FAITH IN CONFLICT: A STUDY OF BRITISH EXPERIENCES IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE ENGLISH MIDLANDS by STUART ANDREW BELL A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History School of History and Cultures College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham January 2016 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract The thesis addresses the question, ‘How did the First World War affect the religious faith of the people of Britain?’ The ways in which wartime preachers, hymn-writers, diarists and letter-writers expressed their faith are examined. For the vast majority, the War was both a military and a spiritual conflict of right against might and the rhetoric of a Holy War was popular. Questions of divine omnipotence and providence troubled many, the standard response being that war was a consequence of God’s gift of free will. The language of sacrifice dominated public discourse, with many asserting that the salvation of the fallen was ensured by their own sacrifice. Prayers for the dead became widely accepted in the Church of England. Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy promoted the belief that God shares in human suffering. However, there is little evidence that his advocacy of divine impassibility was influential subsequently. War- time ecumenical activities and attitudes are analysed, the hopes for Christian unity of the 1920 Lambeth Conference are discussed and the naïve optimism of many bishops is contrasted with the reality of ecclesiological differences. The conclusion is that the War’s influence on people’s faith was limited and reasons for this are suggested. Acknowledgements I wish to record my thanks to: The staff of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Archives for their unfailingly helpful and cheerful service; The Trustees of Gladstone’s Library and the Editorial Board of Midland History for their financial support of some of the research discussed in this thesis; The Methodist Church at both Connexional and District level for its significant contribution to six years of tuition fees; My wife, Judith, for her acceptance of the role of ‘PhD widow’ over that long period; My supervisor, Michael Snape, for his inspiration, challenge and encouragement. Previously-Published Material Some material in this Thesis has been published previously in book chapters or peer-reviewed journal articles: Published Chapter of thesis containing previously- chapter/article published material. ‘“Patriotism and 5. Biographical material re. Studdert Kennedy; Sacrifice”: The influence of Studdert Kennedy’s advocacy of Preaching of Geoffrey divine passibility. Studdert Kennedy (“Woodbine Willie”), 1914-1918’, in W.J. Lyons and I. Sandwell (eds.), Delivering the Word: Preaching and Exegesis in the Western Christian Tradition (Sheffield, 2012). ‘The First World War’ in Introduction: Summary of The Church in the S.G. Parker and T. Furnace. Lawson (eds.), God And 1. Randall Davidson and others’ response to War: The Church of outbreak of war; War and the Kingdom of God. England and Armed 4. Salvation through sacrifice – Winnington- Conflict in the Twentieth Ingram, Cairns, +Southwell; Millner-White and Century (Farnham, controversy re. prayers for the dead; Songs of 2012). Praise. 5 Influence of Studdert Kennedy’s advocacy of passibility. 6 Pre-war Anglican divisions; Kikuyu controversy; Raven’s report on ecumenical service; post-war discipline re. inter- communion; Henson on exchange of pulpits; Rogers’ comment about ‘high-water mark’ of ecumenism. ‘The Theology of Chapter 5 of this thesis is a revised and slightly Woodbine Willie in abbreviated version of the published chapter. Context’ in M. Snape and E. Madigan (eds.), The Clergy in Khaki: British Army Chaplains in the First World War (Farnham, 2013). Published Chapter of thesis containing previously- chapter/article published material. ‘Malign or Maligned? – 1. Cosmo Lang on outbreak of war; reaction Arthur Winnington- to Winnington-Ingram from Wilkinson and Ingram, Bishop of Forrester; Marrin’s judgment on use of ‘Holy London, in the First War’. World War’. Journal for the History of Modern Theology / Zeitschrift für Neuere Theologiegeschichte, vol. 20, issue 1 (Nov. 2013). ‘“Soldiers of Christ Introduction: The ubiquity of hymnody. arise”: Religious 1. Local responses to outbreak: Bathurst Nationalism in the East Soole, Asquith, +Southwell, Daybrook, Midlands during World Everton, Matlock Bath; +Southwell, Kipling, War I’, Midland History, Fletcher on Holy War; both sides claiming vol. 39, number 2, divine support; understanding ‘favoured (Autumn 2014). nation’ status; local declarations and hymnody. 