had lived it ; in the service of God and in the midst of the people who had loved him for his straight-forwardness, kindly simplicity and warm-hearted care for their needs.
Father John, as lie was affectionately known, received his early education at home from a family governess. Then, following a strong family tradition dating back to Sedgley Park days, came to Cotton in 190o where he remained until he went to Oscott eight years later. From the many stories that lie always used to tell with great zest, it appears that he found his studies difficult, both at Cotton and Oscott. The cause of this difficulty, however, was probably his bad eyesight, weak from birth, rather than any lack of intelligence ; as a priest his sermons were always simple, concise, and well thought-out. At all events, his superiors were impressed by the way in which lie threw himself wholeheartedly into the general life of school and college. For example, the same homely sense of fun that had enabled him, as a young boy at Wednesbury, to entertain his family with faithful imitations of his parish priest's sermons, led him to take a prominent part in concerts and plays, particularly those functions at which he could play his beloved violin. Throughout his life he treasured the programmes of the many concerts he had organised at Oscott where lie was a very active 'Musical Dean', and in his later years lie thoroughly
enjoyed organising a priests' concert party that gave shows for charity.
After his ordination in 1915, Father John went to the Parish of St Mary and Modwena at Burton where he remained for eight happy years with Canon Flynn. He had a great personal regard for his rector whose pastoral zeal seems to have had a great formative influence on him as a young priest. Such qualities as the devoted care of the sick and aged, the love of children, and the friendly interest in the home-life of his parishioners, all become apparent at Burton and remained with him throughout his life. These priestly virtues quickly endeared hint to the Catholics of Burton who also remember him for the vigour and enthusiasm with which he organised the Catholic Boys Brigade which, with its band and annual camp, was a life-long influence on several generations of boys in the parish.
In 1923, Bishop Glancey helped to establish the Carmelite Convent at Penn Fields, Wolverhampton, and foreseeing the building developments of the district, bought a piece of land in Penn for the future Catholic Church. In the same year the Bishop sent Father John to Wolverhampton to start this new parish of St Michael's. At first he used the Carmelite Chapel and then, as the new parish grew rapidly, built on the site bought by Bishop Glancey a hall used first as a church and parish hall and afterwards as a church only. Other buildings for which he was responsible included a fine presbytery, a chapel-of-ease opened at Castlecroft in 1956, the church of St Bernadette for the new parish at Wombourne that was opened in 1961, and the beginnings of the new parish school for which lie had waited so long but which he never lived to see completed.
But Father John's real memorials are less tangible than bricks and mortar. Those who knew him at St Michael's will best remember him for his childlike devotion to the Blessed