THE REV. E. R. SHEBBEARE
On Friday January 24, a solemn requiem Mass was sung at the church of St. Thomas of Canterbury, Woodbridge, Suffolk, for the soul of the Rev. Ernest Reginald Shcbbeare, by his younger brother Dom Alphege Shebbeare, 0.S.B., in the presence of a large congregation of the clergy of the diocese and of the people of the town and neighbourhood.
Father Shebbeare, who died at his residence, " The Hermitage," Woodbridge, on January 21, was the eldest of the family of three sons and one daughter of the late Reginald John Shebbeare. Born on December 13, 1869, he was educated at Blackheath school, Keble college, Oxford, where he took his degree in the honour school of theology, and at Ely Theological College, He was for 15 years curate to the Rev. H. F. Hinde at Brighton, and was one of the Brighton clergy who, together with his vicar, were received ire°
the Catholic Church in 1910. He proceeded to the Accademia dci Nobili Ecclesiastici at Rome and he was ordained there in 1912. Shortly after his return to England he became curate to his former vicar—then Monsignor Hinde, at Clapham.
In 1922 he was transferred to the diocese of Northampton and appointed to Woodbridge, where he took part in all affairs of local interest as well as in the religious life of the town. A convent of Sisters of Mercy with a school was instituted, and he was chaplain to the Carmelite convent which had been founded shortly before his appointment. A new church was made after his own design by the adaptation of a hall and therein the sacred liturgy was carried out in its fullness. Fr. Shebbeare was a talented painter and heraldic expert.
For the past year he had been in failing health and he finally took to his bed on his 66th birthday last December. The ministers of neighbouring Anglican churches and people of other denominations attended the requiem and funeral of this well-loved priest.