Remembering a friend -JSD

 Some of you will remember JSD from 40 years ago.
This is an amazing picture since he as a quasi-intellectual was never ever seen to have shown the slightest interest in his child relatives.
I have observed elsewhere that "it is not that he was against children, he was just oblivious to them!!"
But here he is with two great nephews and maybe a  great-niece/nephew, probably early 80s, in Hartford Connecticut.
What those of us who know JSD would find intriguing is that he actually seems to be enjoying and smiling as the naughty little boys rudely stick their tongues out.  These are his cousin's children. Of course now adults in their 40s or 50s...and they have incorporated these pics into their family genealogical record

This pic is of JSD having graduated from King's Cambridge, almost unrecognisable for those of us who knew him in the 60s and 70s, guess he was in his mid to late 20s.  Possibly both pre-War (Kenya?) & ; post-War  (Cairo?). Worked for the Intelligence Service (what is now MI5). He found Cairo in the Palestinian troubles deeply disturbing.
Those of us who knew him as a University Chaplain and Lecturer in History of Education find it a  bit difficult to connect this photo with the late 60s and 70s.

Spencer was tragically killed as a pedestrian in a late night accident in 1982

There's a little bit  more in another post here

This latter picture was of a "Pontifical High Mass" in the Chapel of The Community of the Resurrection(CR) at Mirfield, Yorkshire. Spencer's family thought this might have been during his time there as a postulant and a novice....but it couldn't be, as the Bishop in question, the saintly Trevor Huddleston who was a member of CR wasn't ordained a bishop until 1960, by which time JSD had left and been ordained as deacon and priest. 
Subsequently becoming a 'missionary' to Australia
Huddleston was a giant amongst people, a great advocate against Apartheid in South Africa one of the heroes of the Church in the 20th Century.
I note, for those of you who care, that he is embracing all orders in his vesture. He's wearing his Episcopal mitre, and underneath his priestly chasuble, and underneath wearing the deacon's dalmatic; and the sub-deacon's tunicle.  
Totally mad, but part of the hilarious fun that is Anglo Catholicism!!!

Remembering a friend. Thanking God for the eccentrics of this world

Spencer Dunkerley 1916-1982 (Year's mind 3 July)

Spencer Dunkerley

I met Spencer, for so he was ever  known , when I went to St Mark’s College, Adelaide in the early 70s. He was at that time  a Lecturer in History of Education at the  University of Adelaide.

But most of his students  sussed early on that he was boring and lacked the capacity to deliver… a dull voice and he had a total lack of awareness that he was NOT connecting with the couple of hundred folk who were supposed to receive his wisdom.  His content was rock solid, so thank goodness he provided good notes ..in the days long-before it was usual for Lecturers to provide same.

Spencer was born in Oldham, Lancashire c 1916 He was privileged to go to Manchester Grammar School, one of the schools which straddled the state/private school system.

He went to Kings College Cambridge in the pre-war period and consolidated an already expansive knowledge of modern history there.

There is a record of his commissioning as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps on 25 Jan 1942, my memory is that he served in the Middle East and particularly in Cairo (prior to the Israel ‘resettlement’), and then subsequently in Africa as a functionary of the Foreign Office burning unused currency ( a funny story for another day)

Post-war he tested his vocation at the Community of the  Resurrection, Mirfield, Yorkshire -(https://www.mirfield.org.uk/) but did not proceed to profession. He was however prepared for ordination and duly ordained ( not a 100% sure but maybe for St Nicholas Leicester or Coventry…by Bp Guy Smith (c 1952.) or perhaps Cuthbert Bardsley for Coventry...am thinking the latter)

Spencer subsequently came as  a ‘missionary’ to be a Bush Brother in Queensland [ maybe the Brotherhood of St Paul, or the Brotherhood of the Good Shepherd…not sure which]…either way he drove outback Queensland in a Mini,  which was a miracle in itself.  he was a fairly hair-raising driver!

(Spencer (L) with the saintly Fr Percy Smith a pioneer advocate and pastor to young indigenous men in Alice Springs, and Port Adelaide watch the Charles Perkins video here )





He was seduced to Adelaide in the 60s to be a Chaplain at the University, and then to be   a senior Lecturer  in the Department of Education. He lived as resident fellow at St Mark’s College until his retirement c. 1980.



Spencer was tragically killed at Edwardstown, South Australia when struck by a motor vehicle on 3rd July 1982 at about 11 p.m. outside his home.

His funeral was held at St Mary Magdalene’s Church, Adelaide and his burial at St Mary’s on the Sturt 1163 South Rd, St Mary’s. Archbishop Keith Rayner presided at the Funeral, and I officiated at the burial. Many of Spencer’s friends  and students were present and a fine young cohort of univeristy and St Mark's students  acted as pall-bearers.



                             “he was a good priest…and I liked him”