Born just before the First World War and ordained just before the second, Wilf was a man fitted for trial and conflict. He came through serene and unruffled, a man of Psalm 23: "near restful waters he leads me, to revive my drooping spirit" Born in St Peter's Parish, Cobridge, he was one of several Davenports who attended the parish school where his mother and aunt taught. He served on the altar there and also at Cobridge Home He learned his football and cricket with a team of Davenport boys, cousins and schoolmates, on the Grange Common. He was a keen supporter of Port Vale, though he called his ginger cat after the more famous Stanley! We did a walking tour of the Lakes in the year before his ordination, having a dip in a tarn, and while the kettle boiled away, said Divine Office. While still a student at Oscott, he took part in C.E.G. work in Burslem and later, when of the Staff at Oscott, in the Bull Ring, Birmingham. With the outbreak of the Second World War, shortly after his ordination, the Archbishop put off sending him for further studies at Cambridge because of the need for priests to be war-chaplains.

He was sent as a curate to the busy parish of Snow Hill, Wolverhampton and two years later to the still more arduous parish of St Patrick's, Birmingham, where he was assigned as chaplain to the Dudley Road Hospital and Western Road Infirmary. "He revelled in the work for he had a genuine rapport with the sick, and especially the elderly, a trait which was to come to the fore again later in Leamington" So writes his fellow curate at Dudley Road (F.W.). They were not easy years, especially in the wartime Midlands. Thus tested, he was soon called upon after the war to put his experiences and his intellectual concentration into lecturing at Oscott on Church History, Economics and Ethics for some ten years. "For one man to be responsible for so many subjects was a matter of disbelief. For him to accept such responsibility so placidly was a cause for wonder. To begin to realise how competently he coped and how deep was his understanding, particularly of the history of the Church, was a source of admiration and respect. Father Wilf always accepted whatever fate or fate's companions threw at him. He had a very good head on his shoulders. He was tenacious and, not unnaturally, he was cast in the same mould spiritually. There was nothing flamboyant about him, but it seems to me that a priest like him, who works steadily and solidly for fifty years and to his death for Christ and his Church, is more of a martyr than a confessor of the Faith. And wouldn't he laugh at that." His fellow lecturer (Dr W.O.) recalls that G.K.'s stories were his great delight. We envied his steadiness in our golfing holidays together. He was a hard man to beat, but a reliable partner, especially in our endeavours against Frs V. Deane and A. Doyle at Westward Ho.

After Oscott there followed two years in charge of diocesan school Catechetics and Religious Inspection. Then came the zenith of his pastoral life and activities in the parish of Leamington (1959 -81). It was an expanding parish. "By 1968 the weekly Mass attendance had grown to over 3,000 with all the accompanying pressures on the parish and schools. Great vision and foresight were called for - future parishes to be planned and new schools provided. During his years there, St Joseph's at Whitnash was established, plans for a possible parish in Sydenham drawn up and even a hall in Radford Semele purchased since there was a real possibility of future development in that area. The newly opened Dormer High and St Patrick's Schools were given a good start, whilst in 1966 the Bishop Bright Grammar School was opened followed by St Anthony's combined school in 1968. In 1975 he supervised the complicated negotiations that led to the federation of the Dormer and Bishop Bright Schools into the Trinity Comprehensive. The many files in St Peter's show Fr Wilf was a most conscientious administrator of the parish. He was in addition Rural Dean until he asked to be relieved of this responsibility. Yet at the same time he felt his chief duty was to his parishioners and did more than his fair share in all the work of a very demanding parish. The old and the sick had a very special friend as the next parish priest, Fr Gwinnett discovered when he first made his way on his Holy Communion round.

A similar testimony comes from the Fenton parish, for after his recovery from a heart attack, which made him resign from Leamington, and recuperation at Aston Hall, he was appointed to Our Lady's, Fenton (Christmas, 1981). "In the years that followed we were to learn much about living a Christian life, never once did Father Wilf put himself first. He visited the sick people in their homes, consoling them in their loneliness and pain. The very day he was himself taken ill he had been out taking Holy Communion in the most appalling weather conditions - lashing wind and rain. He loved Fenton and all the people. He was a regular visitor at school, encouraging the teachers, children and other members of the staff and was chairman of the school governors. Every Friday there was a school Mass" (Fenton Parish). So it was at the school the doctor had to be called. He had suffered a stroke, and after that a further one. God had called him to celebrate his Golden Jubilee at the Eternal Banquet in the next life. The two Requiem Masses for the repose of his soul concelebrated at Leamington and Fenton were a grand tribute to his service in the diocese and of these parishes. It was comforting that his final week on earth was spent under the devoted care of the Sisters and Staff at St Gerard's Hospital, Coleshill. May he rest in peace.

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