More News from the Rector of Clophill

Old Parish Church, Clophill [Z50/31/83]

Sunday 18th June 1916: Revd. C. L. Matthews, the Rector of Clophill, has written again from France where he is serving as a chaplain:

“I am sorry I have been so long in writing you again, but I have unfortunately been laid up and had five weeks in Hospital. I am glad to say I am quite fit again, and we are now back in the line … The work out here is absolutely different to that at home. WE never hold a Service in a Church, though the French Roman Catholics are very kindly disposed towards us. Sunday, except at Headquarters and Bases, is very like any other day, and we have to hold Services when and where we can. I have celebrated the Holy Communion in Schoolrooms, barns, dug-outs, and quite often in the open air. Sometimes we manage to get the room very nicely fitted up with table and chairs borrowed from a cottage, at other times we have to use a packing case for an Altar, and the men have to stand around. The heaviest Sunday I have yet had was in the middle of winter when I had nine Service and about 26 miles on horseback.”

“Funerals are always sad and solemn, but I think the funeral of a man who has given his life for his country is more solemn than any other. The cemeteries are getting very full, some of them, but every grave is carefully marked, and the place is tended with every care. Each grave is marked, first of all by a bottle, containing a paper with the man’s name, number, and regiment, and later on by a plain wooden cross with a metal inscription bearing full particulars.”

Source: Barton Parish Magazine, P21/30/18

Bunyan Meeting Minister in France

Bunyan Meeting, Bedford 1913 [Z1306/10/42/4]

Sunday 2nd April 1916: The Rector of Clophill is not the only minister of religion from Bedfordshire serving as a chaplain at the Front. Rev. W. J. Coates, the minister of Bunyan meeting is with the 6th King’s Shropshire Light Infantry is hoping to return home on leave this month. In a recent letter he describes an amusing encounter with a Scotsman:

“A Y.M.C.A. hut is near our occasional rest billets. Here, at odd moments, I lend a hand with coffee and twist, Woodbines and buttons. Once or twice, we have had a fine service. In the Hut, there exists a little library of books. In comes a braw Scots laddie with a burning question. All we detected was something resembling ‘buns’. ‘Oh, yes,’ said the attendant, ‘We’ve plenty of buns’. The counter was stacked with them. It was nearly an insult. ‘Burrns, Burrn, the works of Burrns’. Collapse of the attendant amid confused apologies, and the assurance that he had heard of the writer before. The Scot had not seen a copy of his national poet for six years. He wanted Burns, not buns, and wanted him badly! He could recite ‘Tam o’Shanter’, he said, by heart, and many another.”

Source: Bedfordshire Time, 7th April 1916

Life as an Army Chaplain

Clophill Village c.1904 [Z50/31/33]

Saturday 19th February 1916: Revd. C. L. Matthews, the Rector of Clophill has written to his parishioners with news of his experiences as an army chaplain in France: 

“After having been in France for three months, I feel I am now able to give you a few of my experiences with the troops. After a tremendously long and tedious journey, from Sunday evening to Wednesday evening, including a rather exciting trip across (as we knew that a couple of Hun submarines were waiting for us), we detrained at a small wayside station. It was pouring with rain, and the whole place was a sea of mud, in some places a foot deep. Having got the horses out and watered we started on our way, led by a guide. We had about six miles to go, and it was quite dark. Some of us were so tired that we actually fell asleep in our saddles, waking up with a start when the column halted. At last we pulled up at a tiny village where we rested for a few days. After seeing the horses and men comfortable we made our way to an empty house which was to be the officers’ billet. Everything was just as the people had left it, and it was curious to find oneself walking into another person’s house and living there. Nothing except a few valuables seemed to have been moved, and in my room even the silver brushes and hand glass had been left on the dressing table. It was the only house where there was a bath, but alas! The waterworks were all wrong so we could only look at it and long for the impossible.” 

“Life behind the trenches is most interesting. One night the Colonel and I went up to the front line trenches to see the men at work. It was a weird and rather nervy sensation riding up to a ruined factory where we left our horses. Our guide struck across country, and in time we reached the trenches. After following them for some way we climbed up and strolled across the open, and we felt very grateful the night was dark. We found our men hard at work, and it was a strange experience to be sitting on the parapet, talking to them, with the Germans only a couple of hundred yards away. Every now and then a star-flare would go up, and then we had to keep very still for fear of snipers who are always on the look out.”  

