Basil William Maturin, always known as 'Willie' at home, was born at All Saint's Vicarage, Dublin, Ireland, on the 15th February 1847, the third child of ten, of the Reverend William and Jane Cooke Maturin (née Bentley). The family was very religious, with three of Basil's brothers becoming clergymen, and two of his sisters became nuns.
Firstly educated at home, and a day school, Basil Maturin then studied at Trinity College, Dublin, from which he graduated in 1870. He had originally intended to join The Royal Engineers, but a severe illness and the death of his brother, Arthur, in 1868, changed his mind and he decided to study for the Church instead.
In 1870, he was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England, and took up a position as Curate at Peterstow Church, in Herefordshire, where Doctor John Jebb, an old friend of his father, was Rector.
In 1876, he was sent to America on behalf of The Cowley Fathers, a High Anglican Order, to help initiate a mission at St. Clement’s Parish Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was at first an assistant priest there and then in 1881, he became rector and gained much popularity particularly as an orator and began to attract a huge audience whenever he spoke. It was whilst he was at St. Clement's, however, that he began to have doubts about Anglicanism and realising this, the Anglican Church recalled him to England in 1888. Following a six month visit to Cape Town, during 1889 and 1890, he then spent the next seven years in preaching, conducting retreats and holding missions.
Eventually, in 1897, after much mental anguish, he renounced Anglicanism and was received into the Roman Catholic Church at Beaumont, near Windsor, in Surrey. The following year, having studied at The Canadian College, Rome, Basil Maturin was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest.
By 1905, he had become parish priest of Pimlico, London but in 1910, longing for a more monastic life; he went to live in the Benedictine Monastery at Downside, near Bath. However, at the age of 63 years, he could not take the physical strain of such an existence and instead, reverted to preaching once more. In 1914, he was appointed Roman Catholic Chaplain at Oxford University and continued to be a fiery orator, whilst also becoming well known as an author on religious topics.
When the Great War broke out in August 1914, however, the university emptied of undergraduates and finding little to do, Father Maturin decided to return to America. Consequently, on 20th February 1915, he arrived in New York on board the Lusitania, having sailed from Liverpool a week earlier. Whilst there, he conducted business connected with his Oxford University students, and also lectured in Boston, Massachusetts, and preached at The Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in New York. When in New York, he stayed with The Reverend J.H. McMahon who lived at 472, West 144th Street.
For his return to England, he booked as a saloon passenger on the Lusitania which was scheduled to leave New York at 10.00 a.m., on 1st May 1915. Once he had boarded, (with ticket number 46121) he was allocated room, D49, which was the personal responsibility of First Class Bedroom Steward Edwin Huther, who came from Liverpool.
The Lusitania’s departure from New York was delayed until the early afternoon of May Day as she had to embark passengers, cargo, and some crew from the Anchor Lines vessel the Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned as a troop ship. Just six days out of New York, on the afternoon of 7th May, Father Maturin was killed after the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk, by the German submarine U-20, only hours away from her Liverpool destination and within sight of the coast of southern Ireland. According to Adolf and Mary Hoehling in their book The Last Voyage of the Lusitania, before the ship sank: -
Father Basil Maturin, pale but calm, administered absolution to several people, then was seen handing a child into a lifeboat.
Another account states that as he did this, he simply said: -
Find its mother!
His body was recovered from the sea by a Royal Naval patrol boat six days after the sinking, on Friday 14th May, eight miles south west of the Fastnet Rock, (about fifty miles from where the Lusitania had sunk), along with the bodies of three other men, three women and two infants. It was then taken by the harbour tender The Flying Fish to Queenstown where it was put in one of the temporary mortuaries there and given the reference number 223.
It was then positively identified from documents found on it, which included drafts for a large sum of money drawn on the Cunard Steam Ship Company and various banks in Great Britain and the United States of America, which presumably were the proceeds of collections made in the U.S.A. for war relief in Europe. These amounted to $2,010.00 and £10-12-6d. Personal property taken from the body also included a
dime coin, a pocket knife, a silver watch attached to a light silver chain, four shirt studs, a fountain pen, and a pair of pince-nez.
The body was embalmed, and then despatched by train from Queenstown to Rosslare in County Wexford, from where it went by sea to England. There, a Requiem Mass was held for the cleric in St. Aloysius’ Church, in Woodstock Road, Oxford, on Monday 17th May. The Reverend Father O’Hare officiated, and The Oxford Times described the scene: -
There was a large congregation. The catafalque, covered with a black and gold pall, on top of which Father Maturin’s biretta was placed, stood in the body of the church. Three candles, the holders draped in black, were on either side of the coffin. The altar was covered with black cloth, as were also, the steps leading to it. All the candlesticks were draped in black, tied with yellow ribbon.
From Oxford, the coffin was taken to London and another requiem was held for him on the morning of Friday, the 22nd May, at Westminster Cathedral, after which his funeral service was held, at The Brompton Oratory, before his body was taken for burial.
The Hoehlings commented on this latter service: -
This brought a flicker of a pious smile to those who had been closest to him, for the distinguished theologian had often predicted that his funeral would be held on a rainy day in some small, half empty village church.
The Reverend Father Maturin was aged 68 years.
On the 7th June 1915, the property recovered from his body was sent to Charles R. Pattenden, Solicitor, of Bernard St., Russell Square, London.
Not long after he had been killed, a correspondent of The Oxford Times described him thus: -
His great charm was his simplicity. As a preacher he has been accused of “ranting,” but this criticism is due to ignorance of the man, for he was absolutely natural and incapable of being anything but himself. His faults were few and those of a child. He was impatient of restraint, and easily wounded by a lack of sympathy and understanding of which he had much to bear in the latter years of his life. .....
He had a heart of gold and a most loyal and generous nature, but as he was a man who never courted the limelight or advertised himself in any way, most of the generous actions of his life will remain forever unrecorded.
His death was in keeping with his life. He has passed away without ostentation; if the report I have heard is true, he was last seen walking on the deck of the ill-fated Lusitania saying his office.
Father Maturin was a great man in the fullest sense of the word - true as steel to his friends, and ever generous to those who thought differently to himself. To all who knew and loved him - for to know him intimately was to love him - his loss is irreparable.
At the time of his death, Father Maturin’s address was 7, South Cross Road, Holywell, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England.
Among the books for which he was famous were Discourses on the Parables of Life, Practices of the Spiritual Life, Self-Knowledge and Self-Discipline, Laws of the Spiritual Life and The Price of Unity.
His bedroom steward, Edward Huther, was also killed as a result of the torpedoing. Unlike that of Father Maturin, however, his body was never recovered from the sea and identified.
Administration of Father Maturin’s estate was granted to The Reverend Charles Gabriel Maturin at London, on 6th August 1915, and his effects amounted to £835-19s-10d., (£835.99p.). The Reverend Charles Maturin was one of his brothers.
Brompton London Cemetery Records 1840 – 2012, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Pennsylvania U.S. Federal Naturalization Records 1795 – 1931, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Dictionary of National Biography, Newcastle Daily Chronicle, Southern Star, Last Voyage of the Lusitania, Tragedy of the Lusitania, Probate Records, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/8-11, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Stuart Williamson, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.