In Memoriam

Fr James T. Leeson 1877-1917

I often think about Fr Leeson. I also wonder how many people have even heard of him. After all, why would they? As a celibate priest he left no offspring to cherish his memory and he has been dead for ninety years now. Fr Leeson was a distant relation of mine - my great-grandmother's cousin or so I gather. From what I know of him, when the First World War broke out in 1914 he lived a comfortable enough life as a parish priest in Liverpool. He seems to have been a respected figure in the Liverpudlian Catholic community, in addition to his parish duties he taught Theology to future priests in the local seminary. Already in his late thirties, there was no reason for him to have gone to war. He could have stayed put, with nothing more traumatic to do than hearing the nuns' confessions and offering what consolation he could to the war bereaved. Instead he chose to join the army. He was assigned the rank of Captain and was soon dispatched to the battlefields of Northern France to serve as a chaplain to the forces. Fr Leeson was not a combatant and from what I know neither did he carry arms. His mission was to minister to the spiritual needs of the men in these extreme circumstances. In the hell on earth that was the battle of Paschendale, Fr Leeson was administering the last rites to a dying soldier in the trenches when he himself was mortally wounded. A few years ago, I came across a military document which somewhat poignantly listed Fr Leeson's personal effects following his death, these consisted of his rosary, a breviary, a cigar cutter and a few cigars. He was subsequently buried in a military cemetery near to where he fell. I recently watched the documentary on 9/11 filmed by the Naudet brothers and it occured to me that there is an echo of Fr Leeson's sacrifice in the story of Fr Mykal Judge. Father Mykal Judge was a long-time chaplain in New York City's Fire Department. He had been with the firefighters in many dangerous and life threatening situations, but nothing like the one on September 11 2001. As with Fr Leeson, he too was administering the last rites, this time to a fallen fire fighter, when instantaneously his own life was snuffed out by crumbling and falling debris. The question I ask myself, given that I am about the same age as Fr Leeson was at the time, is whether I would have made the same choices if I were in his shoes. I very much doubt it, I would in all probability have taken the easy option. In my view, Fr Leeson possessed that rare spiritual and mental strength which makes him a true hero.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

(The picture, which is the only one of Fr Leeson in my possession, is an enhancement I made of a photocopied image from a newspaper obituary of 1917)

Bone Idle