Episode 32. Father Groser and the Royal Foundation of St Katharine

SYNOPSIS

In 1948 the Royal Foundation of St Katharine returned to bomb-ravaged Limehouse, near Tower Hill in London’s East End. It relocated from affluent Regent’s Park to what was a poor district, only walking distance from Cable Street where, on 4 October 1936, a coalition of local people, communists, East Enders and British Jews prevented the fascist Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts from marching.

The Christian Socialist Father St John Groser (1890-1966) was central to both initiatives. The most respected East End priest of his generation, he had been headhunted to re-orient the Royal Foundation to its original, 12th-century mission of acting as a religious community providing hospitality and service in the vicinity of the poor. Born in Australia, Father Groser’s eventful life encompassed a curacy in a Newcastle slum, the award of the Military Cross as a First World War Chaplain, being beaten up by a rogue police squad during the 1929 General Strike, preaching at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1934, having his nose broken during the Battle of Cable Street, and starring as Thomas Beckett of Canterbury in the 1951 film adaption of T S Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral.

GUEST

The Venerable Roger Preece is Master of The Royal Foundation of St Katharine and was appointed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in September 2019. He was formerly Archdeacon in Liverpool Diocese following a time as a parish priest in Chester Diocese. Prior to ordination he was a Management Consultant and Chief Operating Officer of an Investment Bank. He is fascinated by technology and the impact on society and is leading a digital detox retreat at RFSK in November 2023. He enjoys supporting young artists in creative projects in East London and has recently been working with The Spirituals Choir who now have a residency at St Katharine’s.

For more information on visiting, staying at, or using the facilities of this oasis of calm and place of retreat, please visit www.rfsk.org.uk 

Details of the Royal Foundation of St Katharine’s campaign for national retreat week can be found at www.renewall.org.uk

Roger’s interview with Simon Machin was recorded at the Royal Foundation on 28 September 2023.