2021 Parish Obituarites

Two Members of the Ordinariate, stars of the ballet world, called to their eternal rest.

Lucette Aldous AC (26 September 1938 - 5th June 2021)

Henry Fredrick William (Bill) Miles (29th August 1941 - 26th August 2021)

It was with great sadness, but also with profound thankfulness for their lives of service, that the Perth Ordinariate Parish has farewelled two of its parishioners in recent months. Both were canonical members of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, and both were very deeply connected to the world of ballet here in Australia.

Lucette Aldous, who grew up in Perth, was a deeply spiritual person, who prayed before every class and performance she ever took. She was an international ballet star, who danced all over the world, but is famous as a principal dancer of the Australian Ballet, her onstage partnerships with Kelvin Coe and Rudolph Nureyev (the latter with whom she recorded a performance of Don Quixote still available on DVD, which is a standard for the work). She was noted for her self-discipline and her ability to prepare herself for everything she did. In her latter years she was a faculty member at the Western Australian Academy of the Performing Arts WAAPA, where she, with her husband, Alan Alder, established the dance department in 1983. Lucette was awarded an honourary doctorate from Edith Cown University in 1999. In 2018, she was made a Companion of the Order of Australia. She was also a Dame of the Sovereign Order of St John of Jerusalem. An extremely generous soul, Lucette, according to Barry Moreland, Artistic Director of the West Australian Ballet, "never stopped giving back to the art-form she loved so much." It was a privilege to have Lucette among the congregation.

Lucette with her husband Alan Alder.

Lucette with Rudolph Nureyev in 1972 in Don Quixote.

Lucette with Christian Luck in 2017 rehearsing Don Quixote.

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Bill Miles, was also a star of the ballet world, though not one to be seen on stage in person. Bill instead, was a genius for making ballet costumes of the highest quality, working also as a costumier on many Australian films. Costume making was a skill which he seems to have taught himself, and which saw him become the Wardrobe Master of the Australian Ballet, with which he toured internationally, notably sewing Nureyev into his costumes before he went onstage. Later on, probably with a hankering for home in Perth, he became the Wardrobe Master of the West Australian Ballet, and a lecturer in costume at WAAPA, which later recognised him with an Honorary Fellowship of the Academy. It was revealed in the eulogy, that Bill had devised a mathematical formula for creating tutus that is still used today.

In addition to being a wizard with the needle, Bill was also an organist. As a young man, Bill had learned to play the organ at St George's Anglican Cathedral in Perth. After he returned to Perth, Bill became the organist at the Anglican Parish of St Patrick's, Mount Lawley. Amid the upheavals of the Anglican Communion, Bill decided to join (the now) Monsignor Entwistle, who had been the Vicar at St Patrick's, in the formation of the TAC parish from which congregation the Ordinariate's Perth community was initially formed. Bill's love of music, sacred and secular, stayed with him his whole life, and he became in the last stage of his organ playing, the organist at Saints Ninian and Chad. Bill generously donated the cost of the digital pipe organ to the parish, and he played for services until his failing eyesight precluded him from playing for the liturgy.

Bill was much beloved by all the parishioners for his warmth, patience, generosity and kindness. When the parishioners had to move out of the church in Maylands, Bill kept the organ at his retirement home in Mount Lawley, waiting for the day when it could be used again. The parish has now brought it to St Paul's and has placed it in the choir gallery so it can once more be used in the Liturgies.

Bill received the Sacrament of Viaticum (Final Communion), and a few days later the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, before passing. A Requiem Mass was celebrated by the parish community, as it had been for Lucette, and a week later Bill's public funeral was celebrated according to the Burial Service in Divine Worship Occasional Services. At his funeral, Bill had requested the hymn "Christ is Made the Sure Foundation", which is the Office hymn for the Dedication of a Church. The third verse might sum up, though, the impetus and goal of Bill's Christian journey:

"Here vouchsafe to all thy servants
What they ask of thee to gain
What they gain from thee for ever
With the blessèd to retain,
And hereafter in thy glory
Evermore with thee to reign."

Of your charity, please continue to pray for the repose of the souls of Lucette Aldous and Henry Frederick William (Bill) Miles. Requiescant in pace.

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