# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Gallwey, Peter

​GALLWEY, PETER (1820–1906), Jesuit preacher and writer, born on 13 Nov. 1820, at Killarney, was son of an agent to the Earl of Kenmare. At the age of six he was placed at school in Boulogne. Thence he passed to Stonyhurst, where he entered the Society of Jesus in 1836. Having completed his studies in literature and philosophy, he was appointed in 1843 to teach in the College of St. Francis Xavier, Liverpool, then at 36 Soho Street. In 1846 he returned to Stonyhurst to take charge of the higher forms. Three years later he began his theological studies at St. Beuno's College, near St. Asaph, and here he was ordained priest in 1852. By 1855 his course of training was completed, and in that year he was appointed prefect of studies at Stonyhurst. He was an excellent school organiser, with a rare power of exciting enthusiasm among his pupils, but his peculiar gifts fitted him still better for the spiritual ministry. In 1857 he was transferred to London, and placed in charge of the community which served the Farm Street church. Here he remained till 1869, when he was appointed master of novices at Manresa House, Roehampton. In 1873 he was appointed provincial of the Jesuit body in England. At the beginning of his term of office the question of opening a Jesuit school in Manchester involved him in a controversy with the bishop of Salford, Herbert (afterwards Cardinal) Vaughan [q. v. Suppl. II] (see Snead-Cox's Life of Cardinal Vaughan, vol. i. chap. xii.). Despite episcopal opposition the Jesuits persisted in opening their school, and Vaughan then appealed to the Pope. The issue was decided in Rome in June 1875, when the Jesuit school in Manchester was closed by order of the Holy See. At the end of his period of office as provincial Gallwey was named rector of the College of St. Beuno, but he held the post for only a year. In 1877 he returned to the Farm Street church, and there continued his labours till his death on 23 Sept. 1906.
Gallwey was an effective preacher, but the effect was due not so much to any devices of oratory as to the note of intense personal sincerity and profound religious conviction which characterised his sermons. The same may be said of his longer published works. Possessed of a considerable fund of Irish humour, he made good use of it in controversy. 'The Committee on Convents' and other pamphlets issued in 1870 on the occasion of Mr. Newdegate's demand for the inspection of convents are noteworthy in this respect. Many of his funeral discourses on persons of note have been published. Of these may be mentioned that on Sir Charles Tempest (1865); on Hon. C. Langdale (1868); on Marcia Lady Herries (1883); on Lady Georgiana Fullerton (1885); on Mr. C. Weld (1885). Of his sermons on other subjects many have been issued in pamphlet form. The more important of his longer works are 'The Angelus Bell,' five lectures (1869); 'Lectures on Ritualism' (2 vols. 1879); 'Apostolic Succession' (1889); 'The Watches of the Sacred Passion' (3 vols. 1894).
[Father Gallwey, a Sketch, by Percy Fitzgerald, 1906; Discourse at the Requiem Mass for Fr. Gallwey, by Rev. M. Gavin, S. J., 1906; The Times, 25 Sept. 1906.]
T. A. F.