/=8B 15/<7/69> 69 ?53 46=>? A;=72 A/= /MKSPO 8$ 0RPWO / ?JGSKS >UDNKTTGF HPR TJG 2GIRGG PH <J2 CT TJG @OKVGRSKTY PH >T$ /OFRGWS ',,* 4UMM NGTCFCTC HPR TJKS KTGN KS CVCKMCDMG KO =GSGCREJ.>T/OFRGWS-4UMM?GXT CT- JTTQ-%%RGSGCREJ#RGQPSKTPRY$ST#COFRGWS$CE$UL% <MGCSG USG TJKS KFGOTKHKGR TP EKTG PR MKOL TP TJKS KTGN- JTTQ-%%JFM$JCOFMG$OGT%'&&()%(++' ?JKS KTGN KS QRPTGETGF DY PRKIKOCM EPQYRKIJT ARMY CHAPLAINS IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR. Alison M. Brown. Ph. D. January 1996. A UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS. (i) I, Alison Mary Brown, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 70,000 words in length, has been written by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degr e. January 1996. (ii) I was admitted as a research student in October 1990 and as a candidate for the degree of Ph. D. in October 1990; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St. Andrews between 1990 and 1995. January 1996. (iii) I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of Ph. D. in the University of St. Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree. January 1996. In submitting this thesis to the University of St. Andrews I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker. January 1996. In 1914, Church leaders assumed that fighting men would require the ministrations of ordained clergymen close to the front line. The War Office Chaplains' Department had few plans for the deployment of chaplains beyond a general expectation that the Churches would be willing to release men for service as required. Army Officers seemed to have little warning about the arrival of chaplains to accompany their units and very few ideas about the role chaplains could be expected to fulfil once they had arrived. The chaplains themselves embarked on overseas service with no special training and very little guidance about the nature of the task ahead of them. They received very little support from the Chaplains' Department or their home church in the first months of the war. Left to carve out a role for themselves, they were exposed to an environment churchmen at home could not begin to comprehend. Many chaplains left diaries and letters, the majority of which have never been published. They provide a unique insight into life with the troops, seen through the eyes of men who owed their first allegiance to their Church rather than to the Army whose uniform they wore. Post-war criticism of chaplains has obscured the valuable contribution many clergymen made to the well-being of the troops and to the reform movement within the Church of England after the war. The files of the Archbishop of Canterbury also provide important information about the troubled Department relationships between chaplains and their and with Church leaders at home. In seeking to determine the nature of the chaplains' duties and responsibilities, this study attempts to discover why their clergymen faced so much criticism and why even own churches by were sometimes alarmed by the views aired serving chaplains. CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 11 The Church of England and the Chaplaincy Service before the First World War. CHAPTER 2 31 The Wartime Chaplains' Department: Growing Pains. CHAPTER 3 49 The Appointment of Bishop Gwynne as Deputy Chaplain General. CHAPTER 4 68 Reorganization and Rivalry. CHAPTER 5 84 Deployment of Chaplains. CHAPTER 6 110 The Chaplains' Conditions of Service. CHAPTER 7 131 Tension and Co-operation. CHAPTER 8 155 The Controversy over Clerical Exemption. CHAPTER 9 181 The National Mission of Repentance and Hope. CHAPTER 10 205 Chaplains' Post-war Initiatives. CONCLUSION 222 NOTES 236 BIBLIOGRAPHY 276 ARMY CHAPLAINS IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR. INTRODUCTION. The belief in "God on Our Side" has for centuries spurred men on to war and consoled them in defeat. By 1914 there was nothing unusual in the assumption that when troops left the shores of England chaplains would accompany them. The relief of suffering and the provision of spiritual comfort and consolation were widely accepted as the most important functions of the clergy in wartime. Church leaders were expected to offer some ideological interpretation of the conflict. In 1914, the leaders of the Church of England, in common with the leaders of other denominations, depicted the war as a Crusade against an evil enemy and a confrontation which could not be avoided. They preached that the war was a "Just War", and that participation in it was a moral responsiblitiy. Clergymen, particularly Church of England ministers, confidently expected