Legacy of Frank Buzzard
What do you plan to do in your retirement? Perhaps you have a ‘bucket list’ of things you would like to do in your retirement? The story of Frank Buzzard shows just how productive and enjoyable a retirement project can be:
Frank Buzzard was a Chartered Accountant by profession, for most of his life working in the building trade. For the last 15 years of his working life, he was a director/co-owner of a building company, as well as being very involved in his local church.
He had been a writer all his life, and wherever he went he recorded his impressions of the places he had visited. When he retired, he decided to undertake a pilgrimage to every English cathedral and to write a piece of prose or poetry about each one. He achieved his goal, and in his Will, he left legacies and his writings to all of the 42 Anglican cathedrals he had visited, including Truro. These gifts enabled him, even after his death, to uphold two things he held dear: his Christian faith and some of the great buildings that reflect it in physical form.
Of his visit to Truro Cathedral in 1995, he said:
“What sent my soul soaring was John Miller’s inspirational painting, ‘Cornubia’. Saints are shown arriving in an endless line through russet orange clouds linking heaven to earth with a shaft of prayer between them and the cathedral. The landmass shapes Cornwall, though the reddish glow suffusing all could be Cape Cod, Cape of Good Hope, or maybe red planet Mars. If ever a picture was a source of contemplation, then this is.
Still in the clouds, I found another stimulating treasure, George Tinworth’s ‘Via Crucis’. Orange-coloured, similar to the painting, this large terracotta sculpture is spread along the cathedral wall. I had never seen such a huge mass of pottery work before. Expressions on faces were so real; indifferent Roman soldiers just doing another day’s work, citizens watching, curious or upset and Jesus surrounded, calm and spiritually in control. I shall particularly remember Truro for these two outstanding works of spiritual art.”
The cathedral team are grateful to Frank Buzzard for the gift left to help to care for Truro Cathedral in his Will.
To find out more about remembering the cathedral in your own Will, visit www.trurocathedral.org.uk/about-us/leave-a-legacy The cathedral supports Christian Aid’s ‘Faith Will’ initiative - www.caid.org.uk/Faith - a powerful way to create lasting change, both locally and across the world.