War Diaries Talk

Divine Services

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    This page is the third one I've come across just today where a mention of Divine Service or Church Parade doesn't match up with a Sunday. I seem to be encountering this situation somewhat frequently lately. This one indicates Divine Service was held on 10 March 1917, which was a Saturday. One of the other ones I found this morning had services held on a Tuesday. They were both from the same diary, the 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers.

    Was this a common occurrence? Or have I just coincidentally run through a batch where the diary author had confused dates?

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  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Honestly, I'm not certain. @David_Underdown may know. I wonder, though, whether the work schedule at the time simply meant that they had to fit services in when they could.

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  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    I also wondered if they held services when a chaplain was available to them. Some units mention a chaplain and others never do. I've also seen some where the Roman Catholics went to services in the village church when they were in rest billets.

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  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    That could well be it. Initially, at least, Chaplains were supposed to avoid the front lines, although that changed a great deal later on.

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  • David_Underdown by David_Underdown moderator

    Chaplains were attached to brigades, normally one each of Anglican (Church of England), Roman Catholic and Free Church: Scottish brigades would probably have had Church of Scotland rather than Anglican I imagine. Units might well be in the line on a Sunday, so I imagine it was a case of holding services as and when it was possible, rather than necessarily a Sunday. Roman Catholics attending local churches in France and Belgium seems to have been a relatively common occurrence (the mass would still have been in Latin then anyway of course).

    There were also a small number of Jewish chaplains with the BEF

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