MGR. PROVOST O'GRADY DIES AT 79

Brentwood's first Vicar General
MGR. WILLIAM O'GRADY, Vicar General and Provost of the 4."-Brentwood diocese since its formation 37 years ago, died in Ireland on Friday at the age of 79. He was one of the best-known Irish priests in thls country.
Bishop Beck flew to Ireland to see him in his last days, offered the Requiem Mass on Monday at St. George's, Walthamstow, and conducted the body to the graveside.
Present, too, were Archbishop Myers, Coadjutor of Westminster, Bishop Craven, Auxiliary of Westminster-the diocese of which Brentwood was formerly a part-Canon Wil s 0 n, representing Archbishop Godfrey, Archbishop of Liverpool and Apostolic Delegate, and Mgr. Gibne y, V,G., representing the Bishop of Southwark.
The Mayor and Mayoress of Walthamstow and many members of the council were present among the packed congregation.
About 120 priests, chiefly from Brentwood, and Westminster, were present in the choir.
Ring of parishes
Bishop Beck, preaching, spoke of Mgr. O'Grady as a symbol of that great band of Irish priests who came to this country in the 19th and early 20th centuries to look after the spiritual welfare of their own people.
He was born in Co. Clare in 1875 and ordained by Archbishop Ilsley at Oscott, Birmingham, in 1900.
The Bishoa, after remarking on the ring of parishes Mgr. O'Grady founded around Walthamstow, said that he would be remembered as a great pastoral priest.
He had been governed by the zeal for the poor, the handicapped and the suffering, and in particular by a love for children and an intense desire to give them every opportunity of growing up in the Catholic Faith.
"His priesthood might be summed up in that personal devotion to his Master which prompted him for years to rise at 5 o'clock and to come down to his church for a long period of prayer in the quietness of the morning.
"He was a great fighter and had had differences with many, but his heart was always open to help those pinrienstese.”d, not the least his brother