Thread: Royal Army Chaplains Dept Casualties

Quite a few in WW1 also ( though I haven't made a list !! ) ....... mine all came home ... which was a miracle in itself .... considering what they all went through !!

Annie

Originally Posted by liverpool annie

Quite a few in WW1 also ( though I haven't made a list !! ) ....... mine all came home ... which was a miracle in itself .... considering what they all went through !!

Annie

I came across this ..... WW1 and C of E ... but very poignant I thought !

YouTube - Canterbury Tales: Ian Hislop's History of the Church of England 6

Originally Posted by liverpool annie

I came across this ..... WW1 and C of E ... but very poignant I thought !

YouTube - Canterbury Tales: Ian Hislop's History of the Church of England 6

And as they talked about him .......

Here is a WW1 veteran talking about how he met Woodbine:

A man I recall with great affection was Woodbine Willie. His proper name was Reverend Studdert Kennedy, an army chaplin he was and he'd come down into the trenches and say prayers with the men, have a cuppa out of a dirty tin mug and tell a joke as good as any of us. He was a chain smoker and always carried a packet of Woodbine cigarettes that he would give out in handfuls to us lads. That's how he got his nickname. At Mesines Ridge he ran out into no man's land under murderous machine-gun fire to tend the wounded and dying. Every man was carrying a gun except him. He carried a wooden cross. He gave comfort to dying Germans as well. He was awarded the Military Cross and he deserved it.

He came down the trench one day to cheer us up. Had his Bible with him as usual. Well, I'd been there for weeks, unable to write home, of course, we were going over the top later that day. I asked him if he would write to my sweetheart at home, tell her I was still alive and, so far, in one piece. He said he would, so I gave him the address. Well, years later, after the war, she showed me the letter he'd sent, very nice it was. A lovely letter. My wife kept it until she died.

He worked in the slums of London after the war among the homeless and the unemployed. The name Woodbine Willie was known to everyone in the land in those days. Died very young, he did, and at his funeral people placed packets of Woodbine cigarettes on his coffin and his grave as a mark of respect and love.

[

WOODBINE WILLIE

THEY gave me this name like their nature,
Compacted of laughter and tears,
A sweet that was born of the bitter,
A joke that was torn from the years.

Of their travail and torture, Christ's fools,
Atoning my sins with their blood,
Who grinned in their agony sharing
The glorious madness of God.

Their name! Let me hear it--the symbol
Of unpaid--unpayable debt,
For the men to whom I owed God's Peace,
I put off with a cigarette.

G. A. Studdert Kennedy's The Unutterable Beauty.

So many stories about these special men ...... when you think about all they did and went through .... unarmed !!

The Reverend Selwyn Thorne (Father Columba) last surviving chaplain from Arnhem

The quite remarkable story of the last surviving Army Chaplain from the Battle of Arnhem has only recently come to light. The Revd Selwyn Thorne joined the Army in January 1944 as an Anglican Chaplain and was dropped into the Dutch border town of Arnhem the following September, with a Light Gun Regiment. There he witnessed the fierce battle which was supposed to win the war by Christmas. He went without sleep for six days, and ministered in a Field Hospital which came under direct attack by the Germans. He was wounded himself as he struggled to care for the wounded, dead and dying. During the battle he went to the deathbed of a Father Bernard Benson, a Catholic Army Chaplain from the Diocese of Leeds, and prayed with him. After Father Benson’s death, the medical officer gave Padre Thorne the dead priest’s crucifix. The crucifix has been in his possession for nearly 60 years until he donated it recently to the Museum of Army Chaplaincy at Amport House, in Hampshire. Having been taken prisoner by the Germans, Padre Thorne was placed in a POW Camp in Fallingbostel where he came under the influence of a French Chaplain. In 1945 Padre Thorne converted to Catholicism and trained for the priesthood at St Edmund’s College, Ware and was Ordained Priest in 1951 for the Archdiocese of Westminster. After a curacy at Holy Trinity, Brook Green in Hammersmith he joined Downside Abbey and took the name Father Columba.

I'm not sure but I believe Father Columba was involved with Operation Market Garden .....

there were many heroic actions recorded during Operation Market Garden and the bravery of the fifteen Army Chaplains who served with the 6th Airborne division saved many lives. But only a handful of the chaplains survived. After the battle they stayed behind to tend the wounded and were captured almost straight away

Originally Posted by liverpool annie

I'm not sure but I believe Father Columba was involved with Operation Market Garden .....

The crucifix is invested with real significance: it belonged to a Roman Catholic army chaplain who was dying from a wound when he gave it to Dom Columba, who was then an Anglican chaplain. The crucifix was received by Monsignor Phelim Rowland VG, Father Andrew Lloyd CF and the Venerable John Blackburn CB, QHC, all of whom are serving army chaplains.

He was at Arnhem - Chaplain, 1st Airlanding Light Regiment RA Arnhem [POW at Stalag XIB, Fallingbostel, till 04.1945]

1st British Airborne Division officers* --* T