GEOFFREY DESMOND
CRAWFURD

Born : 5th.March, 1910
Died : 4th. October, 1969
aged 59
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WHEN Fr. Geoffrey Crawford went as chaplain to St. Bernard's convent,(app.1940) there were only 100 Catholics in the district. By 1957 the number had risen to 2,300.
That same year Langley was made a parish with Fr. Crawfurd as parish priest and the new Holy Family church was opened by Mgr. Charles Grant, then vicar general of the Northampton diocese. Cost of the church was £20,000, with a temporary wooden altar.
On Wednesday, 11 years later, Mgr. Grant, now Bishop of Northampton, returned to Langley to consecrate the Church.
The altar (cost £344) together with a font (£99); tabernacle (£110) and 12 consecration crosses (£12 each) were given - Some anonymously - by parishioners.

Here is a very poignant letter written by Father Crawfurd to his parishoners
on the 27th.September - only 7 days before he died.

HOLY FAMILY CHURCH, LANGLEY, Saturday, 27th. September, 1969

My dear Parishioners,
I write this letter with a very great sadness. As many of you will have observed, my health has been deteriorating over the past four months, and at the end of July I was informed by the Doctors that my heart was enlarged and would not get any better. The Doctors also said that I would be unable to cope with the Parish work any longer. And so, at the beginning of August I asked the Bishop to allow me to resign the Holy Family Parish.
The Bishop has accepted my resignation and it will take effect next Wednesday, October, 1st. Father Hughes will be in charge until the new Parish Priest arrives. The new Parish Priest is Father Gerard Langley who has been Parish Priest in Swaffham, Norfolk, for many years. I am sure that you will all welcome him, and give him the wonderful co- operation and loyalty that you have given to me over the past 50 years. It is, of course, a heart-break to me to leave the Holy Family Parish. But believe me it is a greater heart-break to be there and to know that the Parish was suffering spiritually because I was unable to do the work properly.

I am to leave hospital nest week and shall be going straight to convalesce at St. Joseph's Hospice, Hackney. And so, owing to my illness and convalescence it does not look as if I shall have a chance of saying good-bye to you in the church in a farewell sermon, hence this letter.

During the 50 years I have been there I am very conscious that I have left undone many things that I ought to have done. I have failed in meekness. in kindness and in charity, But I have always preached to you the full Catholic Faith of Jesus Christ without any watering-down, compromise or minimising. I have always preached to you total loyalty to Our Lord and to His Vicar on earth, the Pope. And now, my daily prayer for you all will be that you may always remain true to this Faith, and loyal to Christ's Vicar on earth.

I have tried to teach you to value your friendship and intimacy with Our Lord above all other things in your life, to love Him and to seek Him with all your heart. "Let nothing separate you from the Charity of God which is in Christ Jesus Our Lord." This involves PRAYER, a life of Prayer, living in the presence of God, walking with Jesus all the days of your life.

Jesus and Mary are inseparable. We must love her and pray to her if we would be true to her son. Holy Mass and Communion, daily if possible, are a foretaste on earth of the everlasting Mass and the unending Communion which is Heaven. Jesus is always in the tabernacle waiting for you to visit Him, The family that prays together, stays together.
Finally, I would like to thank very sincerely all who have prayed for me, sent me greetings and visited me in hospital during this last month; especially Father Hughes and my other brother-Priests who have brought me communion every day. I am very grateful too to those who came to Mass on September 3rd to pray for me. I must also thank all those who have helped me so wonderfully and so generously during the years to build up this beloved parish with its churches, schools and convents.
I can never sufficiently thank Our Blessed Lord for the 30 years which were given to me to work for His Kingdom in Langley, Iver and Colnbrook. I am but an unprofitable servant, but I suppose Our Lord delights to choose useless and inadequate instruments to teach us that all gifts come from Him. Please pray for me as I shall do for all of you that having sought, served and loved God in this very short life, we may all of us, in the words of Saint Thomas More, 'meet merrily in Heaven.'
Yours in the Charity of Christ,

GEOFFREY CRAWFURD

..

400 MOURN LANGLEY'S
FATHER CRAWFURD
Father Geffrey Crawfurd, the man
who saw Langley grow from a
village into the biggest residential
area of Slough, died on Saturday
evening, only three days after he
had resigned as Parish Priest.
On Wednesday, more than 400
people mourned his death at a
solemn requiem mass at the Church
he had helped to set up 13 years
ago.
A procession of 70 clergy from all
over the country lined the Church
grounds before walking into the
Church.
Also present were the Irish Sisters
of Charity, children from Saint
Bernard's Convent and The Holy
Family Junior and Infant Schools,		 and 300 parishioners and friends
Mass was offered by the Rt. Rev.
Monsignor Alan Clark, Auxiliary
Bishop of Northampton, assisted
by Father James Galvin, of Corby
and Fr. Antony Bull of Datchet,
all personal friends of Fr. Crawfurd.
Master of cermonies were the Very
Rev. Canon Paul Taylor of
Cambridge,and Fr. Bernard Hughes
acting Parish Priest of The Holy
Family Church.
Chief family mourner was Mrs.
Nancy Goulden, of Chiswick, Fr.
Crawfurd's sister. His other sister
lives in Canada.
Mass was followed by interment at
St. Mary's Churchyard, Langley.
He had asked to be buried there.


Father Crawfurd, 59, came to Langley 30 years ago and was chaplin to St. Bernard's Convent for 17 years before he was made parish priest at Langley.
He died at 7.10 pm on Saturday, while watching television at St. Joseph's Hospice, Hackney, where he had gone that afternoon from the Windsor Hospital to convalesce.
Father Hughes said: "This was the one place he would have wished to die because of his love for the order of Irish Sisters of Charity having been instrumental in bringing them to Langley."
Canon Noel Burditt, Parish Priest at St. Ethelbert's who knew Father Crawfurd for 21 years, and who preached the sermon on Wednesday, said: "Father Crawfurd has been in Slough longer than any other parish clergy. We all admired his work in building up his parish and he was very dear to us."
Canon Eric Perkins, Rector of Slough said: "He was a Christian priest of great devotion and sincerity and a well loved figure. Anglicans in Slough will be grieved to hear of his death."
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