150th Anniversary of Arrival in Boston Spa

The weekend 28^th and 29^th June 2025 marked the 150^th Anniversary of the establishment of St John’s School for Deaf Children on its current site in Boston Spa, West Yorkshire. Between 1870 and 1998 one hundred and forty one Daughters of Charity from the GB area of the Province gave dedicated loving service to hearing impaired children.

A Brief History

• Founded in 1870 by Monsignor Désiré de Haerne, a Belgian priest who was moved by the lack of educational opportunities for deaf children in Great Britain.
• Originally located in Handsworth Woodhouse, Sheffield, the school moved to Boston Spa in 1875.
• It was dedicated to St John of Beverley, a bishop known for his care of deaf children.
• The school has been guided by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, shaping its Vincentian ethos for nearly 150 years

On the night of Saturday 28^th June 2025, seven Daughters of Charity attended the celebratory meal with over two hundred past pupils in the Royal Armouries Conference Centre in Leeds. The next day 29^th June 2025 there was a special midday Mass in St Edward’s Catholic Church Clifford. The main celebrant, Bishop Marcus Stock, (Catholic Bishop of Leeds) was assisted by Fr Paul Fletcher SJ (past pupil), Fr David Murray (former Head of Care), Fr Michael Ingwell, and Fr. Sean Molloy. The church was packed with past pupils, former staff, parishioners and Daughters of Charity who had worked in St John’s prior to 1998. Afterwards there were light refreshments in Boston Spa Village Hall. The whole weekend was a celebration of the bonds of friendship which exist between all those who had shared life together in St John’s.