keithmroberts Posted 19 February , 2018 Share Posted 19 February , 2018 I hope this is the right place for this query. Among a positive convocation of chaplains I am researching I have found a couple of Anglican clergy who ran Church Army huts. They are not TCF ( temporary Chaplains to the Forces), and the medal cards describe them as civilians. So are there any surviving records of their appointment or service? if so where might they be? Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin DavidOwen Posted 19 February , 2018 Admin Share Posted 19 February , 2018 Keith Might the Church Army be able to help? http://www.eauk.org/church/stories/world-war-one-stories-from-trenches.cfm Regards David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithmroberts Posted 19 February , 2018 Author Share Posted 19 February , 2018 HI David I had a run around the website (they have a specific Church Army one as well as the one you linked to), and the focus is all on current activity. The Other site does have a Contact Us option and I'll probably have to try that next, but just hope that someone out there might know the answer. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithmroberts Posted 19 February , 2018 Author Share Posted 19 February , 2018 I think I have solved by own problem, thanks David. it seems that the Church Army archives are deposited in the Cambridge University Library as a separate collection. Unfortunately the on line catalogue suggests that there is nothing to find about my man. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 19 February , 2018 Share Posted 19 February , 2018 There are a number of references to Church Army huts during the war hither and thither on British Newspaper Archive, including a specific Church Army Hut Fund-whih, if normality prevails, must have reports somewhere. In addition, COPAC throws up 3 potential sources: 1) Brief biographies of some of the ministers of the Presbyterian Church of England who held temporary commissions in the Royal Army Chaplains department in the Great War, 1914-1919 / compiled from information supplied to the Rev. John Cairns. o London : Printed by McCorquodale & Co. Ltd. [1920] Edinburgh University 2) The Brunswick Monthly. The official organ of the Church Army Headquarters Church, etc. vol. 5. no. 7-vol. 9. no. 8. July 1914-Aug. 1918. o London, 1914-18 British Library Printed 3) Our Monthly, etc. (Monthly Magazine.) vol. 9. no. 9.-vol. 14. no. 1. Sept. 1918-Jan. 1923. o London, 1918-23 British Library Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithmroberts Posted 20 February , 2018 Author Share Posted 20 February , 2018 Thanks for listing those. The first won't relate as the man concerned was a C of E Priest, and I'm unlikely to make it to Edinburgh, but the material in the British Library might be worth a look and I'll add it to my list of potential visits. I'm sure it would be more comfortable than the three days I spent last week in an unheated church reading and copying correspondence sent to a clergyman who was a Balliol product. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 20 February , 2018 Share Posted 20 February , 2018 No guarantee as to promptness but I can try and look at these BL items over the next week or so-It's my local library. May one be permitted to know the names of those you are chasing? I follow this as I am chasing the records of another couple of C of E based groups- on an unrelated topic of interest to me- which seem to have disappeared. I suspect that they-like yours-are out there somewhere but am not having much success- I have known the Lambeth Palace Librarian for over 30 years but he reports no backlog of cataloguing in their stocks,nor of any treasure trove they have not got their mits on. One has to remember that Lambeth Palace now has the C of E Record Centre, so they should know-I will tackle him when I see him next Sunday. Church Army looks just too extensive not to have left some stuff- the Cambridge UL listing looks far too light-particularly as to quantity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithmroberts Posted 20 February , 2018 Author Share Posted 20 February , 2018 I agree that the Church Army material at Cambridge looks very thin from the descriptions. The Church Army chap is Rev Percy William Hill who was a Church Army superintendant in Belgium from about 1917. He was not one of the 20 Portsea clergy who served as TCF, but was a former Sunday school pupil of one of the mission churches and I have found references to him in the parish Magazine, and in a letter written by one of the other curates to Rev O A Hunt. The collection of transcribed letters to Hunt in the Balliol Archive is a little goldmine. I have my date for Kew to view the surviving army files for Portsea chaplains, (some only have long numbers now), and am visiting the Museum of Army Chaplaincy in the hope of finding records additional to their index cards. While I am keen to learn more about all, I have made a lot of progress about the war service of most; the other particular challenge being the two who worked under the auspices of the YMCA. The YMCA archive is in Birmingham university, but again the description of their content is not inspiring. If you have time to enquire at Lambeth about those two I would appreciate it. Rev Edward Arthur Elliot b1890 d1959, who has some material at the Museum of English Rural Life at Reading University, but it appears to be of little or no value, being mostly concerned with the study of ferns, and Rev Edward Maitland BALD b 1886 d 1956 Again, for both, I have that which is in Crockfords, Ancestry, and some local records, but virtually no other information about their war service. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnumbellum Posted 21 February , 2018 Share Posted 21 February , 2018 On 19/02/2018 at 17:07, keithmroberts said: HI David I had a run around the website (they have a specific Church Army one as well as the one you linked to), and the focus is all on current activity. The Other site does have a Contact Us option and I'll probably have to try that next, but just hope that someone out there might know the answer. Keith A year or two ago I contacted the Church Army via their website, hoping to exchange information about a Church Army captain remembered on a local war memorial. I was informed that they had no archivist and apparently no archives. They seemed remarkably uninterested in anything beyond their current work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithmroberts Posted 21 February , 2018 Author Share Posted 21 February , 2018 34 minutes ago, Magnumbellum said: A year or two ago I contacted the Church Army via their website, hoping to exchange information about a Church Army captain remembered on a local war memorial. I was informed that they had no archivist and apparently no archives. They seemed remarkably uninterested in anything beyond their current work. I must admit that without attempting to use their "Contact us" form, I had formed a similar impression. I am sure that they are very enthusiastic about their cause, but somehow I was inclining to anticipate the reaction that you were given. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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