Nunraw Voluntary Builders

Photo: Voluntary Workers’ Camp,

building Nunraw New Abbey 1950s

Photo from Maria Jordan, niece of the late Francis Ricardo

‘Real Lives’ Edinburgh Evening News Jan 29, 2008

Dedication of a larger than life character
Lourdes pilgrim Francis Ricardo has died aged 71.

Frank Ricardo was born on October 5,1936 into a large family of Italian origin in Glasgow, where his father had an ice cream parlour.

The Ricardos moved to Fettes Row in Edinburgh when Frank was a child and he attended Holy Cross Academy in Leith.

After school he got a job as a marble terrazzo restorer for Toffolo Jackson along with his older brother Joe. One of the projects he was most proud of was the work he did on the floors of Nunraw Abbey near Garvald, East Lothian during the 1950s and 60s.
The Ricardos moved from Fettes Row to Trinity and kept a holiday home in the grounds of Nunraw Abbey, which Frank made his full-time base when the last of his 13 siblings passed away.
Poor health eventually caused him to change career and he spent the last few years before his retirement as a nursing assistant at Gogarburn Hospital.
Frank never married and the church played an important role in his life. He was a passkeeper at St Mary's RC Cathedral in Broughton Street, where he took up the collections at Mass and welcomed people at the door.
At his funeral in St Mary's Monsignor David Gemmell remarked that the Cathedral's 9.30am mass would never be the same without Franks’s ' loud; friendly and welcoming chatter.
He belonged to the Catholic associations, the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Men's Society.

Frank had been to the pilgrimage site of Lourdes, France, every year since the early 1990s and was a Brancardier, or helper of the sick, receiving the Edinburgh group silver medal for his frequent trips there.
He was one of a group of older helpers, who wore green caps with the nickname "Dad's Army" emblazoned across them.
One of his proudest moments was being part of a guard of honour in Rome when Cardinal Gordon Gray became Scotland's first resident cardinal since the Reformation.

Frank spent every weekend with his niece Maria Jordan at her home in lnverkeithing and it was there that he died suddenly on January 7.
Maria said: "He was larger than life and never had a wrong word to say about anyone and would do whatever he could to help people.
He had a very kind heart and was a gentle giant with a brilliant sense of humour. His life was dedicated to the church and his family."

Frank's funeral was held by six priests in St Mary's Cathedral and he was buried in Mount Vernon Cemetery.
He is survived by his nieces, Maria Jordan and Catherine Johnston and her husband George.
Abbot Raymond Jaconelli of Nunraw Abbey said: "Frank was a very outgoing man and he will be sadly missed."

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