Brother Adrian Patrick Gaule F.S.C
KUCHING: A memorial requiem mass was held in respect of Brother Adrian Patrick Gaule F.S.C in the St Joseph’s Cathedral here at 5.30pm on Monday.
Br Adrian passed away on Thursday night, May 26 (Dublin time) at the age of 91. He is survived by the younger Br John.
The siblings represent the last two of the over 40 La Salle Brothers who taught and helmed St Joseph’s School in Kuching and Sacred Heart School in Sibu from 1950 to 1987.
Br Adrian is and will always be remembered as the quiet one, gentle, patient, gracious, soft-spoken and humble to a fault.
But no one questioned his dedication to serve and devotion to duty.
The conclusion of a tribute to a close friend and fellow La Salle Brother written by him could well serve as his epitaph: “Charity to others headed his list.”
In the past three years, Br Adrian had joined generations of students from both schools in bidding their final farewell to his ex-colleagues Brothers Albinus, Hyacinth, Mark and Columba.
He attended the funerals of Br Mark in August 2015 and Br Columba in February 2016 who, like him, had retired in their final years at Miguel House, Castletown in Ireland after working and residing away from their own families and motherland for their entire adult lives.
Br Adrian was among the pioneer batch of six La Salle Brothers who sailed for four weeks from Ireland to post-war Singapore in 1946.
The 21-year-old Irish-born was immediately posted to St Xavier’s Institution in Penang.
He served there for 15 years including a three-year sabbatical back to Ireland during which he became one of the earliest La Salle Brothers in the region to earn a university degree (he majored in Geography).
From Penang Br Adrian was transferred to Sarawak in 1961.
He served until his retirement from teaching in 1980 but continued to perform pastoral duties and lived in Mill Hill Block in St Joseph’s (often alone) for over 20 years until his health declined.
Br Adrian was initially in St Joseph’s for barely two years before he was posted to Sibu in 1963.
He spent nine years as principal of Sacred Heart during a period of rapid change.
He led the staff and students as the school moved from the Mission Road to Oya Road premises.
The shift could only be completed in phases over several years as school buildings and facilities could only be erected in tandem with the funds that needed to be raised in an aided mission school.
But it was necessary during an era when the school population grew from 500 to over 1,300 in less than a decade.
One of Br Adrian’s rugby teams.
Among his legacy was the introduction of the first Higher School Certificate (HSC) class in the school, a first in Sibu.
He was succeeded by Br Albinus in 1972 and returned to Kuching to continue teaching and serving as sub-director, vice principal or senior assistant in all his eleven years in St Joseph’s.
Relieved from school administration that must have consumed him in Sibu, he now busied himself teaching Geography and English while also being form teacher, boarding master and advisor to the Geographical & Economics Society and Music Club.
Like all the La Salle Brothers, he shared a passion for sports.
He sustained St Joseph’s strong tradition in rugby and coached the school teams alongside teachers and old boys.
The school won at least one inter-school championship every year or both the senior and junior titles in some years.
The school’s main rival was the private St Patrick’s School.
Some said St Patrick’s was strong because they had many ex-Josephians and their coach was none other than Br John Gaule, remember who he is?
Br Adrian’s signature sport, however, was hockey.
His long hours of coaching helped ensure that St Joseph’s remained a powerhouse in inter-school competition.
There were a few occasions when the inter-school final was played between the school’s ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams.
Old Josephians remember Br Mark for the school’s supremacy in athletics, Br Hyacinth in badminton and Br Adrian in hockey.
Not only that.
For pupils aspiring or not talented enough to represent the school, the trio spearheaded the organising of inter-class competitions involving almost everyone.
In most years, Br Adrian even organised separate hockey and rugby leagues for Form 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5! To this day, many could still recall the thrill and novelty of putting on real hockey and rugby jerseys and playing with real hockey sticks and rugby balls when Br Adrian introduced the two sports to those in Form One.
Br Adrian was also responsible for converting the larger primary school football field into the rugby-cum-hockey field to meet competition specifications.
The primary school received a slightly smaller field in exchange.
Situated furthest away in the fringe of the school grounds, that soft soggy pitch suited rugby just fine but it was far from ideal for hockey.
Parts of it were perennially water-logged.
While every Josephian knew Br Adrian was always present during hockey matches, training and activities, not many knew that he also appeared just as regularly at that out-of-the-way field on off-days, off-season and always on weekends.
But it was to attend to another arduous task.
The sight of Br Adrian in his old black khaki pants and equally old white t-shirt out in the field was actually common even or especially when no sporting activity was taking place.
For he would be digging away with his changkul and spades, clearing the drains, rectifying water ponding and trying to create more conducive grounds for grass to grow.
In fact, he took on this responsibility not only for the hockey-cum-rugby field but the entire school grounds, sometimes with school gardeners and students from the gardening club, often alone.
His meticulous attention to grooming the entire school ‘garden’ is perhaps a fitting metaphor to his life-time’s vocation of nurturing and caring for the well-being of thousands of boys in Kuching and Sibu during the 1960s and 70s who had the fortune to be his students.
A week ago, that gardener was finally called to his eternal rest.
Nostalgic old Josephians re-visiting their alma mater may wish to scour the old school grounds, hum to an old popular song of the times and ponder…
What happened here?
As the…sunset disappeared
I found an empty garden among the flagstones there
Who lived here?
He must have been a gardener that cared a lot
Who weeded out the tears and grew a good crop
And now it all looks strange
And we are so amazed, we’re crippled and we’re dazed
A gardener like that one no one can replace
‘Empty Garden’ (Elton John-Bernie Taupin, 1982)
A section of those who attended the memorial requiem mass held in respect of Br Adrian in St Joseph’s Cathedral, Kuching on Monday. — Photo courtesy of Francis Wee