The Professional Beggar
A Man Who Made A Community
by
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After a few days at the Church Army hut inside the Inkerman Barracks where he was surrounded by battle-hardened, Afrikaans-speaking Boers,
“I can recommend our tea, except when I make it. We are in truth a wayside teetotal pub. The men come and go from their lorries, slipping in for a moment while a column halts; others are on the way to or from home leave, this being the railhead; or on their way to rejoin their unit. Many of these two last sleep the night on the floor of the hut. It is not exactly feather bed accommodation but they consider it a ‘better ‘ole’ than a cellar of a ruined house. …we have six hours a day behind the counter, and the other part is filled up with cleaning up, cooking, cleaning boots, washing clothes etc. On Sundays the counter is closed and we have
He went on to describe his first celebration of Communion in the hut:
“…imagine yourself a long, low and extremely dirty hut with a portable altar set up at one end in front of the stores and twenty-three most reverend communicants scattered about on forms. The dirt from all the mud brought in by many feet was so great that I imagined no one would kneel, but almost all did. And as I passed from one to the other with the elements, here stepping over a rifle, and there over a tin hat, it seemed to me one of the most real communions I had ever been at. For that alone, if for nothing else, I cannot be glad enough that the way to come out here was made so easy”.
After a brief deployment elsewhere,
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About the Book
“THE PROFESSIONAL BEGGAR”
This was the name the Reverend Cuthbert Arthur Hamilton gave himself in the 1930s. Born in 1880, he was priest of the scattered parish of Wisley-cum-Pyrford in Surrey for thirty-five years, from 1913 until his death in 1948. Without his visionary persistence there would have been no village hall, cricket and football ground, social club, or even the land for the present modern Church of the Good Shepherd. His actions ensured that these major props of the community were hammered into place. He also inspired the many groups - religious and secular - who enjoyed or were to enjoy their facilities. More than that, if any organisation or individual were short of money, he frequently dipped into his own pocket or, as 'The Professional Beggar' of the title, cajoled others to find the requisite funding.
The book describes Hamilton's privileged, late-nineteenth century family background and early ministry before coming to the then sleepy Wisley and Pyrford villages and his leadership of the parish during two World Wars - not to mention his personal bravery in France in 1917 while serving in the Church Army. Between the wars, despite his and his wife’s periodic illnesses, he guided a rural backwater into becoming a well-administered and caring community. Many have spoken of Wisley and Pyrford as special places and it was
Never inward-looking, he turned his parishioners’ attention to the wider picture and rich and poor learnt that giving could be more rewarding than taking, however large or small the contribution. Whether it was the desperate
About the Author
Anthony Paice was born in
Anthony and his wife, Chris, brought their growing family to Pyrford in 1976 and, between absences abroad, joined a variety of parish activities. In 2001, he published his history of the Village Memorial Hall. Over the last thirty-five years he has written plays and sketches, many of which have been performed locally and, in 1998, completed a thriller. He is currently engaged in producing an account of the lives of the bishops of