On the King's Service: Inward Glimpses of Men at ArmsLogan, Innes
History
On the King's Service: Inward Glimpses of Men at Arms
Logan, Innes
Military chaplains -- Free Church of Scotland; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, English
The Principal Chaplain visited the camp during my chaplaincy there. The
Rev. Dr. Simms, who ranks as a major-general, has charge of all
chaplains other than those of the Church of England. His tall,
distinguished, unassuming figure will always stand, in the minds of
those who were under his administration, for infinite kindness, wisdom,
and scrupulous fairness between all parties. Dr. Wallace Williamson of
St. Giles', Edinburgh, who was visiting the troops in France,
accompanied him. Their service on Sunday was very moving. Hearts were
near the surface in those brief days between the farewell and the
battlefield. The three Scotsmen whom I knew best of those who were at
this service are all dead: one fell at Loos, one in Mesopotamia, and one
on the Somme. The oldest of them, who was an officer in a Guards
battalion, could not speak and his eyes were full of tears. There was no
possibility here of the remark that one Lowlander made to another after
listening to a very celebrated London preacher: 'Aye, it was beautiful,
and he cud mak' ye see things too, whiles; but, man! there was nae
_logic_ in 't.'
It was about this time that we heard of the sinking of the _Lusitania_.
Somehow from this moment we knew better where we were and for what we
fought. Every one's thoughts were very grim. This was sheer naked
wickedness done plainly and coldly in the sight of God and man.
III
'_You can hear them now_'
One broiling afternoon as I sat talking with a friend in my tent an
orderly came to the door and said to him, 'Message for you, sir.' He
glanced at it. It was his orders to join his battalion at the front. We
shook hands and he went off, glad to be on the move again after hanging
about waiting so long. In five minutes the orderly was back with orders
for me to proceed at once to the 2nd London Territorial Casualty
Clearing Station. I said good-bye to Adams, my servant. No man was ever
more fortunate in his batmen--Adams, a typical regular, fiercely proud
of his regiment; Campion, the London Territorial, a commercial traveller
in civil life; and Munro, the Royal Scot, who within a month or two of
the outbreak of war could no longer suppress the fighting spirit of the
Royal Regiment stirring within him, and voluntarily rejoined, leaving a
wife and six children behind him. He was a foreman in the Edinburgh
Tramways Company. Handy man that he was, he could turn his hand to
anything, whether it was devising a ferrule for a broken walking stick
out of the screw of a pickle bottle, or making a bleak-looking hut
habitable, or producing hot tea from nowhere, or transforming a
wet-canteen marquee into a decent place for Communion (empty tobacco
boxes for table, beer barrels discreetly out of sight), or building a
pulpit out of sandbags in the corner of a roofless saloon bar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account