Downside and The Lusitania
On 7th May 1915, the Cunard Liner The Lusitania was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland by a German U-boat with the loss of 1,198 passengers and crew. The ship, once the world's largest passenger ship, sunk in just 18 minutes.
The sinking of The Lusitania is widely thought to have been a reason behind the United States entrance into the First World War in 1917, after public opinion turned against Germany after the sinking.
Downside's link to the sinking is through Father Basil William Maturin, a Catholic priest who was on his way back to Britain after a preaching tour of the United States.
Maturin was born in Ireland in 1847 and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1876 he went to Philadelphia in the United States to an Episcopalian church as rector. In 1897 he converted to Catholicism, and wrote many books including Laws of the Spiritual Life, Self Knowledge and Self Discipline and The Price of Unity.
In 1912 Maturin came to Downside and was clothed as a monk by Abbot Cuthbert Butler in the Abbey Church. Unfortunately, after just a few months he resigned the habit, instead choosing to become a secular priest, and in 1913 he was made Chaplain to the University of Oxford.
On the day of the sinking, eyewitness accounts of Maturin state that he was not wearing a lifejacket and was seen to pass a child into a lifeboat as well as giving absolutions to those onboard.
Maturin's body was found in Ballycotton Bay and he is buried in Brompton Oratory.