On parade in the morning. Put on with Simmons picking up papers and things. Messed about on fatigues all day. Finished at 3 o’clock. Went to the Church Army hall with Corporal Mather at night. C of E service and enjoyed it pretty well.
Tag Archives: Chapel
25 February 1917; Sunday
Busy all day. M O called round twice and rumour of the evacuation of Serre1. All sorts of news going round all day. Went to service at night at the Y M C A.
Serre (C): Michelin square I7, about halfway between Gommecourt (A) and Thiepval (B) and 12km E of Acheux-en-Amiénois (D). This was evacuation by the Germans. See the Capture of Serre at The Accrington Pals and Serre at World War One battlefields. ↩
18 February 1917; Sunday
Day’s work as usual. Went to Y M at night and heard a Scotsman preaching. The service a pleasant change.
11 February 1917; Sunday
Up at 7 o’clock. Busy all day. Finished shortly before 7 o’clock at night. Went to service in YM hut. Ned, the dog1, went with us. Pretty good service. Sang “Sun of my soul2.”
Frost still holding.
This is the only mention in the diary of Ned, the dog. Dogs were used extensively by all sides during the conflict so the presence of a dog is unsurprising. Given that ALL was attached to a medical facility, it is possible that Ned was a casualty dog although he may just have been a mascot or pet. See The role of animals during World War One at the BBC Newsround site. ↩
Sun of my soul, a hymn written in 1820 by John Keble (1792-1866) after whom Keble College, Oxford is named. ↩
7 January 1917; Sunday
On duty as usual. A service in the afternoon in the dining hall. At a service at the Y M at night and enjoyed it.
31 December 1916; Sunday
Up about 7 o’clock and on duty as usual. Kept busy all day. Managed to get away at 7 o’clock at night and went to the Y M service. It was very good and the parson preached from the text “Fear not”1. The last hymn “For all the saints”2 went very well indeed. Slept out the year. McGowan was drunk and made a collection to buy some bottles of beer.
THE END3
Fear not: Probably Isaiah 41:14; “Fear not, thou worm Jacob and ye men of Israel; I will help thee,” saith the Lord and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. ↩
For All the Saints: a processional hymn by the Anglican Bishop of Wakefield, William Walsham How, first printed in Hymns for Saints’ Days, and Other Hymns, by Earl Nelson, 1864. Since 1906, this hymn has usually been sung to the tune Sine Nomine (without name) by Ralph Vaughan Williams. ↩
It was ALL’s habit to write “THE END”, or some variation thereof, on the last day of each diary; q.v. 1914, 1915. ↩
24 December 1916; Sunday
Spent the day as usual. Went to service at night. The Mairie occupied so we went to the canteen tent and heard a service there. The padre spoke very nicely on kinship†.
Driver mad drunk. Shortrigg and I undressed him and he slept after fighting† a while.
10 December 1916; Sunday
Up about 7 o’clock and on duty at 7.30. A lot of patients in and we were kept fairly busy. Went up to the service in the Mairie at night and heard the new preacher. A very good service. Had short walk afterwards and slept well.
3 December 1916; Sunday
Up at about 10 o’clock. Went into Doullens in the afternoon and called in at the church. Rather poor service. Had a feed at a hotel but too late for the Y.M. service. Wrote part of a letter. Missed service at the billet.
17 September 1916; Sunday
Up at 7 o’clock. At 8.45 communion service. Busy all day in the ward. Went to service in the Y.M. at night and played the piano. Picked wrong tune for one hymn, and chose the new tune for Onward Christian Soldiers1 for the last hymn.
Received news of big victory by the British on the Somme.
The “new tune” for Onward Christian Soldiers was probably the one most known today, composed by Arthur Sullivan in 1871 and named “St Gertrude” after the wife of his friend Ernest Clay Ker Seymer. The tune which had previously been used for Onward Christian Soldiers was a melody from the slow movement of Joseph Haydn’s Symphony in D, No. 15. Evidently “St Gertrude”, despite then being some 45 years old, was still considered new – at least by ALL. ↩