John B Long 4 September 1933 – 8 February 2024
May 17, 2025 9:54 am | by Terry Brown | Posted in Tributes
“Pax House”. How many times over the years must we have been greeted by that response? I remember once remarking to him that a particular person was a snob but he shook his head and replied, “oh no, we in Pax House are the snobs” and roared with laughter. He referred to his workplace at Bedford Hospital as Physical Medicine, everyone else seemed to call it Physiotherapy!
So here was a person of strong faith, strong enough to support others in their hour of need and firmly in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, so no surprise that he should return to this great church to worship. His analysis of the Catholic ritual of a particular church was often based on the quote from All Saints Margaret Street, “Music by Mozart, Libretto by Cranmer, but Choreography my dear, by Fortescue”.
John was no particular respecter of status or office: I remember with horror attending a bellringing practice of a rather elite Society, at that time restricted to men only, at St Paul’s Cathedral. I had issued clear instructions as to the convention of how he should greet the auspicious personage in charge of the Society and organising the ringing – with “good evening Master”. His choice of words was brief: “hi”. Dropped jaws all round, and the Master quite expressionless. Ever hoped the earth would swallow you up in one second? John joined the Society in 1956, proposed by Jim Prior, seconded by George Cecil. Although he appreciated well struck ringing, I think it fair to say he was never an active member.
Funny how eccentric people lend themselves to amusing situations, like the time one of the ringers of St Andrew’s had a suspected heart attack in the ringing chamber, having heard of this John raced to his aid, providing reassurance until the ambulance crew arrived. Unfortunately, descending the tower with the carry chair, the pocket of the Paramedic behind the patient slipped neatly over the banister handrail, leading to a rather nervous request for John to lower the trousers until they became free.
He always told with pride of taking part in a passion play with Bishop Richard Chartres as Jesus and himself in the role of Pontius Pilate.
One tale I can’t let go adrift is the occasion when, on a ringing outing to Liverpool, John was very keen to ring the Great Bell, all of 82cwt. He was on the tall box. As I was passing him in the sand pit below, John commanded “take this” and gave me what we both assumed was the long rope. As my head rapidly approached a beam, I thought it might be a good idea to let go. Meanwhile, of course, John had yards or rope to contend with. After 15 minutes we had the bell back up in ‘up’, ringing position, but we had by then used up nearly all of our ringing time before the service. It was painful driving back home with skinned hands, but more excruciating that we had so cut short the ringing on the heaviest ring of bells in the world!
Another occasion found us at St Augustine’s Kilburn for Solemn Benediction. It was hear that John started his tradition of taking that line in the Divine Praises, “Blessed be St Joseph, her Spouse Most Chaste”, or “Blessed be St Joseph, her most chaste spouse” – which ever version was in the order of service, his stentorian tones would utter the other. His voice being rather loud, this really grated, and the first time he did it I received glares as I couldn’t control my hysteria.
John died within 3 days of the well-known bell historian Fr David Cawley, of Kent, Norfolk, Bristol, Leicester…and we stayed with him on a ringing tour in Bristol area in the early 1990s. I gather John met with the approval of his housekeeper!
John contributed to ringing in many ways: when in charge at St Andrew’s he was instrumental in the augmentation of the bells from 6 to 8, and longer ago, in the 1960s he sat on a committee which revised the Bedfordshire Association’s district boundaries. He was quite knowledgeable about bell maintenance but there were usually others about who were more interested.
On another occasion, and to re-visit a more well-known incident, John was very keen to get a ring at Arlesey, and in those days the ringing chamber was accessed by a near-vertical, 40ft wooden ladder. Arriving late, he dashed up the ladder, everything suddenly went dark, and his eyes met with all this lace. The recipient of this unwelcome intrusion came to life with “John, John, get down, John!” Miss Steel, Association President, was not amused.
John had vivid memories of various High Church characters, for example Canon Brian Brindley, featured in the biography Loose Canon, leading a procession at the annual Walsingham Pilgrimage.
Another fascination for John was pipe organs, and he himself was a competent service organist, he also went on various organ crawls with the Bedfordshire and District Organists’ Association. This brings to mind, a visit to Norwich Cathedral he told me of, where he accidentally-on-purpose suddenly let rip with the instrument’s Bombarde section, rattling the windows and causing consternation: officials came running.
Then, there was a fairly recent visit to Tom Tower at Oxford, where the visitors were given strict instructions not to go anywhere near the clapper of Great Tom. When the guide was looking the other way, John could not resist and the clapper made a deafening impact on the bell!
So, John was flawed, perhaps in rather unusual ways, but he definitely had significant good points. He always had time for his friends, though he definitely didn’t appreciate calls after 10pm due to the distance from his bedroom to the phone in the hallway!
John was a supporter of the Aids Vigil that used to happen annually here at St Paul’s. One of the pieces of music that was always played was The Power of Love by Frankie Goes to Hollywood and there’s a line that I think sums up John as a friend, forgive me if I don’t sing it: – “When the chips are down I’ll be around”.
Pax.
Owen Davis