Is there a listing for Chaplains? Looking for info on Rev William Gifford Burgis.

[Guest Bob Ferris]

 

Bob Ferris posted a topic in Documents - Look Up Requests and Offers

Sorry spelling mistakes in original posting. I have a letter written by the Rev William Gifford Burgis to the next of kin of Prv Frederick William Brown dated 18 April 1918. Looking into the circumstances of Frederick Brown's injury for his grandson. The story within the family is that he was mixed up with a New Zealand unit and either helped an injured Anzac or was helped by one. Family believe Frederick Brown received an award for his actions but I am unable to find any evidence on internet sources although a MM and and DCM were awarded to two Anzac sergeants from the 1st Otago Regiment, 2nd New...

•  18 minutes ago
•  
• • chaplains
  •  
  • suffolk

[keithmroberts]

There is a medal index card for William Gaisford Burgis in the Royal Army Chaplain's Department. I can't see one for a William Gifford Burgis. You can get that from the national Archives website for a small fee, or from Ancestry in full colour by visiting your local reference library.  Asd spelled there does not seem to be an officers  file at the National Archives.

 

You might check out the Museum of Army Chaplaincy.  using family history sites such as Ancestry or FindMyPast might help you to find out more. Reference libraries will also have copies of Crockfords Clerical Directory which records I believe all Anglican clergy.

 

 

EDIT  You might want to check out new Zealand military records as well.  http://ww100.govt.nz/archives-new-zealand-and-national-library-open-the-files-on-the-first-world-war

 

Keith

[keithmroberts]

The 1911 census shows William Gaisford Burgis as a single clergyman in County Durham. born 1881.There are some family trees on Ancestry but they cast no light on his adult life.  phone books suggest that he became vicar of Cheddleton in Staffordshire in later life.

 

If you can place him in a parish before the Great War and depending on how far you wan tto go, there might be parish magazines or the like surviving in archives or still held by the church. These can  contain fascinating detail including letters from the front etc.

 

Keith

[HarryBrook]

Rev. William Gaisford Burgis was appointed temporary Chaplain 4th Class on 12.1.1916

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29463/page/1369

Awarded the Military Cross in the 1918 New Year's Honours List

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30450/supplement/32

Relinquished his appointment 11.7.1922

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/32750/page/6844

 

His medal index card states that he first entered a theatre of war, Egypt, on 12.1.1916, and his correspondence address in 1923 was The Vicarage, Cheddleton, Leek, Staffordshire. 

 

[RaySearching]

A few details on the Rev William Gaisford Burgis and listed on the website  (Benson in the Great War)

Here

 

regards Ray

[keithfazzani]

1 hour ago, keithmroberts said:

The 1911 census shows William Gaisford Burgis as a single clergyman in County Durham. born 1881.There are some family trees on Ancestry but they cast no light on his adult life.  phone books suggest that he became vicar of Cheddleton in Staffordshire in later life.

 

If you can place him in a parish before the Great War and depending on how far you wan tto go, there might be parish magazines or the like surviving in archives or still held by the church. These can  contain fascinating detail including letters from the front etc.

 

Keith

If you do find his parish then there may well be some information in the diocesan or cathedral archives, the archivists are usually very happy to help. Many parish records if not held in these archives will be found in the county archives. Worth contacting the parish directly first though as I have worked in places where registers etc go back to the late 19th century. 

[HarryBrook]

He was also Mentioned in Despatches, the despatch of F.M. Sir Douglas Haig dated 16.3.1919

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/31446/supplement/8786

 

 

[David_Underdown]

The card giving brief details of his interview with the chaplain general can be seen at http://www.chaplains-museum.co.uk/entity/135113-wg-burgis look at http://www.chaplains-museum.co.uk/interprete-data for info on what it means

 

I can't see a surviving service record.  The medal index card on ancestry should be free to view during this centenary period (you may need to create a basic account - no fee).

