CHAPTER XI[ToC]
HEADS OF ARMY WORK AT HOME TELL THE STORY OF WORK AT THE FRONT
Church of Scotland Commissioned Chaplains—One Hundred Civilian Ministers of Scotland Offered Their Services—The Rev. W. Stevenson Jaffray's Report—Many Forms of Service at the Front—From No. 10 General Hospital, Rouen—The French Decorate Our Soldiers' Graves—Report of the 1st Echelon General Headquarters—A Chaplain's First Lesson—After Neuve Chapelle—The Work of the Y.M.C.A.—A Breathlessly Summoned Council—Six Hundred Centres—A Glorious Nine Months.
I am indebted to the Rev. J.A. McClymont, D.D., V.D., Convener of the Church of Scotland General Assembly's Committee on Army and Navy Chaplains, for the following account of Presbyterian work at the front. It will supplement and bring up to date references to the work of this great Church in the earlier chapters of this book.
"Before the outbreak of the war six ministers of the Church of Scotland held commissions as regular military chaplains, and all of them, along with four of our Indian chaplains, who accompanied their regiments from the East, are now serving with the Expeditionary Force. The names of the former are Revs. W.S. Jaffray (1st Class), J.T. Bird (1st Class), F.W. Stewart (3rd Class), A.R. Yeoman (3rd Class), J. Campbell (3rd Class), and D.A. Morrison (3rd Class); of the latter the names are Revs. G.E. Dodd, Andrew Macfarlane, G.C. Macpherson, and J.H. Horton McNeill. In addition to these, about two hundred civilian ministers of the Church have offered their services as chaplains at the front. Among them are many eloquent preachers, many distinguished scholars, and not a few accomplished athletes. Some have had valuable experience as chaplains in the Territorial Force, or have served as combatants in that force or in the Officers' Training Corps, while others can produce evidence of experience and skill in connexion with the Red Cross Society, the Boys' Brigade, or the Boy Scouts. Some of them can preach in Gaelic, others have a knowledge of French and German and other continental languages, and a personal acquaintance with the countries in which the war is going on. Some have served with acceptance in the Boer War or at a military station at home or abroad. Keen sportsmen are to be found among them who can shoot, ride, cycle, or drive a motor.
"Until lately the number of additional Presbyterian chaplains allowed by the War Office has been much smaller than was generally expected, considering the many thousands of Territorials who have volunteered for foreign service, and the immense multitude of recruits who have enlisted in Kitchener's Army. The ideal arrangement would have been to assign a chaplain to every battalion; but, instead of this, the appointments were at first made to divisions and hospitals, the result being that after eight months of the war only eighteen additional chaplains had been appointed for service at the front. Recently the number has been increased to thirty-eight, making fifty-four Presbyterian chaplains in all; and further additions will soon be made.
In the partitioning of these thirty-eight new chaplaincies among the several Presbyterian churches, the War Office has been guided by the Advisory Committee on the appointment and distribution of Presbyterian chaplains. This Committee was created by Mr. (now Lord) Haldane some years ago, and consists of a representative of the Church of Scotland, the United Free Church, the Presbyterian Church of England, and the Presbyterian Church of Ireland, respectively, with Lord Balfour of Burleigh, a trusted elder of the Church of Scotland, as chairman. The Convener of the Church of Scotland Committee on Army and Navy Chaplains was asked by Lord Balfour to nominate eighteen of the new chaplains, bringing the number of Church of Scotland chaplains on foreign service up to twenty-eight. The Revs. H.Y. Arnott, B.D. (Newburgh), H. Brown B.D. (Strathmiglo), Geo. Donald, B.D. (Aberdeen), A.S.G. Gilchrist, B.D. (Applegarth), Professor Kay, D.D., James Kirk, M.A. (Dunbar), Oswald B. Milligan (Ayr), A.M. Maclean, B.D. (Paisley), A. Macdonald (Glassary), D. Macfarlane (Kingussie), J. Campbell McGregor, V.D. (Edinburgh), C.G. Mackenzie, B.D. (Methlick), James MacGibbon, B.D. (Hamilton), J.J. Pryde (Penpont), D.A. Cameron Reid, B.D. (Glasgow), Thos. Scott, M.A., T.D. (Laurencekirk), Patrick Sinclair B.D. (Urquhart), and Geo. Thompson, B.D. (Carnbee), were so nominated. All of these and the other Presbyterian chaplains above referred to, with the exception of three who have gone to the East, are serving in France and Belgium under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Simms, K.H.C., a minister of the Irish Presbyterian Church, who, but for the war, would have retired on account of the age limit before the end of last year, but is now the responsible and honoured Head of all the chaplains of every denomination at the western seat of war.
Many grateful tributes have been paid to the faithful services rendered to their countrymen by Presbyterian chaplains in this war, and four of them have had the honour of being mentioned in despatches, two of whom are ministers of the Church of Scotland, namely, the Rev. J.T. Bird and the Rev. A.R. Yeoman. So far, only two chaplains have been wounded, namely, Mr. Yeoman and Mr. J.H.H. McNeill, who are both ministers of the National Church. Before giving a few extracts from letters and reports received from chaplains at the front, it may be well to mention that upwards of twenty ministers of the Church of Scotland and about fifty University students who were studying, or about to study, in the Divinity Hall have joined the Army as combatants—some of them as officers and some of them as private soldiers—while others are serving with the R.A.M.C. Several have done excellent work in connexion with the Y.M.C.A., notably the Rev. L. McLean Watt (Edinburgh), who was unable to accept a chaplaincy for the period required by the War Office, and the Rev. Hugh Brown (Strathmiglo), before his appointment to a chaplaincy.