With Our Fighting Men: The story of their faith, courage, endurance in the Great WarSellers, William E.
History
With Our Fighting Men: The story of their faith, courage, endurance in the Great War
Sellers, William E.
Great Britain. Army -- Military life; World War, 1914-1918 -- Religious aspects
"(2) Those with Field Ambulances. By this term we should understand
Field hospitals which receive the sick and wounded from their advanced
dressing stations, which in their turn receive them from the First-Aid
Posts just behind the firing line.
"To these two classes have recently been added another, namely, Senior
Chaplains of Army Corps, whose duty it is to advise and direct
chaplains of the divisions composing the corps in their work. For
instance, I am now senior chaplain of the Third Army Corps.
"I have now been in each one of these three classes, for I came out
with number four general hospital, though I was with them subsequently
for only a very short time.
"The work of class (1) consists principally of ministering to the sick
and wounded, holding services when possible, especially on Sundays,
and giving the patients and staff frequent opportunities of the Holy
Communion and other ministrations. It may often happen that chaplains
of this class may find troops near to them, who are away from their
own chaplain. It will then be their duty to minister to them so far as
they possibly can. They, of course, also have to conduct many
funerals.
"As to the chaplains of class (2), the Field Ambulance will be the
centre from which the chaplain should work in his brigade, and such
divisional troops (R.A., R.E., &c.) as are included in the brigade
area.
"I was for some time with the Eleventh Field Ambulance in the Fourth
Division, and as I was the senior chaplain in that division, the
general asked me to take over the arrangement of things. My plan was
that each chaplain in his area should endeavour to hold five or six
large central parade and other services on Sundays, with perhaps
celebrations of the Holy Communion after two of the ordinary services.
"Then, chaplains give special attention to particular units on
weekdays. Here all days are alike and so are all times. So I would
arrange with the commanding officer, and would set out on horseback
carrying the requisites for the Holy Communion, for I always, when
possible, had a celebration after the ordinary service. My servant
would ride behind me with the service books. In this way it was
possible to cover the ground in the division fairly well, and to see
that each unit had its due.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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