Société des Missions Africaines –Province de Grande-Bretagne

né le 11 septembre 1898 à Liverpool dans le diocèse de Liverpool, Grande-Bretagne membre de la SMA le 3 juillet 1925 décédé le 30 août 1969

1925-1969 Blackrock Road, Cork, faire connaître le vin de Samos et le magazine :The African Missionary entretien de la maison décédé à Cork, Irlande, le 30 août 1969, à l'âge de 71 ans

Charles West was born in Liverpool (the family address was 24, Wellfield Road, Rice Lane, Walton), in the archdiocese of Liverpool, on 11 September 1898. He died at the Bon Secours hospital, Cork, on 30 August 1969.

It is not known with any great certitude how Charlie came to the S.M.A. His headmaster in primary school at St. Anthony's parish, Scotland Road, Liverpool, had two sons who became members of the S.M.A., Kevin and Patrick Carroll. A family in Cork with whom he subsequently developed a close friendship maintains that Charlie married as a young man and on the death of his wife decided to enter religious life. There would seem to be some confirmation of this in his death certificate which records his 'condition' as 'widower'. Whatever the circumstances of his vocation to the brotherhood, when Charlie first came to the Society in 1923 he was sent to the brothers' novitiate, at Kinneury, near Westport, Co Mayo. Two years later, on 3 July 1925, he was received as a member of the Society and appointed to the Provincial house at Blackrock Road, Cork. It was there, on 3 July 1931, that he took his permanent oath of membership.

Charlie was to be attached to the Cork house until the time of his death in 1969, engaged for many years in the promotion of the Society's altar wine, which was imported from the island of Samos (Greece), where the Society had a vineyard, and bottled at Cork. Charlie's task alternated between supervision of the bottling process and touring the parishes of Ireland, mainly by motor bicycle, seeking orders. As a result of this work he became well known to clergy throughout the country. In 1938 Charlie's father fell seriously ill his mother had died in 1916 and Charlie went to Liverpool to be with him. While in Liverpool he visited several bishops in the north of England and received permission to approach parish priests and religious houses seeking orders for the S.M.A. altar wine. He succeeded in securing many orders. Charlie's father rallied (he lived until 1949) and he was able to return to Cork in August 1940. Charlie also helped in the production of the African Missionary, the Irish Province's monthly journal, which presented the Society and its missions to the public. Charlie's task was to prepare the magazine for the printers each month.

During his years at Blackrock Charlie spent many hours maintaining the house and its fittings. Before he joined the Society Charlie had been an electrician with the British Merchant Navy, serving in the later years of the first world war. His ability to repair and improvise, learned during his years at sea, was of great value to his confreres at Blackrock Road, especially during the lean years of the second world war. Charlie was a gregarious man, who enjoyed company and a game of cards. In the years before the second world war his cousins Annie and Maggie came frequently to Cork from Liverpool, during the summer holidays, staying with a Miss Young who lived on the Blackrock Road (in St. Joseph's Place, a terrace of houses built by the founder of the Irish Province, Joseph Zimmermann, at the turn of the century). Charlie greatly enjoyed their visits and loved to show them the sights.

Charlie's obituary in the African Missionary records the following portrait: 'A window, a door, a roof or a floor to be mended, a gas pipe leaking, the cooker out of order, a radio gone wrong, a water pipe blocked or the bathroom flooded, a flashlamp broken or all the lights in the church out one sent for Brother Charlie. There would be the usual little preliminary ceremony and difficulty before the miracle was worked with final effortless ease. Down the years many a frozen missionary just home from the tropics welcomed the electric fire that Brother Charlie rigged up for him... Brother Charlie casually concealed his piety. Tip toeing along a dark corridor late at night you might hear some figure shuffling towards you murmuring "pray for us now and at the hour of our death" and you would be surprised and relieved to recognise Brother Charlie's Lancashire accent.' In 1966 Charlie fell into poor health and retired from active work. His health continued to decline and early late in August 1969 he entered the Bon Secours hospital with heart failure. He was in his seventy first year when he died.

He is buried in Wilton cemetery.