Father John Hennessey, R.I.P.

Father John Hennessey, at school as a pupil 1944-1948 and as a master 1964-1965, died on the 30^th November and Bishop Howard Tripp kindly sent me a copy of an obituary notice issued by the Deceased Clergy Association of the Southwark Archdiocese:-  ‘Born in Lee Green, London, in 1936, John Hennessey, the youngest of three boys, was educated at John Fisher School, Purley and Clark’s College, Bromley.  On leaving school in 1951 he went to art college for a short time and then into the wine trade.  He joined the Capuchin monastery in 1953 but after five years and following a period of discernment he did not proceed to take solemn vows.  He then taught at Cranmore School , Somerset from 1958-59 and St Thomas School , Sevenoaks from 1960-61 before taking a teachers’ training course at St Mary’s College, Strawberry Hill.  He taught at John Fisher School , Purley, from 1964-65 and then for two years at Sevenoaks County Primary.  In 1968 he went to Sevenoaks School as teacher and House Tutor where he taught for twenty one years until 1989.

In 1980 he began his studies for the permanent deaconate and was ordained deacon at St Thomas of Canterbury, Sevenoaks in 1982.  Having cared for his mother for many years and seeing that she was settled, he commenced his studies for the priesthood at St John’s Seminary, Wonersh.  He was ordained priest at St Thomas of Canterbury, Sevenoaks on 19^th April 1991 .

His first appointment was to Holy Innocents, Orpington.  His next appointment was as parish priest of Our Lady of the Rosary, Hayes in 1997.  On account of deteriorating health he retired from the parish in the following year.  Following a period of ill health he went to St Anselm’s, Dartford in February 2000 and in July 2000 was appointed chaplain to the Convent of the Good Shepherd, Staplehurst , Kent .  His health further deteriorated and in October 2001 he went to live in the residential home of the Holy Cross Priory, Heathfield , Sussex . 

Over the next four years his health continued to slowly decline and he died on the evening of 30^th November 2005 at the Holy Cross Priory.

 John had a great gift for helping the elderly, sick and dying and was greatly valued as a confessor.  May he rest in peace.’

Michael Latham, R.I.P.

Michael Lathan, at school 1943-1944, died on the 30^th December, and the Daily Telegraph of the 4^th January carried a lengthy obituary of him, part of which is reproduced here:-  ‘Michael Latham who has died aged 73, was a documentary film-maker responsible for some of the most influential factual television programmes of the last four decades.

As the series editor of Tomorrow’s World and a producer of Man Alive, Horizon and many other programmes on subjects ranging from the lives of the great explorers to the history of science, Latham made meticulously researched and thought provoking films.

He was born on June 18^th, 1932 in Winnipeg , Manitoba , and returned to Britain with his family in the lat 1930s.  He was educated at John Fisher School , Purley, an experience which he did not particularly enjoy.

Following National Service, Latham became a journalist with the Andover Advertiser, then moved to Bristol , where he continued to work for local papers while sharing a flat with Peter O’Toole and Tom Stoppard.

In the late 1950s he joined the BBC’s Outside Broadcast Unit and in 1960 he covered the marriage of Princess Margaret to the Earl of Snowdon.  Latham and Snowdon became friends and worked on a number of television projects together.

By the early 1960s Latham had joined BBC Features.  It was a time of great innovation and new freedoms.

Latham became a leading producer for Man Alive in 1965, shaping the documentary series into a popular BBC 2 staple which offered intelligent and occasionally contentious films on almost every topic imaginable.

In 1967 Latham and his co-producer Gordon Thomas were awarded the Monte Carlo Critics’ Prize for A Bit of an Experience, a sensitive and compelling documentary about  woman undergoing life-saving brain surgery.

That same year he succeeded in persuading Dr Christian Barnard, the surgeon who had recently performed the world’s first heart transplant operation on a human being, to appear in The Heart Man and Barnard Faces his Critics for BBC Science and Features.

Latham was appointed editor of Tomorrow’s World, the popular science and technology series, in 1967.

He continued to make one-off documentaries, attracting some controversy in 1970 with Go Climb a Mountain, examining the work of Dr Josef Issels, whose unorthodox methods of treating terminal cancer included making a group of patients struggle up a snow slope.  Two years later he produced If Britain Had Fallen, a three hour documentary examining the theoretical consequences of a British defeat during the early stages of the Second World War.

One of Latham’s best known productions was The Explorers (1975), a series of drama-documentaries about the lives of the great explorers.  Presented by David Attenborough and containing realistic re-enactments of several perilous journeys, the series earned Latham a Bafta award.

Although he continued to have strong ties with the BBC, in 1978 Latham left it to join Video Arts Television.  There he maintained his high standards of documentary film-making in series such as Free to Choose, with Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist.

Between 1995 and 1997 he worked on a series of programmes with the hypnotist Paul McKenna.  The next three years were devoted to Connections, a 10 hour series for the Discovery Channel about the history of science and technology which he made with his friend James Burke.

At home Mike Latham loved to cook and was a great raconteur, the kind of man whom it was always a pleasure to corner at parties.  He was devoted to his family and took much delight in his grandchildren.

He died on December 30^th after being diagnosed with terminal cancer the previous month.’

Please remember Michael in your prayers.