| Admin_History | Fr Charles Raymond-Barker was born on the 16th of January, 1859. He was sent to school first in Hurstpierpoint in Sussex. He became a Catholic when he was 14, along with his mother and sister, and they moved to Paris. Then he went to school at Grenoble for three years until September 1875, when he was sent to Stonyhurst, and spent three years, studying Poetry, Rhetoric and Philosophy and won multiple prizes for his academic achievements. From Stonyhurst, in 1878, he went to the noviciate at Roehampton and did one year's juniorate. In 1882 he went to St Mary's Hall for a year to study for the London BA, and then studied Philosophy for the next three years. In 1889 he studied theology at St Beuno's, was ordained there in 1892, and did his tertianship at Roehampton 1893-4. In August 1894 he sailed for South Africa and taught at St. Aidan's until 1899. On his return to England that year he worked for short periods at Wimbledon, Richmond and Bournemouth. In 1902 he was sent to Cairo, where he taught for a year at the Holy Family College. At the end of that year he spent three weeks in Jerusalem with Fr Robert Ord SJ. On his return to England, he taught at Mount St Mary's, and then at a college at Higham in Kent. In 1907 he went to Great Yarmouth, where he had charge of the church at Gillingham. The next year he was moved to Rhyl, and from 1933 was based in North Wales. This work was interrupted by service as Chaplain to the Forces in 1914-1919. After a short period in France, he was invalided back to England and on returning to duty was posted at Bedford and then at Tidworth Camp. At the end of 1915 he was sent to Gibraltar and remained there for four years until he was demobilized at the end of 1919 and returned to Rhyl and Denbigh. In 1927 he was in charge at Maetwrog, and seems to have had some army work at this time as he was serving in Trawsfynydd. But his main work for many years was around Cerrig-y-drudion, until he was sent to Wimbledon for parish work in 1933. He remained at Wimbledon until 1940, when he retired to St Beuno's as his sight was seriously failing. He lived there for fifteen years until his death on the 11th of December 1955. |