A Pleasure to Meet You Mr.Shorthouse

The meeting has not been a traditional one. Mr. Derek Shorthouse, you see, died in November 2012, in England.

A glory of life is its moments of unexpected synchronicity.

I have, I think I have mentioned in these pages, a fondness for Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman, that extraordinary thinker and convert to Catholicism from Anglicanism back in the 19th century. I have read several biographies and lately have been collecting some of editions of his letters and diaries. The latest one I received via an Amazon third party, a bookstore in the U.K., is of his Oxford Movement days when he hoped with his friends and colleagues to reform Anglicanism. This volume was in perfect shape, a pristine cover, and with not even the slightest marking in its printed body. It almost looked unread. But there was one clear indication of a prior owner, a colorful
"Ex Libris" with the name of one Derek Shorthouse. The name bespoke a literary time past. For a moment, it seemed impossible this book belonged to a real person.

And then I did what modern technology commands. I googled Mr. Shorthouse. There he was! He did not have a large presence on the net, but enough of one for me to get a sense of the man. His interest in Newman was not mere intellectual curiosity. At one time, Mr. Shorthouse had been the bursar at Oriel College Oxford, Newman's alma mater. I don't know how he came to it, the internet does not give that much information, but Mr. Shorthouse was scheduled to be received officially into the Catholic Church on December 8 but died on November 27. He had made the decision, but God took him to His Heart before the formality.

He was, as well, a chronicler of his family. I have printed out and saved photographs of Derek and his family which he gathered together.

He had four children, two girls and two boys; one boy appears to have grown up to be a successful financial expert.

Something touches me deeply about having this man's book in my little apartment in West Hollywood. There is an earthly immortality about it. I don't know if Mr. Shorthouse ever travelled to the States in his lifetime, but a part of him is now here, in the form of the book in my library, his memory now firmly in mine.

Postscript February 13, 2025. I noticed that there had been a few hits on this short blog entry. I also notice that what picture I had placed on the entry back in 2016, when I made the entry was gone. So, I googled again, and found less than I had back then, which saddened me. I found a brief obituary and an entry from the Gloucestershire Heritage Club which I now post here and hope it will survive. 

Derek Shorthouse was educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he read Latin and Greek. He worked in industry as a Chartered Secretary for most of his career, with an interval of a few years as Treasurer and Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. He lived in West Gloucestershire for many years and was an active member of the local community, including the local church, Dymock Cricket Club, and serving as constituency chairman of the West Gloucestershire Conservative Party; he was also a councillor on the Forest of Dean District Council for many years. His historical interests included local history and late 19th and early 20th century English political history, and he was a member of many societies related to these subjects. He was a founder member and first chairman of the Friends of Gloucestershire Archives and was an active member of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, serving as a member of its Library Committee for several years. He died at the age of 80 on 27 November 2012.