Old Princethorpians have been terribly saddened to hear of the untimely death of fellow past pupil John Hindley. John was just 52 years old when he died of H1N1 virus (Swine Flu) in hospital, after a few days of being unwell, on 7th January 2011.
John came back to Princethorpe with his lovely wife Alison for the Festival Day in Spring 2010 and it was our priviledge to spend time with them both on this happy day.
Alison has been in touch to share some thoughts and memories of John with us.
John was warm, generous, kind, gentle-hearted and had a great sense of fun. Like his Headmaster, Fr Clarkson, who he looked up to enormously, John was a great influence for good in many lives.
When I came with John to the Festival Day I discovered new things about him (which is quite something after 25 years of marriage!). I discovered what a great impact Princethorpe had had on John and how happy he had been there. He felt very loved there and very much part of a community. I think that being at Princethorpe really shaped who he was, he was a man of faith and loved nature. I realised that this must really have been shaped by Princethorpe when he told me about life there, the positive influence of the priests and Father Bill.
He told me also how the boys would run out into the woods in free time and play for long and happy hours. He explained how he would sit and observe nature. John had a love of birds, he had a particular interest in birds of prey. I think that this passion was ignited at Princethorpe.
Initially after leaving Princethorpe and training as a Police Cadet he worked in Preston as a Police Officer, which he did for about seven years. Following this he made a move into social work and at the time of his death was working for a Jewish Charity in Manchester - The Manchester Jewish Federation. John loved working for 'the Fed', he served the local Jewish community in Manchester providing culturally sensitive social work support to those in need.
John served in a pastoral role in our church, leading a Pastoral Team and enabling them to meet pastoral needs. He also served on the core leadership team helping set direction and provide strategy in taking the church forward and fulfilling its role in the community.
John was a fantastic husband and father. He has made us who we are. Our children Laura (23), Joseph (20), and Abigail (16) will always remember his godly example, his loving kindness, faithfulness, loyalty and brilliant sense of humour.
We'd like the last word to go to John himself who wrote in July 2009 about the passing of Fr Bill...
I am sure that you have had a significant flow of comments from past pupils following Fr Clarkson’s sad passing. I hope I could add another contribution to the previous ones. As an OP I do occasionally look at the school website so the news of Fr Bill’s passing was a shock since I was looking for news about how he was and trying to guess how old he must be at that time. When I did see the news so many memories came flooding back about the time at Princethorpe and him in particular.
Many of his qualities have already been recognised by others. One was his ability to be almost omnipresent! Just when you when you were hoping you would not bump into him or he catch you up to something perhaps not part of the regular curriculum, there he was! He was a warm, generous and an incredibly fair man at all times and even when discipline was required there was never any sense of injustice on the part of the pupil afterwards!
One major aspect of his character was that he was just so full of life! With incredible energy. I can still see him laughing on the rugby pitch as we boys had a chance to tackle him with very limited success and him just running on to score an imaginary try for Ireland and all of us having fun in the process. Once on a cold Friday night, he got two other boys and myself into the kitchen to make sandwiches for a trip the following day, with him helping, and on the Saturday taking us down to England versus the All Blacks (Jan 1973) at Twickenham, getting us our first whisky, and driving us all the way back and being up for mass the following day.
I think above all he was a deeply spiritual man whose faith was at the core of everything he did. For us who were fortunate to have him in our lives we had that opportunity to see that and take from him that example and take it out with us into the world.
We were incredibly fortunate to have his abiding influence in our lives for those years. It would have been great to have had the chance to say thank you to him personally but I am sure somehow he knows now what a great influence he sowed into so many lives and is enjoying his reward for his faithful service. Thank you Father Bill.
