George Augustus MACIRONE [14687]

  General Notes:

George A. Macirone.
A conspicuous figure - conspicuous in physique as well as in moral and spiritual stature - has disappeared from our view by the death of George Macirone, Secretary of the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom, which happened on Tuesday in last week, March 29. It would be an injustice as well as an impiety to let so good and faithful a servant pass out of sight and memory without some words of recognition and appreciation and gratitude for the services and friendship of seventy-seven years.
He was educated at Christ's Hospital at Hertford, an ancient foundation which held his devotion until his death. His early youth was spent as a student at Glasgow, where he came under the influence of the Provost of the newly established Cathedral of Perth, the very Rev E.B.K. Fortescue. Provost Fortescue will be remembered by some of the older men amongst us as a theologian of great learning and spirituality, and a spiritual guide of great experience. His uncompromising faith and clear, incisive teaching made a deep and enduring impression upon George Macirone, who from this time onward never swerved from his loyalty to Catholic faith and practice. Most of us at some time or times in our passage through the years, have wavered more or less as we walked, tempted by side issues, or losing sight of the goal or baulked by the roughness of the way. He never wavered, and I recall him as a man to whom all ways all things were one thing, and who having found the pearl of great price, spent himself to have it for his own.
After some years of student life at Glasgow, George Macirone returned to London, and entered the Admiralty, rising through the successive stages of the Service until he reached the age limit which called for his retirement.
These years in the Admiralty were very laborious years. He gave himself without stint, and cheerfully, to the work of his office, not only as a matter of conscience, but also from his instinctive patriotism, regarding his work not merely as the Service of the Department and its chief, but, beyond them, of the Navy, which he profoundly venerated. The strenuous work of the office did not, however, absorb his energies. When the days official work was done, he devoted himself to the training and amusement of his children, and in addition to this, made time to give active support to many good works, such as the Lambeth Relief Committee, St Andrews Home, and the like.
But the work which interested him most of all, and by which he came to be widely known, was the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom. Of this Society he was for many years, first an active member, then secretary, and as secretary placed at its disposition the greater part of his new leisure after his retirement from the Admiralty. Every day he was at the Office of the Association, conducting with his own pen all the correspondence, packing with his own hand and despatching the masses of printed matter which the Society is wont to distribute. The desire for the unity of Christendom was not only deeply rooted in his heart, it filled his heart. To him it seemed the world's one hope, that all Christians should, side-by-side, heart with heart, present an unbroken front, and work for the coming of the Kingdom with an undivided aim. In spite of many discouragement's, he never doubted that the unity would come to pass, and never hesitated to give the best of his powers as a contribution towards the fulfilment of his hopes.
Of his life in his home I am not qualified to speak, knowing it only by hearsay from his family and others, who speak with deep affection and gratitude of his love, of his stead fast rectitude, his absolute singleness of high purpose.
Of all the good things which might be said of him, that which he would most wish, or rather would least deprecate being said, is his love and devotion to the "Jerusalem which is above, the mother of us all." For the peace of this dear city, as for the thing which, beyond all other things, he longed for, he prayed, and laboured, and strove to win others to pray and labour. We, his friends, comfort ourselves by thinking that the blessing, the prosperity, the "abundantia" promised to those who love her is now his portion. May God grant it!
E.F.R.
Ref: The Church Times 8 Apr 1910
Dr Stanley Lapidge.

Name: George Augustus Macirone
Age: 76
Record Type: Burial
Birth Date: abt 1833
Death Date: 2 May 1910
Burial Date: 2 Apr 1910
Burial Place: St John, Hampstead, Camden, England
Register Type: Parish Register

  Research Notes:

Macirone Collection http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/1500-1900/macirone-fam/macirone-fam.html

Image Courtesy Branches Twigs & Stray Leaves Ancestry 2018

  Other Records

1. George Augustus Macirone: Images through life.

2. George Augustus Macirone: Burial, 2 Apr 1910, St John Hampstead MDX.

George married Mary FORTESCUE [14686] [MRIN: 5212], daughter of Rev Edward Bowls Knottesford FORTESCUE M.A. [9950] and Frances Anne SPOONER [14679], on 17 Oct 1870 in St Michael Shoreditch LND. (Mary FORTESCUE [14686] was born on 26 Jun 1841 in Alveston Manor House WAR, baptised in Billesley WAR, died on 8 Sep 1879 in 126 Adelaide Rd Hampstead NW and was buried in St John Hampstead MDX.)