a religious revival and prepared to encourage and motivate the population to express their patriotism and do their duty. Many responded to the outbreak of war by launching their own personal recruitment campaign. The Bishop of London, Winnington-Ingram, exhorted the troops to kill Germans in order to save civilization and many others took part in recruitment drives. [1] Anticipating a strong demand for their services overseas, many ordained men recognized that the most appropriate contribution they could make to the war effort was to volunteer their services to the Chaplains' Department of the War Office. It was overwhelmed in the first few weeks of the war by the rush of men volunteering to serve as chaplains, regardless of age and fitness. Sixty-five chaplains embarked with the British Expeditionary Force in August, 1914. By the end of the war there were 3,745 padres serving with the British forces. The majority 2 of these were temporary appointments, and by far the largest denomination was the Church of England, with 1,985 men serving compared with the second largest group, the Roman Catholics, with 649. [2] Never before had so many chaplains, representing so many denominations, served as uniformed officers anxious to minister to the men under arms. Surprisingly the precise nature of their role in wartime was not enshrined in any handbook or guide. There can have been few greater contrasts than that between a comfortable vicarage existence and life amongst the men of the British Army. Chaplains had to adapt quickly to conditions their fellow parsons at home could hardly imagine. They strove to provide comfort in the aid posts, the casualty clearing stations and, more controversially, in the front line trenches. Church leaders sent their youngest and most inexperienced men to serve as chaplains. Many helped to provide entertainment for troops resting behind the lines, some ran Confirmation classes and a few established clubs and quiet rooms where the men could read or write letters home. Chaplains were often made uncomfortably aware that their presence was only tolerated because the military authorities anticipated their ablility to boost morale or steady nerves. Chaplains were left to develop their own role. With the exception of individual memoirs, there have been few attempts to chart this development. The most detailed accounts of the work undertaken by chaplains are Alan Wilkinson's The Church of England and the First World War, and Sir John Smyth's and A. R. Mowbray's In This Sign Conquer. Wilkinson identified the chaplains as some of the most outspoken critics of their Department and of their home Church. Smyth and Mowbray examined the experiences of a number of chaplains, paying particular 3 attention to the controversy about the location of chaplains when the troops were in line. They also provided some insight into attempts to improve the efficiency of the Chaplains' Department, with criticism of the Chaplain General, Bishop Taylor Smith, and the lack of guidance given to temporary chaplains. Michael Moynihan's With God On Our Side contains records of their experiences left by six chaplains, five Anglicans and one Roman Catholic, four of whom served on the western front, the others in Mesopotamia and at Gallipoli. Moynihan concluded that since the majority of R. C. chaplains were drawn from a working class background, they were bound to be more readily accepted than the Anglican clergy who were identified so closely with the public school ethos and the officer class. In addition he argued that R. C. chaplains were much less prone to morale-boosting exercises, preferring to concentrate on saving souls. He believed that the Anglican chaplains seemed less professional and certainly not as well-equipped to deal with the needs of the soldiers as the R. C. clergy. Robert Graves, in Goodbye to All That, came to a similar conclusion, claiming that R. C. chaplains consistently out-performed Church of England chaplains. Albert Marrin, (The Last Crusade. The Church of England in the First World War) and Roger Lloyd, (The Church of England: 1900-65) investigated the class barrier which segregated chaplains from their flocks and examined the impetus for post-war change provided by some chaplains. With C. E. Montague, (Disenchantment) they shared Moynihan's belief that the failure of the Church of England to train and equip chaplains for wartime service meant that a genuine opportunity to reach out to men serving in the forces was missed. This is a particularly damning indictment since they believed that the soldiers were in a 4 particularly receptive frame of mind.