author of The Book of Druidry, published
posthumously, and edited by Philip Carr-Gomm
and John Matthews
Philip Peter Ross Nichols was born in Norfolk on 28 June 1902. He completed
his MA in history at Oxford in the 'twenties, and began a career which allowed
him to teach, publish both poetry and prose, paint and travel. He had always
been a practising Christian, and worked for the Church in boys' clubs in
the East End of London for many years. He was ordained a deacon of the Celtic
Church by Bishop Tugdual of St Dolay, and was also an active Martinist,
being able to combine these interests with his Druid work.
Having worked as ballet critic for a provincial newspaper, he became principal
of Carlisle & Gregson's, also known as 'Jimmy's', a private college
which was known as a 'crammer's', and which had tutored, amongst others,
Winston Churchill (before he was initiated into the Albion Lodge of the
Ancient Order of Druids at Blenheim in 1908).
In 1952 the Forge Press published an impressive twin-volume edition of The
History and Practice of Magic by Paul Christian. Ross edited and revised
this nineteenth-century French work, which had been translated by his friends
James Kirkup and Julian Shaw, and coordinated the supplementary articles
and notes written by the famous palmist Mir Bashir, and the former Presiders
of the Order Lewis Spence and Charles Cammell, amongst others.
His own published work, apart from numerous articles in historical, poetic
and esoteric journals, consists of Sassenach Stray (1940), Prose Chants
Proems (1941), The Cosmic Shape (1946) and Seasons at War (1947).
Ross, or Nuinn, as he was called in the Order, was an accomplished water-colour
painter and had exhibited at the Royal Academy. In addition to his passions
for history, writing and painting, he loved to travel, and having few family
ties and an academic post with long vacations, was able to do so. On each
visit he would make extensive historical enquiries, photograph and sketch
archaelogical remains and ancient monuments, and often write an account
of his journey. We do not know of all his travels but we do know that he
visited Egypt and Morocco, Bulgaria, Malta and Greece. He was a regular
visitor to Ireland and was a good friend of his fellow ChiefDruid, Paul
Bouchet ofthe Order in France, whom he visited both officially and unofficially
on several occasions. He also visited Wales and Scotland, and in particular
Iona and the Hebridean islands.
He joined the Ancient Druid Order in 1954 and took the office of Scribe
-ideally suited to his inquisitive nature and literary abilities. When his
teacher, the Chosen Chief Robert MacGregor Reid, died in 1964, the Order
split into two groupings, as had happened several times before in its history.
A group of senior Druids disagreed with the election of MacGregor Reid's
successor, Dr Thomas Maughan, and decided to form a reconstituted order
with Ross as its Chief, and with the three grades of Bard, Ovate and Druid
fully taught and recognized in a way that had not previously been done in
the Order's modern cycle.
One of the major achievements of Ross Nichols as Chief of the Order of Bards,
Ovates and Druids was to reintroduce the celebration of the fire ceremonies
which had been abandoned from the repertoire of modern Druidry, so that
the reconstituted Order celebrated not only the Spring an Autumn equinoxes
and the Summer Solstice, but also the Winter Solstice and the four Celtic
fire festivals of Imbolc and Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain.
Another of his achievements was to reorganize the Order into the three
grades of Bard, Ovate and Druid as it had always existed in the past. During
the time of his chieftainship he organized ceremonies at Parliament Hill
and at Glastonbury. One of Ross' greatest skills lay in his ability to gather
people together. For each event he attracted not only those interested in
the esoteric, but local council officials, local children who dressed as
acolytes and assistants to the May Queen or the Queen of Summer or Autumn,
carrying posies and flowers in their hair, visitors from other faiths, and
poets and musicians who would perform within the Druid circle.
With such an active schedule of celebrations, combined with leading the
Order and acting as principal at 'Jimmy's', Ross was well aware that he
needed a place of retreat. He bought a few acres of woodland in Oxfordshire,
and there he built two wooden huts and furnished them with camp beds and
stoves. Whenever he felt the need, he would retire there either alone or
with fellow Druids, and live a simple life of chopping wood, fetching water,
walking in the forest and cooking by an open fire. Being interested in both
the naturist and vegetarian movements, he was able to combine his natural
instinct for simple living with the contemporary currents of thought that
were translating these ideals into practical model of living.