| Description | This postcard shows a memorial honouring Monsignor William Clapperton's silver jubilee of his priesthood, from 1913 to 1938; Monsignor Clapperton was born at Fochabers on 24th January 1886 into a family deeply rooted in the life and traditions of the north-east; three of his uncles were priests - Mgr James Clapperton, Canon William Clapperton (see PG/821 to PG/827) and Monsignor Robert Provost Clapperton; he entered the Scots College, Rome in 1907 to begin an association of more than sixty years with the College; after his ordination in 1913, he became vice-rector of the College and in 1921 he was nominated Privy Chamberlain to His Holiness the Pope; in 1922 he succeeded Mgr Mackintosh as rector of the College and on 29th November 1923 he was made a Domestic Prelate; he retired from the rectorship of the College in 1960 and was then appointed Canon of the Archbasilica of St John Lateran and there he spent his last nine years in gracious retirement; he died in Rome on 19th February 1969, four weeks after his 83rd birthday and was buried in the tomb of the Scots College in the Campo Verano. |