The Reverend Harold Beck
Discovery
Tuesday 01 September 1981
Quite by chance Sheila and I visited Gloucester Cathedral and in the
Cathedral Shop we saw a booklet entitled People, Places and Parishes. The
author was a Parish priest named Harold Beck!
The Gloucester Harold Beck was born in Bristol on 30th May 1893. He was the son of a printer. In the booklet he describes how, after a career in the Army, he had received the call to priesthood. He goes on to narrate his service in the various parishes. No publication date was given in the approximately 50,000-word booklet but from the text it appears Rev. Harold Beck finished writing it in mid-May 1980, just before his 87th birthday.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt our discovering it was sheer chance, involving a missed turning which took us through instead of around Gloucester, a slow crawl in heavy traffic past the Cathedral, a spur-of-the-moment decision to stop at the Cathedral to let the traffic die down and a search in the Shop for a postcard depicting a fibreglass figure by Josephina da Vasconcellos which had much attracted us. Sheila found the booklet close to the postcard.
Discussion
Given such coincidences as Speak Up, Harold Beck!, I wondered if I could regard the discovery as some sort of message. Father Harold Beck was clearly a much-loved Priest with a down-to-earth approach to both his careers and exemplifying the true Christian. I might well have taken all that he narrated as a general message that I should follow his example.
Looking in more detail gave me pause for thought:-
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The opening words of the booklet, "On 30th of May", rang bells for it was on that date in 1975 that we journeyed to Coventry to see the "Speak Up, Harold Beck!" play. Moreover, as described in The Coventry Miracle, that very date, Friday 30th May 1975, featured in the Programme of the play.
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His father was a printer, as was mine.
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He mentioned friends Winnie & Charlie Bloodworth who at the time of writing lived in Wheathampstead, a village adjacent to Harpenden. I had been unable to trace the couple, even through a then Councillor colleague who knew virtually everyone in that village.
As time went on I became less than completely certain about the existence of the Gloucester Harold Beck. A principal reason for this is outlined in The Coventry Miracle, which can be accessed from the hyperlink below.
verification
Wednesday 06 August 1986
My sister was due to fly over from Canada for the Three Choirs Festival at Gloucester and we had arranged to meet her there in mid-August 1986. While there I thought I would do some on-the-spot investigating. I therefore wrote as follows to the Dean of Gloucester:-Dear and Very Rev. Dean,
Please forgive me for addressing you impersonally but I am only familiar with St. Albans Diocese. I shall be visiting Gloucester on Sunday afternoon, 17th August, and I am seeking your help in finding out something about a namesake, Harold Beck, of your Diocese.
When my wife and I last visited Gloucester about four years ago we bought in the Cathedral shop a booklet entitled People, Places and Parishes written by the Rev. Harold Beck. For personal and religious reasons it is important for me to know a little more than was in the booklet about this priest.
Could you let me know the name, address and telephone number of someone I could contact on 17th August who knows or knew (for I do not know if he is still alive) the Gloucester Harold Beck? Alternatively the name of someone I could ask for in the Cathedral on 17th August afternoon?
I would be most grateful for your help in this unusual but, to me, very important request.
Yours sincerely.
Harold Beck
Friday 08 August 1986
The Dean of Gloucester, Very Rev. Canon Wielander, replied saying that the Rev. Harold Beck had died but that his widow was living in the vicinity of the Cathedral. He gave her address along with directions on how to get to it.
Sunday 17 August 1986
Before we met up with my sister, Sheila and I went in search of the widow of the Rev. Harold Beck. We called unannounced on the lady, explained who we were, that we had read her late husband's booklet People, Places and Parishes with great interest and desired to know whatever we could about him.
The Gloucester Mrs. Harold Beck showed the Harpenden Mrs. Harold Beck and myself, photographs of the Rev. Harold Beck when in the Army, when they were married and so on. She had clearly been devoted to him and still keenly felt her loss some two years or so before. I felt I could not verify details with her, such as the date of birth and the friends he mentioned in the booklet as living in Wheathampstead.
Our visit answered the main question, that the Rev. Harold Beck of Gloucester really had existed.
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