Aelred Sillem was second abbot of Quarr Abbey

Quarr Abbey

Quarr Abbey is a monastery between the villages of Binstead and Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight in southern England. The name is pronounced as "Kor" . It belongs to the Order of St Benedict. The present imposing brick construction was completed in 1912. A community of about a dozen monks maintains...

, on the Isle of Wight (1964 - 1992).

Sillem was educated at Haileybury

Haileybury and Imperial Service College

Haileybury and Imperial Service College, , is a prestigious British independent school founded in 1862. The school is located at Hertford Heath, near Hertford, from central London, on of parkland occupied until 1858 by the East India College...

 and Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...

 and received the habit at the Benedictine abbey of St Gregory, Downside

Downside

Downside can refer to:*Downside Abbey, a monastery in Somerset, England*Downside School, a public school in Somerset, England*Downside, a sub-district of Redhill, Somerset, England*Downside, Surrey, a small village in the county of Surrey, England...

, in 1929. He studied theology in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 in the years 1931-1933 and then in 1934 asked to be transferred to Quarr Abbey

Quarr Abbey

Quarr Abbey is a monastery between the villages of Binstead and Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight in southern England. The name is pronounced as "Kor" . It belongs to the Order of St Benedict. The present imposing brick construction was completed in 1912. A community of about a dozen monks maintains...

, on the Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...

. He was ordained a priest at Quarr’s mother abbey Solesmes

Solesmes

Solesmes is a commune in the Sarthe department in the region of Pays-de-la-Loire in northwestern France.It is located near Sablé.The commune is almost entirely agricultural, but is especially noted as the site of the Benedictine St. Peter's Abbey, originally founded in 1010 and re-established by...

, in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, on 22 August 1937. He was Superior of the Solesmes Congregation community at Farnborough

Saint Michael's Abbey, Farnborough

Saint Michael's Abbey is a Benedictine abbey in Farnborough, Hampshire, England. The small community is known for the quality of its liturgy, which is sung in Latin and Gregorian Chant, its pipe organ, and its liturgical publishing and printing...

 in the difficult years 1941-1947. Returning to Quarr, he occupied important posts and was appointed prior in 1951. Upon the retirement of Abbot Marie-Gabriel Tissot

Marie-Gabriel Tissot

Marie-Gabriel Tissot, later to become the first Abbot of Quarr in modern times was born in France in 1886, and after studies in the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, in 1906 he entered the community of Solesmes Abbey, then living in exile at Appuldurcombe on the Isle of Wight, England...

, he was elected abbot on May 3, 1964. For many years he served as an Abbot Assistant to the Abbot of Solesmes and held the role of retreat preacher and confessor. He retired in 1992 and was to die peacefully at Quarr. He was to be succeeded as abbot by Dom Leo Avery

Leo Avery

Leo Avery, later to be the third Abbot of Quarr in modern times, was born 5 January 1938, in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, and raised in Maidstone, Kent, England. After studies in Aeronautical Engineering at Southampton University, England, he entered the novitiate at Quarr Abbey, on the nearby...

. He appears in Tony Hendra

Tony Hendra

Tony Hendra is an English satirist and writer who has worked mostly in the United States. Educated at St Albans School and Cambridge University, he was a member of the Cambridge University Footlights revue in 1962, alongside John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor.-Career:In 1964 Hendra...

's autobiography, Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul

Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul

Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul is a memoir written by Tony Hendra, an English humorist and satirist. It was on the New York Times Best Seller list for many weeks.- Plot summary :When Hendra was 14, he had an affair with a married woman...

.