The Chesterton family worldwide has recently lost two Chesterton champions – Aidan Mackey, who died on May 4 in England, and Ray Finnegan, who died on January 11 in Canberra. The Australian Chesterton Society shares the sadness now being felt by their families, and offers a grateful tribute to each of them.
Aidan Mackey (1923-2024)
Aidan Mackey was one of the pioneers of the modern Chesterton revival. Almost alone in England, he reawakened an appreciation of Chesterton’s life and works.
I first met Aidan in 1985 at his home in Bedford, a market town north of London, from where he sold second-hand Chesterton and Belloc books (many of which I bought), while also directing a G.K. Chesterton Study Centre. His comprehensive collection of Chesterton-related books and memorabilia was later moved to Oxford. Most recently it has found a new home in London, where – as Chris Rule highlighted in The Defendant (Summer 2024) – it is part of the London campus of the University of Notre Dame (USA).
In his closing years he would sign his letters “Ancient Aidan”, by which he wryly highlighted the grand age of 100 that he had reached in 2022. But I think it also pointed to his profound affinity with the age of Chesterton, whose genius he helped to make less ancient and more accessible over a long lifetime.
Though he did not know Chesterton, Aidan had personal memories of the Chesterton era. He knew his long-serving secretary, Dorothy Collins, who was Chesterton’s literary executor for half a century after his death in 1936. Aidan published numerous articles, including in the pages of The Defendant, such
as one on Dorothy Collins, and another on the town of Beaconsfield where Chesterton lived in his later years.
I have a special memory of visiting Beaconsfield on one occasion with Aidan. He took me to Chesterton’s first home, Top Meadow, and also his graveside. I learnt more deeply how much Chesterton loved the character and individual beauty of this small town.
He was generous to Chesterton movements worldwide, such as John Kanu’s Chesterton Centre in Sierra Leone. Aidan’s long interest in Chesterton’s social and economic philosophy of Distributism induced him to foster the growth of local co-operatives in one of Africa’s poorest countries.
The Australian Chesterton Society is indebted to Aidan for many kindnesses, including donations that he would send at various times in support of our efforts.
May his soul rest in peace.
Ray Finnegan (1935-2024)
Ray Finnegan (pictured) played a crucial part in the development of the Australian Chesterton Society.
He served as our Secretary-Treasurer for almost the entire life of the Society after it was established as a national body in 2000 – from its origins in 1993 as a State-based association, founded by Tony Evans, in Western Australia – and Ray himself retired in 2018.
Ray had an early interest in the Father Brown stories, which led to a wider interest in Chesterton’s writings. He soon tackled Orthodoxy. When he heard of
the formation of a Chesterton Society in Western Australia, he contacted Tony Evans and enrolled as a member, even though he initially had no means of participating in the Society’s activities in Western Australia.
In 2001, Ray attended the annual conference of the Society which was held at St Joseph’s College in Sydney. He recalled that he went intending to be a happy
‘back-bencher’, but came away as Secretary Treasurer ‘after succumbing to the blandishments of Tony Evans and Karl Schmude’!
Throughout the years Ray took professional care of all membership matters, including renewal payments and conference fees. As a citizen of Canberra,
he organised the annual conference held in the national capital in 2002. He was always vitally involved in arrangements for the Society’s other conferences, most of which have taken place at Campion College in Sydney.
When not engaged with things Chestertonian, Ray was a senior public servant in the Department of Defence. In 1991 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for public service. Ray was also a devoted family man. He married Angela (Travia) in 1965 at St Mary’s Cathedral in Perth, where Angela had been an organist. She was also an accomplished pianist, and together they raised a family of four children – Maria, Angela, Christine and Stephen.
Ray served the Chesterton cause in Australia wonderfully well. He has an honoured place in the history of our Society, which could so easily have floundered over the years without his wise counsel and his careful sense of custodianship.
May his soul rest in peace.