Charles Dominic Plater, SJ (1875-1921): on the centenary of his death
Born in Mortlake, England, on September 2, 1875, Charles Dominic Plater was educated at the Jesuits’ Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, where he was remarkably popular with masters and fellow students alike for his personal magnetism and his regular success in winning school prizes.
He entered the Jesuit novitiate at Roehampton, southwest London, on September 7, 1894. In 1900 he interrupted his philosophy course at the end of its second year to proceed to the Jesuit Hall (Campion Hall), Oxford, to read classics. Gaining a Second in Mods (exams taken in the first part of an Oxford degree) and then a First in Greats (a degree in Classics), Plater accompanied his early success and promise in classics with a lifelong interest in archaeology.
[attach id=1017612 size="medium" align="right" type="image"]Fr Plater’s memorial card.[/attach]
However, it was his growing fascination with social issues that began to absorb his interest and became his lifelong concern, as he realised that these seriously impacted on the material and spiritual lives and prospects of working men and their dependents.
On completing his third year of philosophical studies as part of his Jesuit training, Plater...