 

Crockford should give his clerical career, if you can work out when he died, just check the couple for the years either side and you should get all his parish posts and where he took his degree etc

[RaySearching]

David He died in 1951

 

Extracted from the link post 5

Rev William Gaisford Burgis MC BA

William Gaisford Burgis was born in Benson in 1881, the son of John & Marie Burgis, a grocer in High St, Benson. William was an assistant in a chemist's shop in Barnet in 1901, but by 1911 he had become a clergyman in South Shields, Durham.

William joined the Army as a Chaplain and was posted to Egypt in 1916, serving in Mesopotamia, where he was awarded the Military Cross (MC) for valour. After the war, Willam Burgis returned to the Church, becoming a village vicar in Staffordshire, where he died in 1951 aged 70.

[keithfazzani]

Sounds like a search in Crokford's would be the next step. Historical records for Crockfords are to be found on Ancestry 

[HarryBrook]

News of his death as published in The Staffordshire Advertiser, Friday, July 6 1951

 

[dink999]

This post gives me the opportunity to let you know that the information re serving Clergy in the Gloucester Diocesan Magazines held at Gloucestershire Archives has been extracted and put onto a spreadsheet that can be downloaded from

 

http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/archives/article/116632/Information-sheets-about-Gloucestershire-in-WW1-compiled-by-other-researchers

Here is a letter written by the Rev. Edward Thomas Hull, Temp. Acting Chaplain to the Forces, 59th Infantry Brigade, Aldershot, (Framilode Rectory) about his time in the Dardanelles.

 

And an example of the pages transcribed

 

Gloucester Diocesan Magazine Sept. 1915

 