4. Sacrifice as a dominant trope and its historical and military context; DDT report on service; Ashbourne sermons; letter to Walters; Clark’s Great Sacrifice; Bushaway on memorialization; analysis of For all the saints; Chinley service report; war memorials with ‘Greater love. .’; Valiant Hearts. 6. DDT report on ‘All Sects United’ service. Contents Introduction 1 Boundaries 7 Historiography 9 Sources 13 Silent Witnesses 20 A Local Focus 27 Diffusive Faith and Folk Religion 30 The Ubiquity of Hymnody 35 Mapping the Religious Responses 37 1 A Holy War and a Favoured Nation The Outbreak of War 40 Pause for Thought? 50 A Holy War 53 A Favoured Nation 59 Conclusion 64 2 God of Battles – Lord of Hosts Introduction 65 Before the Great War 66 War is Declared 71 Two Sides, one Claim 77 God of Battles: God of Peace 78 Lord of Hosts 83 In Later Years 93 Armistice, Peace and Retrospection 95 The Persistence of the Rhetoric 102 Conclusion 103 3 Omnipotence and Providence Introduction 105 Providence, Fatalism and Luck at the Front 106 Omnipotence and Providence on the Home Front 121 The Final Years 133 Armistice 136 Looking Back 139 Conclusion 141 4 Sacrifice and Memorialisation Sacrifice 143 Salvation through Sacrifice 149 A Case Study in Commemoration 160 Prayers for the Dead 164 Memorialising the War 175 Conclusion 185 5 Beyond Sacrifice to a Suffering God Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy 188 The Suffering God 196 Other Advocates of Divine Passibility 200 Influences on Studdert Kennedy 203 The Pastoral Theologian 207 Conclusion 214 6 Ecumenism 216 Conflicting Tensions 217 Ecumenism in Wartime Chaplaincy 223 Ecumenism on the Home Front 227 Ecumenism after the Conflict 235 Moves for Reunion 240 Regularising the Exchange of Pulpits 244 Lambeth 250 Fading Hopes 262 Conclusion 265 7 Faith at the Front Jack Titterton 268 James Lochhead Jack 277 Thomas Higgins 284 Ernest Goodridge 291 Arthur Graeme West 298 Conclusion 305 Conclusion 307 Appendix: The Commemoration Service for 320 Lieut. Hugh Valentine Gamble List of tables 1 Use of Old Testament texts in sermons 102 published in Christian World Pulpit Abbreviations AV The ‘Authorised Version’ of the Bible (1611) BEF British Expeditionary Force BL British Library, London. BRO Birmingham City Archives BTF Baptist Times and Freeman BW British Weekly CWP Christian World Pulpit DDT Derby Daily Telegraph DRO Derbyshire Archives MR Methodist Recorder NEP Nottingham Evening Post NRO Nottinghamshire Archives OUP Oxford University Press PML Primitive Methodist Leader RAMC Royal Army Medical Corps. SAB My personal archive SDM Southwell Diocesan Messenger UM United Methodist YMCA Young Men’s Christian Association Introduction This thesis is intended to offer an answer to the question, ‘How did the First World War affect the religious faith of the people of Britain?’ Even if one has recognised that the ‘futility and mud’ characterisation of the conflict, as promoted by some of the war-poets and repeated by television’s Blackadder Goes Forth, misrepresented the views of the British people in 1914-18, the sheer scale of human suffering must, one might well think, have had a significant deleterious influence on religious belief.1 Certainly, my personal experience is that, a century after the conflict, many people assume that that must have been the case. Popular books on the First World War have sometimes supported that view. For example, Peter Fiennes’ To War With God: The Army Chaplain who Lost his Faith had a sub-title that totally misrepresented the story of ‘Monty’ Guilford, perhaps because it chimed with common perceptions. It also accepted much of the traditional rhetoric about ineffective and cowardly upper-class officers and took at face value well-worn critiques of the role of the Church of England and its chaplains in the conflict.2 More significantly, it has not been only the vox populi and popular publications that have supported this view, but also some scholarly 1 For examinations of and challenges to the mythology of futility and mud, see B. Bond, The Unquiet Western Front: Britain’s Role in Literature and History (Cambridge, 2002); G. Corrigan, Mud, Blood and Poppycock (London, 2004); D. Todman, The Great War: Myth and Memory (London, 2005). Set on the Western Front in 1917, the last episode of Blackadder, ‘Goodbyeee’, first broadcast