October 2nd Sandys Wason (Ejection from Cury)
     

Leighton Sandys Wason (1867-1950) always known as Sandys, was the Perpetual Curate* in Charge of Cury and Gunwalloe.

A renowned eccentric and Anglo Catholic who was rarely seen without his beretta on his head, he served in various parishes in London and in Suffolk before finally securing his own living in Cury.  His Anglo – Catholic traditions resonated with those of Father Bernard Walke (June 25th) at whose home he took refuge after being unceremoniously removed from Cury Vicarage on this day in 1920. 

Wason had aroused the ire of many of his parishioners by using the Catholic liturgy in the Church and following complaints to the Bishop of Truro he was deprived of his living but refused to leave the Vicarage.  He did, however, retain the key to the Church and continued to say Mass every Sunday, usually to an empty Church, for some time after his ejection from the vicarage. 

On this day in 1920, newly elected Churchwardens arrived at the house and forcibly removed him and his belongings. 

Walke recalled that Wason arrived in St. Hilary before his furniture and belongings.  Playing chess when they did arrive and in heavy rain, he refused to stop his game to receive them, which Walke and his parishioners did on his behalf.  He went on to stay at Mullion Vicarage whilst continuing to say Mass at Cury until moving to London to run a bookshop where he continued to demonstrate his eccentricities by telling all potential customers ‘Nothing here.  All rubbish.’  Unsurprisingly the shop failed and Wason retired to Yorkshire where he died in 1950.

*A Perpetual Curate was a class of resident parish priest within the Anglican Church and originated in the 16th century but became quite common from the mid 19th century. Unlike rectors and vicars there was no entitlement to income from a tithe to the Church and they were usually paid, often quite poorly. The term was abolished in 1968 when any remaining perpetual curates were renamed as vicars.

 

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