Fr Wayne Byron-Squire

Wayne Squire was born in Adelaide on March 27 1951. His parents were Leslie and Ruth Squire, who had five children but sadly only Wayne and his sister Cerrie survived.

He was baptised in St Mary Magdalene's Anglican Church in Adelaide  on June 18 1951. His early education was at the Gepps Cross Primary School and later at Enfield High School.

At the age of 19 he was received into the Catholic Church by Fr D Donovan at Kilburn on July 3 1970 and confirmed in St Francis Xavier's Cathedral  on August 30 1970.

After leaving school he worked for some years with the Immigration Department in the passports section. (Coincidentally in this department he worked with another young man, Kevin Horsell, who also later became a priest.) Wayne  was always interested in cooking, so for a time he ran a catering business. He was also interested in buying old houses, renovating them and selling them on.

For a number of years he expressed an interest in becoming a Catholic priest. He commenced his  ecclesiastical studies at St Francis Xavier Seminary, Rostrevor and gained a Bachelor of Theology through Flinders University.

He was ordained priest in St Francis Xavier Cathedral on January 29 1994.

His first appointment was as Assistant Priest in the Cathedral parish where he remained for four years.

In January 1998 he was appointed Parish Priest of Strathalbyn. This was a six year appointment but due to ill health he left Strathalbyn at the end of 2002, and he returned to live at West Terrace in the Cathedral parish. Unfortunately due to a certain genetic disposition Wayne suffered a series of illnesses throughout his life.  In January 2005 he took up residence in the Southern Cross Care "The Pines" where he remained for the rest of his life.

While at Strathalbyn he was the Hills-Mallee delegate to the Council of Priests.

At some stage while exploring his family background he discovered that on his mother's side he was a descendant of Lord Byron and as the last living relative he was entitled to adopt the title of 'Lord', and attach the 'Byron' to his name, which explains why on his Funeral booklet he had the title "Rev Fr Lord Wayne Byron-Squire"

Fr Wayne died in St Andrew's hospital on June 20 2020.

His funeral Mass was celebrated in St Francis Xavier Cathedral on July 1 2020. This was the first funeral Mass to be celebrated by our new Archbishop, Patrick O'Regan. A good gathering of fellow priests joined in the concelebrated Mass.

Fr Philip Marshall delivered the homily. Speaking of Wayne's life he said "his journey was marked by unexpected illness and suffering – yet he knew he was held in the gaze of God, and felt it near. He was not fearful of death – he told me that he welcomed the moment he would be embraced into divine love and restored to eternal and divine communion."

 He went on to say that when illness overtook Wayne and deprived him of full time active ministry, he accepted the move to home at The Pines with grace, and continued to offer pastoral and sacramental care to his fellow residents for as long as he was able.

In each of those places where he lived, he was always drawn to grace and beauty, and would set about transforming both place and home through his creativity and capacity for wonder at art and history.

At his request, the funeral Mass was followed by cremation.

May he rest in peace.