Celebrating our founders - Father Percy Maryon-Wilson

Father Percy Maryon-Wilson was an original member of the St Pancras House Improvement Society, later known as St Pancras Housing Association. The grandson of a Baronet, Father Maryon-Wilson had been friends with Father Basil Jellicoe since childhood, growing up together in Chailey, Sussex.

Father Maryon-Wilson studied at Eton, then  Magdalen College Oxford and finally Stephen’s  House, Oxford. Father Maryon-Wilson found his calling as a priest when in WWI he served with the Grenadier Guards in South Africa. He became Assistant Missioner to Father Jellicoe at the Magdalen Mission at St Mary’s Church in 1922 and was keen to improve the area’s miserable housing conditions.

The social network from Magdalen College was very important to the society’s success, as Father Maryon-Wilson, Father Jellicoe, Ian Hamilton and the then Prince of Wales, who made several visits to the Society in the 1920s, all studied together. Father Maryon-Wilson did a lot to publicise the society’s development plans, to fundraise and he even chaired some meetings. 

Known as the ‘Flying Squad’, Father Maryon Wilson, Father Jellicoe and Father Nigel Scott often gave more than 100 public talks each year in an attempt to raise awareness of and funds for their work tackling the Somers Town slums. Their tours led to establishing a network of 37 local secretaries throughout the UK, including two in Scotland.
In her book People Need Roots, Irene Barclay described Father Maryon-Wilson as aristocratic, intellectual, restrained and moderate.

In 1933 in a sermon at All Saints on Margaret Street, he said that any priest in an area like Somers Town ‘must be in love with the slums and despite a dislike of dirt, bugs, smells and overcrowding, have a respect for those who were compelled to live among them. He must always be available, never superior and must not cease to be thrilled by his calling to such a life.’
Father Maryon-Wilson took over from Father Jellicoe as head of the Magdalen College Mission in 1927 until WWII.