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Tributes to founder of Norwich Open Christmas 

Bishop of East Anglia, Rt Rev Alan Hopes, has celebrated a requiem Mass for Michael Hope, who with his wife Rosie founded Open Christmas in Norfolk.

Michael and his wife Rosie founded Norwich Open Christmas in St Andrews Hall. It is a daytime event which provides food, company and entertainment for those who are lonely or homeless. After some years they mirrored this annual event in Great Yarmouth, and both events are still going today.  

Michael Hope, 5th Baron Rankeillour, had died on January 10 after a short illness in hospital. He was born on October 21 1940 in Malvern, Worcestershire, the eldest son of a diplomat, the Hon. Richard Hope, OBE and his wife Helen. His peerage was inherited in 2006 from his cousin. 

Educated by Benedictines, he attended Downside School from 1954 to 1958 and then went on to Loughborough University to study engineering. He met his future wife Rosie while working in London; they married in 1964 and lived in Cambridge, having three children, Hettie, Louisa and James.

Michael joined Pye Electronics in Cambridge and worked there for a short while before moving to IBM, where he spent the rest of his working life based in London, Welwyn and Norwich. While still working full time he set up and ran a 10-acre vineyard at Barningham Hall in rural Suffolk through the 1970's and into the 1980's.  

It was after they moved to Thurton in Norfolk in 1982 that he and Rosie began running the Open Christmas initiative in Norwich. Having taken early retirement in 1992 Michael threw himself into charitable and community-based work and was for many years a trustee of St John's Cathedral, helping to oversee the planning and building of the Narthex. He was also a Trustee and Treasurer of the All Saints drop-in Centre in Norwich.

He was committed to conservation and became a board director of the Songbird Survival charity to try and arrest the staggering drop in traditional songbird numbers. He was also an active member of a number of other conservation-based charities in East Anglia, including the Kingfisher Bridge Trust.

He had a lifelong passion for fly fishing which took him regularly to Scotland, Ireland and further afield, even as far as Alaska on occasion.  Always keen to have a number of projects on the go, he expanded his skills and enjoyment of domestic carpentry to build kitchens, wardrobes and bookcases for many family members and friends.

He was by nature open and gregarious, always interested in others and would instinctively help people regardless of the cost or time it might require. He was thrilled to accept the Diocesan Medal, on behalf of his dear wife Rosie as well, in September last year, in recognition of their work in the diocese.

After Rosie died in 2019 and his mobility declined due to a painful foot condition, Michael remained stoic despite the isolation of the pandemic; but it was immensely frustrating for someone used to being so active. Whilst in hospital it was comforting for his family that Fr Alvan was able to anoint him before he died, and at a time when visits to the hospital were very limited. 

Michael’s lifelong friend, and fellow Old Gregorian, Donald Ogilvy Watson, together with Rosie’s sister, Anji Fuller, gave wonderful tributes in their eulogies. Anji concluding with these lines of scripture: “No eye hath seen nor ear heard what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9) 

Bishop Alan celebrated the Mass on January 26 at St Benet’s in Beccles with Fr Martin Gowman, parish priest of St Benet’s, and other priests and deacons from the diocese. The powerful sound of birdsong was played to the congregation during a moment of reflection - a sound Michael loved.

Pictured above is Michael Hope
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Eldred Willey, 07/02/2022

Published: 07/02/2022
Eldred Willey

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