the 19th century. This improved in the 20th century and the church was extended between 1935 and 1939 from the designs of Albert Herbert of Leicester, although it was not consecrated until 1945, by the Bishop of Nottingham. However, the church was not completed in accordance with the designs of Pugin, who had planned a conventional ecclesiastical arrangement, with a chancel at the east end, containing the high altar. The new design, overseen by Abbot Malachy Brasil, saw the altar placed centrally, under the crossing tower, with a second nave for the public placed at the east end, where Pugin's chancel would have been. This design attracted significant criticism at the time, but Abbott Malachy is now recognized as having been many years ahead of his time in having conceptualized such a scheme. In the First World War, members of the monastic profession were initially exempt from military service, but as the pool of potential recruits diminished, the War Office altered its ruling, which resulted in the conscription of six of the brothers from Mount St Bernard in 1917. Three of them were passed as fit for foreign service, whilst the other three undertook service at home. This represented a considerable loss to the monastery as it had only twenty monks in residence - the smallest number since its foundation. It was reported that Leslie Hore-Belisha, the former Secretary of State for War, had stayed at the abbey in 1942. He subsequently explained to the Evening Standard that he felt it was important "to have an occasional period of retirement and reflection on the ultimate reasons behind existence". Hore-Belisha's private papers show that he stayed at the abbey regularly - once for a period of nine weeks. Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi was a monk at the abbey from 1950 until his death in 1964. He was buried at the abbey but his remains were moved to his native Nigeria, where he was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 22 March 1998. A wall sculpture by Leicester Thomas, commemorating the life of Father Cyprian, has been erected in the public nave of the abbey church. In 1952, the remains of twenty six Cistercian monks were exhumed by workmen on the Monastery Farm estate at Lulworth. These were re-interred at Mount St Bernard. In 1957, the actor Sir Alec Guinness made the first of many retreats to Mount St Bernard following