Fr Denis W. Martin, Priests of 1928, Brisbane, 2003, pp 178-181:
Mons. James Prout

The two coffins were placed side by side in St Stephen's Cathedral, that of the 'old' Monsignor and that of the young priest who was killed on his motor cycle. But Monsignor Prout was only ' old' by comparison.

James Prout was a Tipperary man. He did his junior seminary training at the Cistercian Abbey at Roscrea. This is a 'modern' foundation, a daughter house of Mt Melleray which incorporates a college and earns considerable income by breeding silkworms for the silk industry! He completed his studies at St Patrick's College in Thurles, being ordained in 1918.

Ipswich was his first placement, which was followed by an appointment as Parish Priest of Oakey in 1923. Early in 1926, Fr Prout was moved to Brisbane to become founding pastor of the new parish of Indooroopilly. His cheery manner enhanced by a soft Irish brogue quickly won the people over. A church school was completed within six months of his arrival and soon presbytery, convent and further school buildings were added. As in other parishes, the depression caused hardships, affecting the building fund as well as causing genuine want in many families. Fr Prout's generosity helped many out when 'a secret caller' would deliver a food or clothing parcel, nothing ever being said to anyone else.

For years, Prouty drove 'the Torpedo' - a six-cylinder Nash tourer painted chocolate with yellow trim. His closest friend was John English and they played terrible jokes on each other. One of John's clergy jokes was that Prout once translated in a sermon St Paul's words ter virgo caesus sum [three times I was beaten with rods] as three times I was chased by a virgin! They also played golf together.

In the early 1930s, a mutual friend came up by ship from Sale, Victoria for a few days holiday. He was Patrick O'Donnell and needless to say the three Tipperary men got on famously. Paddy was due to return on a certain day but a big game of cricket in which Bradman was to play was about to begin. Prouty and John persuaded Paddy to stay on for a few days so they could go to the cricket together, then Paddy could fly back to Sydney to meet the ship. Fly! Paddy had never flown and the idea put the fear of God into him, but the persuasions of the others prevailed. Prouty drove Paddy in to the railway station to put the luggage on the Sydney train. The booking clerk was perplexed. It didn't help matters when he heard the plan and came out with, 'Fly! You'll what? You'll break your bloody neck in those things - that's what you'll do!'

Two days later, Paddy was driven to Archerfield. Before he climbed aboard, John English produced a Telegraph newspaper for him to put under his arm, because if you were carrying one of these 'on your person' at the time of an accident £1,000 insurance was offered. Paddy never forgot that experience, his first flight. He was one of the five or six passengers who occupied a wicker seat and was given swabs of cotton wool to put in his ears. He said later that when he waved out to Prout and John, he never thought he would see them in this world again. Ironically, as Archbishop of Brisbane, Paddy was to do a great deal of flying and outlived James Prout and John English by many years.

In 1938, Fr Prout was transferred to the parish of Kangaroo Point. His reputation had gone before him. After the severe and reserved Dean O'Connell, he was most welcome and was remembered as 'a holy priest of almost childlike simplicity, hearty and energetic, and of limitless charity, who lovingly sacrificed himself for his parishioners'. He built a new St Joseph's Church in 1940 and later a modern school block. In the meantime he was made a Domestic prelate and given the title Monsignor. Tom Boland recalled in Growing up in Brisbane an amusing incident which occurred about 1938 when Buranda Parish was cut off from Kangaroo Point: 'We were faced with a terrible dilemma when a new parish was cut off from the old and Archbishop Duhig refused to say where the boundary lay in our block. Two infallible authorities issued contradictory orders. My father needed the wisdom of Solomon to satisfy both. When finesse was no longer possible and he declared for the new, the Parish Priest denounced him as a 'bloody heretic' in the middle of Brisbane's leading traffic bottleneck at peak hour [Woolloongabba]. Everyone, especially my father, was amused.'

Monsignor Prout always had an interest in boxing, that manly sport that was encouraged in so many seminaries. He went to see fights and took some men from St Joseph's to see Delaney fight Patrick for the welterweight title on St Patrick's night. Another night a fighter was pushed through the ropes, landing on top of the Mons. It was thought some ribs were broken. One Sunday morning he was speaking about Tommy Burns in the sermon. A kid in the front of the Church was wandering about from seat to seat and so distracted the Mons. that he stopped for a while, then asked, 'What was I talking about? I've forgotten.' The kid piped up immediately, 'Tommy Burns, Mons.'

It is said too that he liked to wrestle, so the Archbishop always sent him a curate who was a suitable partner! It wasn't the arm type either, but the full body rolls.

Ill-health seemed to catch up with this jovial, witty and well-liked personality. He died on 23rd September 1955 aged only 62. On the same day, a young priest, Eugene Sheehan, the Parish Priest of St Thomas More's at Petrie Terrace, was killed in an accident involving his motor bike. Both priests were buried from the Cathedral and laid side by side at Nudgee Cemetery. The Premier of Queensland, the Hon. Mr Vince Gair, attended the Requiem Mass.

In the archives, there is a St Patrick's Day trophy, a small silver mug inscribed: The Irishmen's Trophy, won by the Very Rev J Prout in 1937. There is also a very small copper Irish cross, inscribed James Prout, ordination, which had been attached to the sacristy key at Kangaroo Point for many years.

(Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Martin.)