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
There was Private Paul Holman of the H.A.C. He was killed while on
sentry duty on February 17. A comrade writes: "His first thought was
evidently that he must warn the guard; this he did, becoming
unconscious immediately afterwards." His colonel says of him: "He was
a splendid type of young Englishman and a fine soldier, greatly
beloved by us all--officers and men." He had just begun to practise as
a barrister before the war broke out.
There were Second Lieutenant J.C. Baptist Crozier, Royal Munster
Fusiliers, nephew of the Archbishop of Armagh, and Captain L.A.F.
Cane, East Lancashire Regiment, who died leading his men to capture a
trench, and Lieutenant Compton, Royal Scots Greys, son of the late
Lord Alwyne Compton, and scores of other officers, of whom we may say
as was said of those of old, "Who through faith subdued kingdoms,
wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of
lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from
weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight
armies of aliens."
We expect, however, that officers will set an example of bravery to
their men, and though we mourn the large percentage of officers who
have fallen in the field, we would not have it otherwise. It is the
tradition of the Army, and a noble tradition too.
Perhaps this is the place to record the death of the first
clergyman-soldier who has been killed in this war. The combination of
minister of the Gospel and soldier of the line is so remarkable that
the death of the first of these marks an epoch in the Church's
history.
Captain Lionel Fairfax Studd, of the Rangers, 12th County of London
Regiment, died of wounds received in action on February 14, 1915. He
was the son of Mr. J.E.K. Studd, of the Polytechnic, and nephew of Mr.
C.T. Studd. He had been ordained by the Bishop of London to a curacy
at St. James, Holloway, at Trinity, 1914. But, on the outbreak of war,
he felt it to be his duty, after very grave reflection, to take his
place with his old regiment. Devoted to Christ, he was devoted also to
his country.
The deeds, however, upon which I wish to dwell in this chapter are the
deeds of Christian non-commissioned officers and men. I must choose
with care, and the stories I tell will, I hope, show different phases
of Christian courage.
Let me first tell how Driver F.A. Osborne won the French V.C. For
years Driver Osborne has been associated with the Wesley Hall
Brotherhood, Leicester, and although now on the field still counts
himself a member.
I quote from the _Methodist Times_.
"The story has been slowly imparted to us. In September the gloom of
the long and terrible retreat from Mons was lifted by the announcement
of the capture of ten German guns by the English. Then fugitive
paragraphs made reference to three men who had fought alone, wounded,
but undaunted. Only now can the whole story be pieced together, and it
is a veritable romance--tragic, heroic, glorious.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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