Quentin de la Bédoyère died on 1 August, at the age of 88. A former Catholic Herald columnist, he used to relate how, when he was a teenaged second lieutenant on national service in Austria in the early 1950s, illiterate servicemen in his transport regiment would ask him to read out their letters from home. Meanwhile, his own post arrived from his mother, Catherine, and from his father, Michael – who was then editor – written from the Herald’s offices on Whitefriars Street, with Blitz-flattened buildings all around as Britian continued to recover from the Second World War.
Educated by the Jesuits at Beaumont College, Quentin had gone to Austria after a period at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, but not before he had met his future wife, Irene Gough. They were married in 1956 at the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer & St Thomas More in Chelsea, and together they raised five children at their home in Wimbledon. Quentin worked with the Sun Life Assurance of Canada for the whole of his professional career; there he expanded his management skills and widened his taste for travel.
In retirement, Quentin wrote the Herald’s “Science and Faith” column, the “Charterhouse Chronicle” – a retake of Michael de la Bédoyère’s informal “Jotter”, a sort of literary chat show intended to enhance readership – and a variety of interesting features. To these, he added a number of books on theology and business psychology and numerous engagements as a public speaker.
It was as a committed and educated Catholic husband and father, however, that Quentin came into his own. He was a layman who used his skills to spread the Kingdom of God in the spirit of Vatican II; an annual excitement for the family was the Family Week run by Fr Conrad Pepler OP and Sr Assunta Kirwan OP at Hawkesyard Priory and Spode House.
In the 1960s and 70s, he and Irene served as counsellors for the Catholic Marriage Advisory Council. Like public speaking, counselling was a skill that enabled him to share his personal values with clients in business, married couples and family members in proposing solutions. His personal integrity was impressive; he would always examine a whole situation very carefully before offering advice.
Quentin’s integrity appeared in other ways, too. On more than one occasion, when writing “Science and Faith”, he was accused by correspondents of slipshod research; each time he was able to demonstrate his accuracy about sources. His creativity also expressed itself through poetry and art – particularly drawings, portraits and watercolours. He was an avid motorcyclist and cyclist, and walking was a pleasure up to his final weeks.
Health problems began in Quentin’s 60s, necessitating major heart surgery. The care given him by his daughters kept him out of hospital and in the home he had shared with Irene, where he was often visited by children, grand-children and great-grandchildren. Irene died in 2016, but for Quentin she was ever-present in his life; they had been married for 60 years. “It would be an awful thing if I didn’t love Irene in an active way,” he said afterwards.
A quick death at home was a blessing, and just as Quentin would have wanted it. He is survived by his brother, Stephen, his half-brothers Nicholas and Martin, his five children, his 14 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
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