Canon James Henry Francis Simcox
Born: January 29, 1928, in Cork, Republic of Ireland
Died: November 30, 2016, in Glasgow
Canon James Simcox, retired parish priest of St Martin of Tours in Renton, has died. He was 88.
Canon Simcox was wonderfully eccentric and cheerful with it and had a special gift for getting to know the congregation in every parish in which he served, most of them in poor areas in Glasgow and West Dunbartonshire.
He was born into an Irish family who owned a large and successful bakery business in Cork, where his forebears included two lord mayors of the city.
Canon Simcox was named after Sir Henry O’Shea and James Simcox, both of whom were prominent in Irish politics in the early 20th century, immediately prior to the Uprising of 1916.
Canon Jim was called to the priesthood in Ireland in 1953 at a time when there was a surplus of priests there. Many of the newly ordained clergy were sent by their bishops to work as missionaries in Africa and in Britain’s large cities, where there was a shortage of vocations.
Canon Jim was posted to Glasgow by Bishop Cornelius Lucy, Bishop of Cork, who ordained him on June 21, 1953, at All Hallows College, Dublin, where he had undergone his formation as a priest.
He cut his clerical teeth during a temporary appointment at St Charles’ in Kelvinside but was transferred within months to the Good Shepherd parish at Dalbeth in the deprived East End of the city.
I first met him in 1960 on a train to Dumbarton when I was going home from a back shift as a copy boy at the Scottish Daily Express and he was going to take up an appointment at St Michael’s in Dumbarton.
Like most young priests of that era, he was concerned about his appointment and wanted to know all about Dumbarton.
He also wanted to be briefed about his new boss, St Michael’s parish priest Father Bernard Magauran, who had a reputation among younger clergy for being strict and keeping his assistant priests on a tight rein.
At that time there were often four or five priests in larger parishes such as St Michael’s to administer to as many as 4000 parishioners.
The average age of priests in Scotland today is now around 70 and there is often just one priest to a parish.
Canon Simcox was effervescent, outgoing and humorous. He had a story for every occasion.
One of them was that his mother Dolly had travelled over from Ireland to see him in his new parish in Dumbarton.
Father Magauran invited Mrs Simcox, whose father had been a knight of the realm, to dinner in St Michael’s presbytery.
When they sat down the parish priest asked the then Father Simcox to pour the wine.
The canon said he was nervous and spilt some of it on the tablecloth.
When Father Magauran protested that he was not making a very good job of it, Mrs Simcox leapt to her son’s defence.
“You must forgive him Father,” she said. “In our house it is the butler who usually pours the wine.”
Canon Jim may have come from a high-class background but he relished his work in working class St Michael’s.
The priests there served two secondary schools, Notre Dame and St Patrick’s High, and a primary school, now St Michael’s, plus the Carmelite monastery of the Holy Ghost at Kirktonhill and the Convent of Notre Dame at Clerkhill.
He was the school chaplain at St Patrick’s and the occasional confessor at the Carmelite Monastery, now at Clerkhill, where he often celebrated Mass for the nuns.
In 1974 he was transferred to St Paul’s, Whiteinch, and he stayed there until 1981 when Cardinal Tom Winning appointed him parish priest at St Martin’s in Renton.
Canon Simcox’s soft Irish brogue and friendly approach were more than welcome in a parish that had seen tough post-war times with high levels of poverty and unemployment, which resulted from the closure of the silk-dyeing industry along the banks of the River Leven.
The Very Rev John Chalmers, former minister of Renton Trinity Church and later Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, remembered Canon Simcox with great affection.
He was his opposite number, ministering to the Protestant community in Renton.
Mr Chalmers said: “Jim Simcox was a parish priest with a big heart and a big vision of the Church.
“At a time when the West of Scotland still suffered from visible and damaging sectarian division he was prepared to be counter-cultural, opening the way for unheard-of levels of ecumenical cooperation.
“We were ahead of our time in sharing ecumenical services and initiatives and I particularly remember the trouble that Jim went to to ensure that Liz and I had front-of-house seats at the Papal Mass in Bellahouston Park in 1982.”
Mr Chalmers, who is the principal clerk to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, added: “Both my wife Liz and I enjoyed his company, his humanity and his humour and we will always remember his kindness and generosity as a priest and as friend.”
After 26 years looking after the people of Tontine, Cordale and Back Street and the many people from other parishes who went to his quick 5pm Mass on a Saturday Canon Simcox retired.
He then joined other elderly clergy who are looked after by the Little Sisters of the Poor at St Joseph’s Nursing Home in Glasgow, where he died on St Andrew’s Day.
Archbishop Philip Tartaglia said: “Canon Jim devoted his life to the Archdiocese of Glasgow and came to love the people here.
“ He was a devoted priest with a gift for getting to know his parishioners.
“ He will be fondly remembered in all the parishes he served in during his 54 years of active priestly ministry but perhaps especially in Dumbarton, where he was assistant priest in St Michael’s for 14 years, and in the Vale of Leven where he was parish priest of St Martin’s, Renton, for 26 years. May he rest in peace.”
Canon Simcox’s funeral will be on Friday, December 9, in the chapel of St Joseph’s Nursing Home and he will be buried at the priests’ plot in Dumbarton Cemetery.
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