Father Gregory had been a member of the Oratory Community for nearly fifty-one years and a priest for nearly forty-nine years.

Cecil John Winterton took the name Gregory, after Pope St Gregory the Great, on entering the Birmingham Oratory in Edgbaston, founded by Blessed John Henry Newman. He was born in Brighton, Sussex on 9 July 1922, the oldest son of the future Major-General Sir John Winterton and his wife Helen, née Shepherd-Cross.

He was at school at Selwyn House, Broadstairs (1932-35) and Wellington College, Berks (1935-40). Leaving school in the early days of the Second World War, he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery and saw service in North Africa – where he contacted TB from which he never recovered - Italy and Palestine.

In 1946 John Winterton went to St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, where he read theology. During his time in Italy he had had the opportunity to visit the Shrine of St Francis of Assisi and there that he discovered his vocation to the ministry.

Accepted for training by the Bishop of London, he studied for ordination at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, and was ordained an Anglican priest in St Paul’s Cathedral, London, during September 1951. He served as a curate in Northolt, and in 1954 came to Wolverhampton as priest-in-charge of St George’s Church. He resigned on 1 January 1955 and was received into the Catholic Church on Maundy Thursday that year.

In his early days as a Catholic, John Winterton first visited the Oratory. He wanted to meet Father Denis Sheil the last survivor of Cardinal Newman’s own community but he was unwell. Instead, he was welcomed by Father Stephen Dessain, the Archivist and great Newman scholar.

It was not until 1961, when he had already been a student for the Archdiocese of Birmingham for five years, that he joined the Oratory Congregation. Father Gregory Winterton was ordained priest by Archbishop Francis Grimshaw, Archbishop of Birmingham, in the Newman Memorial Church, situated next to the Oratory House in Edgbaston, on 9 March 1963.

During his early years as a priest Father Gregory taught in St Philip’s Grammar School and many still fondly remember him from those years as ‘Pop G’. Later on he served as a Governor of the School and its successor, the Sixth Form College.

He was also a Governor of the Oratory School near Reading, originally founded by Blessed John Henry Newman in 1859. He served as Provost of the Oratory from 1971 until 1992 apart from six months in 1977, when Fr Geoffrey Wamsley occupied the position until his sudden death in July that year.

There are two areas of his life at the Oratory for which Father Gregory Winterton will be long remembered. Firstly, for his work as Parish Priest. For many years Father Gregory was a familiar figure riding his old bicycle through the streets of Ladywood and Edgbaston. When at the age of 75 poor eyesight meant that he could no longer use his bicycle, his fast, military style of walking became equally familiar.

He was assiduous in visiting the sick and housebound; spent long hours in his confessional; prepared engaged countless couples for marriage and converts for reception into the Church.

He loved (like St Philip Neri) the youth, and was a keen supporter and Chaplain of the Legion of Mary. Until well into old age he was a regular pilgrim to Lourdes and attended Oratorian reunions in Rome, Spain and Mexico. His acts of kindness and generosity (often of a financial nature) were both legion and legendary.

The second great area of his work concerned the Cause for the beatification and canonisation of Cardinal Newman. Opened at the Birmingham Oratory during 1958, the Cause had not made much progress apart from the publication, at regular intervals, of new volumes of the ‘Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman’.

During 1973, Pope Paul VI enquired whether it would be possible to beatify Newman during the course of the 1975 Holy Year. The necessary work was nowhere near ready but, galvanised by Papal interest, Father Gregory Winterton devoted increasing amounts of time and energy into revitalising the Newman Cause.

He masterminded the founding of ‘The Friends of Cardinal Newman’ during 1976, and gave numerous talks and lectures in parishes throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, to deepen popular knowledge and love of the Cardinal Newman, a holy, pastoral parish priest who cared for the sick and poor of Ladywood and Edgbaston in Birmingham.

Father Gregory produced pamphlets and prayer books, his work proved successful and world-wide interest in the life, work and writing of the great English Cardinal grew year-by-year. Combined with the work of Father Vincent Blehl SJ as Postulator, significant developments occurred. A particular milestone was reached with the Declaration by Pope John Paul II of Cardinal Newman’s heroic virtues during January 1991.

Alter that another eighteen years elapsed before the beatification of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman at the unforgettable Mass celebrated on Sunday 19 September 2010, by Pope Benedict XVI at Coton Park, Birmingham, near the Oratory House at Rednal, where Cardinal Newman was buried in August 1890.

The moment when Father Gregory Winterton was presented to Pope Benedict XVI and, later that same day, when they met on the pavement outside the Oratory House, provided unforgettable pictures of two men in their eighties - Pope Benedict XVI a devoted student of Newman since early in 1946 and the other, Father Gregory the tireless advocate of Newman’s holiness. It was the culmination of half a life-time’s hard work for Father Gregory Winterton.

