Person DS/UK/50 Basset; Bernard (1909-1988); Jesuit Priest Basset Bernard 1909-1988 Jesuit Priest Male Born 21 March 1909 London. Entered the English Province of the Society of Jesus 7 September 1927. Ordained as a Roman Catholic priest 16 July 1941. Final vows in the Society of Jesus 2 February 1948. Died 13 June 1988 Oxford.

Fr Basset was born in London 21 March 1909. He went to Hodder in 1918 and from Stonyhurst to the noviceship at Roehampton in 1927. He remained for juniorate at Roehampton before going to Heythrop for philosophy from 1931 to 1934. At Campion Hall (1934 to 1937), he gained first class Honours in Modern History. He then taught at Stonyhurst for a year before commencing theology at Heythrop, where he was ordained in 1941. After theology Fr Basset taught at St John's, Beaumont, and made his Tertianship at Roehampton, 1946 to 1947, as Socius to the Master of Novices. In about 1947 he moved to Loyola Hall where he was 'scriptor', and stayed for two years before moving back first to Roehampton and then to Southwell House in 1950. Two years later he was appointed Moderator General of the Sodalities of Our Lady in the Province. He was also successively Minster (1954) and Superior (1960) at Southwell House. The work with the Sodalities was linked with the Cell Movement, a connection described in Basset's booklet 'The Spirit of Sodalities' (1960). In 1962 Basset was moved from Sodality work and joined the Vatican Radio (October to December) before returning to the Province, where he was based at Sacred Heart, Bournemouth (where his brother was parish priest), and then in the Isles of Scilly where he was parish priest from 1969 to 1977). He continued his writings and annually travelled to give regular lectures in the USA, and once in Australia and New Zealand. Between 1977 and 1978 he was with the Catholic Enquiry Centre in London before returning to Oxford where he continued his writings until 1984 when he suffered a heart attack. Between 1984 and 1985 he had both legs amputated, and spent the last three years of his life with the Sisters of Nazareth in Oxford, where he died 13 June 1988. He was survived by his sister, Elizabeth, a religious of the Sacred Heart. Member of the British Province of the Society of Jesus Catalogus Defunctorum 1986-2000 (Society of Jesus) National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997 Yes Archives 18/05/2010 CURIA\mallen 19/10/2021 f6328987-ad10-4502-8e51-959c88cb2a0b