“In my next letter I hope to give some account of a Chaplain’s work at the Front. The men are simply splendid: and I think one of the finest things I ever heard was from a poor fellow a few minutes before he died. He said to me, “Please, sir, will you tell the Colonel I have tried to do my bit; and I am sorry it has been so little.” With such men, and with such spirit we can look forward with confidence to final victory. An army composed of men like that is unconquerable.”

Source: Barton-le-Clay Parish Magazine, March 1916 [P21/30/18]

A "Bedford Hut" for Soldiers

Friday 14th January 1916: The Bedford and District Federation of the Church of England  Men’s Society has raised £300 to provide the troops at the Front with a “Bedford Hut”. This will soon be built somewhere in France and will provide seating accommodation for 300 men. At one end there will be a chapel and adjoining the Hut there will be two quiet rooms for the use of the Chaplain and the men; the remaining space will be for ordinary social use. The Hut will be under the control of the Chaplains and will be for the use of troops of any denomination. It is hoped that a link can be kept between the Hut and Bedford by sending out newspapers, books and other gifts for the men using it.

Source: Bedfordshire Times, 14th January 1916

Excursions, Thunderstorms, War Savings, and a New Army Chaplain

St Mary's Church, Woburn, 2012 [CR-PH]

Sunday 1st August 1915: News from the Villages

Barton-le-Clay

The scaled down Sunday School Treat took place on July 14th. The attendance of around 300 was larger than last year and the showery weather did not dampen enthusiasm. Fortunately the Rectory grounds offer plenty of shelter, and sports, cricket and football were held between showers. As suspected last month all railway excursions have had to be cancelled this year, but the probationary choir of the Parish Church were taken to Bedford on Saturday 17th July. The forty members of the Choir visited Woburn on Wednesday 21st July, stopping at Ampthill Park on the way where they watched the soldiers drill and perform a gymnastic display. The Park at Woburn was “a pretty picture, trees in their beauty, graceful deer of all descriptions, emus, birds and the bushy squirrel”. After tea there was a visit to Woburn Church and a return trip by way of Eversholt and a visit to the Manor gardens at Westoning.

Gravenhurst

On Sunday evening July 4th a violent thunderstorm passed over the village while the sermon was being given at the Methodist Chapel. Mrs Frank Fisher was seated between two open windows; the draught acted as a vehicle for the lightning, which struck the spectacles she held in her hand. These were snapped in two and hurled to the ground, and Mrs Fisher was paralysed down her left side. The Doctor believes that if she was wearing the glasses she would have been killed instantly. Fortunately Mrs Fisher is now on the road to recovery. We should all learn the lesson never to wear glasses during a storm and to close all windows.

Silsoe

On Friday July 23rd a meeting was held in the schoolroom to promote the South Beds War Savings Campaign. It is important to remember that the German military machine cannot be defeated without money and that everyone, rich and poor, is able to help. Imagine what a large sum could be raised if everyone saved one penny a day – money that would be lent to the government at a good rate of interest. The War Loan was explained, and the audience were reminded that money invested could be withdrawn at any time by application to any Money order Office. Is was suggested that a large amount could be saved by following the King’s example in abstaining from drink.

Clophill

The Rector of Clophill, Reverend Cecil L. Matthews has left at short notice to join the troops as a chaplain. He says “I hope that when I go to the Front you will remember me, and the other Clophill men, in your prayers, and that God will send us the Victory in this awful war”. The village has seen a number of other departures. Bertie Webb and Herbert Young have joined the Mechanical Transport of the Army Service Corps; Trooper H. Gibson of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers, Corporal H. L. Cunnington of the 8th Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment, and Privates L. Ansell and E. Eddy of the Beds Territorials have all left for the Front. Also to the Corps Headquarters of the Royal Engineers who have been at Clophill since early February have left for the East. Relations between these “splendid fellows” and the village have been most cordial.

Source: Monthly Magazine for the parishes of Barton-le-Cley, Clophill, Flitton and Greenfield, Gravenhurst, Silsoe, Westoning, August 1915 [P21/30/17]