He was the longest-serving chaplain to the University of Cambridge, England. Gilbey was born in Mark Hall, Harlow, Essex, on 13 July 1901 to María Victorina de Ysasi y González and Newman Gilbey, wealthy gin and wine merchants. He is buried in the courtyard of Fisher House in Cambridge.Ī Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul is sung, again in the Tridentine Rite, annually at Trinity College.Īlfred Newman Gilbey was a British Roman Catholic priest and monsignor. His funeral was held in the Oratory on 6 April, the High Mass being sung in the Tridentine Rite. He died two months later, on 26 March 1998. In early 1998, Gilbey moved to Nazareth House in Hammersmith, London, a nursing home. He took up permanent residence at the Travellers Club in London, remaining active into his nineties.ĭuring this time he wrote the catechetical book, We Believe (1983), making a trip to the United States in 1995 to promote lieutenant Gilbey retired from the chaplaincy in 1965, the final year of the Second Vatican Council. After petitioning led by Gilbey, who maintained that the chaplaincy would be demolished 'over his dead body', Fisher House was spared from the compulsory purchase order and remains standing to this day. In 1932, Gilbey became Catholic chaplain to the University of Cambridge, residing at Fisher House. He funded his own training as a priest at the Pontifical Beda College in Rome, being ordained 'under his own patrimony' by Bishop Doubleday of Brentwood in 1929.

Educated by Jesuits at Beaumont College, he went on to study modern history at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1920, during which time he became chairman of the Fisher Society at the chaplaincy. He has been described as the best-known Roman Catholic priest in England during the last quarter of the 20th century.

Monsignor alfred newman gilbey