A Visit to the Dardanelles. At sunset on a quiet Sunday evening some 500 of us officers and men were packed closely on the deck of a trawler, bound for the Dardanelles. Landed in the darkness at a spot that must not be named, the party formed up under cover of a huge pile of stores. The staff officer who met us commanded silence and sent us forward in small companies in charge of a guide, who, about a mile further on, marched us into the trenches, to wait for dawn. For an hour or so before reaching Cape Hellas we had beard the sound of the guns, and daylight revealed the batteries close at hand. Very pro. baby we had misread the declarations in the home newspapers that "matters at the Dardanelles were proceeding satisfactorily " and expected too much, but to find that the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force occupied a narrow strip of land only 3 miles wide and 4 ½  miles long, was a great surprise ! At once we were in the midst of real war, for at daylight the French on the right wing (i.e., the Dardanelles side of the Gallipoli Peninsula) began a big movement. Their famous 75s bellowed out their peculiar roar and a fierce bombardment preceded a general attack, which was very exciting to witness. As it was impossible to report myself until 7-0 a.m., for four hours I watched the course of the battle. Bullets occasionally whizzed by, or a shell landed unpleasantly near, and the big guns roared ceaselessly; altogether making a somewhat stirring situation. The operations, were, however, successful; the French gained some 500 yards and captured 300 prisoners, but themselves suffered 4,000 casualties. Appointed Divisional Chaplain of the 29th Division, with special charge of the artillery, my duties took me along the whole of the British front, and gave me special facilities for seeing every movement. The week was spent in visiting various batteries and divisional units and, wherever possible, arranging a service. One afternoon the L Battery (which gained such fame in France) gave me tea in their advanced observation station. It was deeply interesting to hear reports coming in by telephone from all over the field. One officer reported the Turks very busy digging at a certain spot and asked for instructions, and was ordered to fire the remainder of his day's allowance of shells. Wires were connected up from all sides, and the receiving of reports, the giving of orders, and the roar of the French 75s firing over our heads, made it rather a weird tea party of men in a hole in the ground. Let me state here how very welcome the Chaplain's visits seemed to be. Officers arid men were ever ready to greet him and to offer hire their best. It is true, sometimes their best was a drink of water, yet when water was so precious, it was 'hospitable treatment. With the day mapped out, I was up on Sunday morning at 4-30 and carrying the communion bag and 50 service books, set off from my dug-out on W beach. At a given point an orderly met me and conducted me to a " safe spot " selected by the Colonel of L Battery for a celebration and a parade service. It was in a nullah, with a little stream trickling by, and when I arrived even the altar was prepared. Many strange altars have been used by me, from the counter of a serving bar to the metal and marble operating table in a hospital theatre, but the altar in the nullah was a natural one, a convenient fall of earth. It was almost the right height, nearly level on the top, and as regards orientation, perfect, lying parallel with the Dardanelles. A blanket was spread on top, then the fair linen cloth; and the congregation assembled. Meantime the guns were at work, an artillery duel was in progress between our own battery and the enemy. With voice often drowned by the roar of our own guns or the report of an enemy shrapnel shell almost over our heads, the service proceeded; the familiar words taking on a deeper meaning than ever before. The altar of earth, the kneeling soldiers, officers and men, conscious of the coming morrow's battle, the bursting shrapnel above; surely an impressive and never to be forgotten celebration. " The peace of God, which passeth all understanding " seemed even amid those surroundings already to steal into our hearts. The celebration ended, silently the men assembled for morning prayer and sermon. Half the men were at the guns, and the rest at the service, and again the dominant note was " impressiveness." We sung our hymns heartily, it is true, but it was a heartiness which had more the touch of reality and earnestness. The same conditions prevailed as at the earlier service, and it Wits not till the closing notes of " God Save the King " rang. through the nullah that our guns silenced the shrapnel fire of the Turks on Achi Hahn. Services over, was most hospitably given quite a home breakfast, rations being supplemented by a weekly parcel of preserved foods and fruits from borne. At this quite cheerful meal, on the side of the nullah, we found much amusement in regarding each other's close cropped heads, many among us having had the horse clippers passed over our flowing locks. Breakfast over, a kindly subaltern took charge of me and my bac, and piloted me to my next halting place down on the beach, on the Western side of the Peninsular. Here a goodly company of 300 men, who were "resting" came together to worship, many of them for the last time on earth. Then, again back inland to a heavy siege gun buttery hidden away in the hills. Once more a sheltered spot was chosen and again half the battery stood to the guns while their comrades worshipped. Here, as in other places, one realised the tremendous power for good of an officer keen on his religions duties. To be asked to provide a celebration; hold a special service; speak on a particular subject; was extremely helpful. During the previous week I stumbled across a small party of men in charge of horses, who by reason of their isolation had been overlooked in the matter of services. In the late Sunday after-noon I found them again some two miles away and, taken unexpectedly as they were, 17 men gathered for a service. On our left we saw the men moving up into the trenches for the morrow's battle. Although sent up in batches of 20 only and in single file, the Turks soon observed them and shrapnel began to come over heavily. One disastrous shell caught the 20 men passing near us; we heard a warning shout, alas, too late, for 4 of the men were killed and 12 wounded. The ambulance men were carrying off the wounded as our service finished. On again to a point a mile and half forward where a service for two batteries had been arranged. Shrapnel 50 yards ahead, in the place I crossed half a minute before, on the right hand and on the left, yet I was not hit. Confused probably by the falling shells, I lost my way my way; moreover, the guns are cleverly concealed with branches they are difficult to find, Eventually I reached the selected spot, to he greeted by one battery only, the other being busy pounding the shrapnel firing Turks. Before the end of our service the firing ceased a little knot of Frenchmen stood reverently near as we sung "Abide with me "and our day's services were over. Back through the darkness, stumbling over telephone wires, and now and then a bit of derelict barbed wire, " home “ at 9-30: very tired, very chastened, very thankful.

 

EDWARD T. HULL.

[David_Underdown]

@dink999 thanks - I see a couple of my Cornwall and Cripps relatives feature in the spreadsheet.