Right Reverend William Mellon, Bishop of Galloway — 2nd February, 1952
The Right Reverend Bishop William Henry Mellon was born on 30th January, 1877, in Edinburgh. After studying in Blairs College, Aberdeen, he went for a short time to Paris to begin Philosophy under the Sulpicians; this course he finished in Rome, where as a student of the Scots College he attended the Gregorian University and there pursued also his studies in Theology.
He was ordained priest on 29th March, 1902, and returned to his native diocese the following year. There he laboured as curate and parish priest. It was while he was in charge of St. Columba’s parish, Edinburgh, that he was nominated Coadjutor Bishop of Galloway by Bulls of 21st August, 1935.
He was consecrated in Edinburgh by His Grace, Archbishop McDonald on 28th October of the same year, and came to reside in Dumfries, where he was administrator of the Cathedral. When His Lordship, Bishop McCarthy, died on 24th December, 1943, Bishop Mellon succeeded to the See of Galloway.
His coat-of-arms described him well. It shows a hand grasping a pastoral staff, together with some sheep. The motto he chose was the one attributed to St. Ninian, the first Bishop of Galloway: Fides Petri in Sede Petri.
Bishop Mellon was an outstanding example of the good shepherd. “I know mine and mine know me.” He was the pastor of a vast territory of four counties, but he knew it intimately, even to the least important side-street. A keen motorist, and not a particularly slow one either, he traversed the entire region times without number, always bent on episcopal work.
His knowledge of his priests was personal. He knew them all intimately. He was fully acquainted with the needs and difficulties of every parish in his diocese. He was a bishop.
He had no secretary, but wrote or typed all his letters himself. He said that he did this for the very purpose of keeping in direct and intimate touch with his priests, the local pastors of souls. His letters were homely, friendly and human. Bishop Mellon would never content himself with a mere receipt when a priest sent to him the proceeds of a diocesan collection. There was always an accompanying letter of thanks to the priest and a word of congratulation to the people for their generosity. There would he a further note added, say, about the weather, and some paternal advice to the priest to take precautions during a particularly cold spell, or an inquiry about the priest’s health or about the progress of some repairs in the parish. These were amazing letters to receive from one of the exalted status of a bishop, but they bore eloquent testimonv to the shepherd’s love for his flock.
He made it his duty to visit every priest who was ill, even in a distant nursing home. He went to the funeral of every priest of his who died, even of one who died onlv three davs after entering the diocese. On at least one occasion he accompanied the priest’s remains to the interment in Ireland.
Though he never forgot his episcopal dignity, he never paraded it. He walked or sat modestly and humbly, a priest among priests, a gentleman among gentlemen. There radiated from him a gentleness and kindness that finally broke down all barriers, some of which existed from the moment of his entry into the diocese, and he won the hearts of all. He had a shepherd’s patience with sheep that went astray. Thus those who had occasion to receive from him a merited reprimand could testify to his inborn goodness.
It was towards the end of his life that two events occurred which gave him intense joy. One was the coming of the priests of the Congregation of the Passion to his diocese. They opened a house of studies for their own students at Dankeith, near Kilmarnock, in 1940, and soon afterwards they acquired Coodham estate in the same neighbourhood as a Retreat House and a centre of Catholic social and religious activities. The other event was the extension of the territory of Galloway diocese so as to take in North Ayrshire and the Cumbrae Isles. Bishop Mellon never let an opportunity pass of expressing his great delight in these two additions to his diocese.
For a long time he enjoyed the long motor-run from Dumfries to North Ayrshire. He was wont to say that it was a tonic to him. But there came gradually a change. He began to perceive that his residence was not central enough, for the great majority of his people were not to be found in his three Southern counties but in Central and North Ayrshire. His trips to the north were becoming too frequent and too exhausting, and his own health too frail. He almost collapsed under the strain and he applied in June, 1511, for a Co-adjutor, who however never came.
“The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep.” There will never be publicly known how much Bishop Mellon risked his life for his flock. Frequently he disregarded the counsel of his medical advisers in order to travel far when priests or laity were in peril. His visit to Knockshinnoch Colliery when miners were entombed is but one instance of this. Nothing could restrain him from a personal visit to the scene of the disaster where working men's lives were in danger, be they Catholics or not, nor from the homes of their sorrowing relatives. On other occasions when his clerical friends would suggest prudence, he would chuckle with glee that he had successfully accomplished the journey in spite of their forebodings.
It was a visit such as this which hastened his death. On a most wintry day and in spite of his weak health, he insisted on attending the Requiem Mass of Canon Fitzpatrick at Ardrossan, and returning to Dumfries the same day, being motored each way through a blizzard on the Cumnock Hills. That was his last public appearance. It was January 11th. He died on February 2nd, the Feast of the Purification of Our Blessed Lady.
Bishop Mellon made a will, but he had nothing to leave. The parishes of Galloway will erect a monument over his grave. He was to have celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his priesthood on March 29th. It is confidently hoped that the Mother of God had taken him by that time to celebrate it in heaven. May he rest in peace.
This obituary was printed in the Catholic Directory for Scotland of 1953.