The similarities between the much loved and greatly respected Father Gregory Winterton and Blessed John Henry Newman were often remarked on, not least the growing physical resemblance that arrived with old age. Both in their own ways made lasting contributions to the life of the Catholic Church in Birmingham and beyond. RIP.

Requiem Mass for Father Gregory Winterton followed by burial at Redinal

In an atmosphere of great warmth but much sadness, and in defiance of the drizzle outside, Father Paul Chavasse was the principal celebrant at the Requiem Mass for Father Gregory Winterton, at the Birmingham Oratory, Edgbaston on Tuesday, 24 January 2012, the Feast of St Francis de Sales. Father Guy Nicholls was Deacon and Brother Richard Duncan Sub-Deacon. Father Anton Guziel, Parish Priest, was Master of Ceremonies.

Bishop Terence Brain, Bishop of Salford and Bishop Philip Pargeter, retired Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham, were present on the sanctuary, together with Fathers from the London and Oxford Oratories including the Oxford Provost, Father Daniel Seward.

Father Robert Byrne, Father Dominic Jacob and Father Richard Duffield, who left the Birmingham Oratory in September 1990 to found the Oxford house, were also here to say a last goodbye to their former Provost.

The Oratory Church is also the parish church and it was packed to its doors for the sung Latin Mass. Members of Father Gregory Winterton’s family, including his nephew Michael Winterton, parishioners, and former parishioners, and priests from the Archdiocese of Birmingham were among the great company of mourners.

Also present were representatives of many of the organisations that Father Gregory had been involved with over the long decades since his ordination in March 1963 as priest of the Birmingham Oratory. The Birmingham Oratory, along with the Oratory School, was founded by Blessed John Henry Newman.

After the welcome by Father Chavasse, a special message from the Most Reverend Bernard Longley, Archbishop of Birmingham, was read by the Vicar General, Canon Timothy Menezes.

Archbishop Longley expressed himself in these thoughtful words: ‘As you gather today at the Oratory for Father Gregory Winterton’s Requiem Mass I wish to unite myself with you in prayer. I am sorry that a long-standing pastoral commitment in Staffordshire prevents me from being with you this morning.

‘Father Gregory would wish us, above all, to pray that he may now be admitted to the company of the saints with all his sins forgiven through the death and resurrection of Our Lord. May we not also imagine the welcome awaiting him from Christ and entrusted to his brother Oratorian and his guide Blessed John Henry Newman?

‘We offer a prayer of gratitude today for the way that God’s Providence led Fr Gregory to work so assiduously for Cardinal Newman’s canonisation. We can be thankful that he had the great joy of taking part so recently in the Beatification ceremony at Cofton Park, close to the cemetery at Rednal where he will be buried today.’

Archbishop Longley concluded: ‘As we bid farewell to Fr Gregory we know that it is only for a while, and we can be certain that he will be praying for the well-being of his home for so many years, the Oratory in Hagley Road, and for the Fathers and parishioners who have been so dear to him. Let us commend his soul to the loving-kindness of Our Lord and to the prayerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.’

By custom, no homily or panegyric is preached at the funeral Mass of an Oratorian Father. During the distribution of Holy Communion two of the great hymns by Blessed John Henry Newman, Praise to the Holiest in the Height, and Firmly I believe and truly were sung.

After Communion the pall was carefully removed to reveal the American light oak wooden coffin and the simple crucifix on the top. Bishop Philip Pargeter began the solemn prayers of the Final Commendation while Bishop Brain and the Fathers of the Birmingham, London and Oxford Oratories and other visiting clergy stood with lighted candles around the coffin.

The Fathers and congregation sang the Song of Farewell - May the choirs of angels come to greet you, as the coffin containing the earthly remains of Father Gregory Winterton was taken in solemn procession out of the church and carried past the tablet dedicated to Blessed John Henry Newman and the deceased Fathers in the Cloisters.

The funeral cars made their way solemnly along Hagley Road, at the start of their journey to the Oratory House at Rednal on the outskirts of Birmingham, where Father Gregory Winterton was buried in the small secluded community grave-yard.

That earlier drizzle had stopped and the sun was gently breaking through the late January clouds as Father Paul Chavasse said the final prayers. The coffin was lowered gently into the newly dug grave situated not far from where Blessed John Henry Newman had been buried on 19 August 1890.

It was a deeply emotional but memorable moment as this last in a long-line of much-loved ‘old-style’ Birmingham Oratory Fathers, going back to Blessed John Henry Newman, was laid to rest.

Fr Gregory Winterton was born on 9 July 1922. He was Provost of the Birmingham Oratory 1971-1992 (except for six month). He died in the care of the Little Sisters of the Poor at their home in Harborne, on Wednesday 18 January. Like his father Major-General Sir John Winterton and Blessed John Henry Newman, he was aged 89.

His body was received by Father Paul Chavasse at the Hagley Road gates of the Oratory Church, Edgbaston, at 6.30pm on the evening of Monday 23 January.

By Peter Jennings and Father Paul Chavasse of the Birmingham Oratory