The Ellen Nicholas memorial (4)

Cardinal Newman and St Mary's Perivale

The eminent poet and theologian John Henry Newman (1801–90) is one of Britain's leading religious figures. In his adult life as an academic at Oxford he became increasingly drawn to the high church of the Anglican faith and one of the proponents of what is known as the Oxford Movement. In 1845 he was received into the Catholic Church and in 1879 he was created a cardinal. In 2010 his beatification was proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI.

Newman was a boarder at Great Ealing School from 1808 to 1816, ending up as head boy. He would have been only a few years younger than Ellen Nicholas and could well have known her. He was friendly with Richard Westmacott junior and also George Adams, the eldest son of Quincy Adams. Quincy Adams mentions him several times in the diaries and on occasion Newman visited their family home at Little Boston.

It was while he was at Great Ealing School that Newman started his lifelong spiritual devotion, when he came under the influence of the evangelical teachings of the classics master, the Rev Dr Walter Mayers. Bearing in mind the Nicholas family associations with St Mary's Perivale and Newman's intellectual curiosity and religious leanings, it is likely that Newman would have known the church.

John Henry Newman, as a young man

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