Aelred Sillem

Aelred Sillem (October 29 - 1908, May 19 1994) later to be second abbot of Quarr, educated at Haileybury and Magdalen College, Oxford and received the habit at the Benedictine abbey of St Gregory, Downside, in 1929. He studied theology in Munich in the years 1931-1933 and then in 1934 asked to be transferred to Quarr Abbey, on the Isle of Wight. He was ordained a priest at Quarr’s mother abbey Solesmes, in France, on August 22, 1937. He was Superior of the Solesmes Congregation community at Farnborough in the difficult years 1941-1947. Returning to Quarr, he occupied important posts and was appointed prior in 1951. Upon the retirement of Abbot Marie-Gabriel Tissot, he was elected abbot on May 3, 1964. For many years he served as an Abbot Assistant to the Abbot of Solesmes and was a much appreciated retreat preacher and confessor. He retired in 1992 and was to die peacefully at Quarr. He was to be succeeded as abbot by Dom Leo Avery.