IT was a proud day in the life of Desmond Clarke when he picked up two trophies as a schoolboy champion athlete.

The rose-bowl in his right hand was the former West Park grammar school's Victor Ludorum trophy and the other silverware the Father Hearn Cup.

And thereby hangs a tale. For former Saints player Peter Harvey from Eccleston (who also had the distinction of winning that Fr. Hearn Cup during his time at West Park) had long been puzzled as to just who the old-time priest was.

Now, a pen picture has been built up from correspondence received on the subject from a number of knowledgeable followers of this page.

What had jogged Peter's mind, 45 years after his own schoolboy triumph, was an inscription he recently spotted on the Sacred Heart Jubilee Hall, St Helens, recording that Fr. Hearn has laid its foundation stone in October 1914.

It turns out that Fr. William Francis Hearn, who died in 1920, was born in Waterford, Southern Ireland, and arrived in this region in 1890, serving at several churches within the Liverpool Archdiocese, including Sacred Heart in Borough Road.

Athlete

Member of a well-to-do family and a keen athlete, he died in 1920 and a memorial trophy was obtained and competed for at West Park, then a Catholic grammar school for boys, in Prescot Road.

The cup was presented to the winner of the 440yds race at the school's annual sports day.

And Des Clarke, then 16, was proud holder in 1946, the year he became Victor Ludorum (champion athlete).

Des, now 72 and living at Eccleston Park with wife Irene, lifted this particular piece of silverware on several other occasions.

A red-haired 6ft forward in his youth, he captained West Park RFC in its formative years.

On leaving school, he joined the Royal Navy and later worked at various times as a St Helens policeman, as representative for DWR Twist, wholesale sweets and confectionery, of Market Street, and as a car salesman for Broughton's in Knowsley Road.

Something which has continued to puzzle folk over the years is just why Sacred Heart parish hall was given the title of Jubilee Hall.

For as far as can be ascertained, there were no jubilees of particular note in 1914.

Best explanation has come from a mature student of local history and Catholic matters, insisting that the title was belatedly chosen to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria - 17 years earlier, in 1897!