Words spoken over the dead

[Tom Carroll]

Hello again. I have had some wonderful help on this site, which has helped me in my writing for the stage. I have another request if anyone can help. 

 

Would anyone know if there was a standard form of words that a chaplain would say over the fallen in a burial in the field? Would this have been the same regardless of religious denomination?

 

This is for a play I am currently writing.

 

Many thanks in anticipation.

 

😊

[Ron Clifton]

Hello Tom

 

The chaplain would probably have used the burial service from the (1662) Book of Common Prayer if the soldier was in the Church of England. Roman Catholic or Free Church chaplains would have used their own versions of the service, but I think that the differences were fairly minimal.

 

The BCP is available online:

http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1662/burial.pdf

so you should be able to find it fairly easily. The key words are something like:

"We commit his body to the ground, dust to dust, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life ..."

 

Good luck with the play!

 

Ron

[keithfazzani]

I often wonder how much of that Service was used as it is far from brief. Of course rules were rules and the priest would have as we still do today, have taken an oath only to use those services that were Authorised. Whether that meant he could shorten or leave bits out in extremis I don't know. It would be interesting to know if anyone ever wrote, in a diary for example, whether some parts were omitted. 

[Michelle Young]

"After dark we buried all the dead we had been able to collect, by the cross roads just east of the farm-all Germans in one big grave  and all the British in another. We couldn't get a Chaplain, so I read part of the Burial Service  with Pike holding an electric torch over the book."

 

Extract from Fifteen Rounds a Minute, diary extract George Jeffreys 

[Ron Clifton]

21 minutes ago, keithfazzani said:

I often wonder how much of that Service was used as it is far from brief. Of course rules were rules and the priest would have as we still do today, have taken an oath only to use those services that were Authorised. Whether that meant he could shorten or leave bits out in extremis I don't know. It would be interesting to know if anyone ever wrote, in a diary for example, whether some parts were omitted. 

I think that the service would normally be shortened at the chaplain's discretion. I read the bit about only using those services which were "authorised or allowed by canon" as a prohibition on adding anything, or of varying substantially the words of the committal. For the purposes of the OP's play I would certainly recommend shortening!

 

It is quite possible that the bishops, or the Chaplain-General, had permitted the general use of a specially abridged version of the service "for use in the Field", although that is a pure guess on my part.

 

Ron

[keithfazzani]

I suspect that you are right. But even in my time I have known clergy very reluctant to leave anything out unless authorised. I shall put my thinking cap on and see if there is any way one could establish as to whether there was a shortened authorised service. 

[kenf48]

I don't have a definitive answer but as with most other things Great War I suggest  'it depends' on the circumstances.

 

For example in 'The Bickersteth Diaries' there is a description of the funeral of a Captain Christmas, fatally wounded in hand to hand combat with a German officer, both men were brought in and both died around the same time.  They were both afforded full military honours and presumably the dignity of a C of E service during which two soldiers in the carrying party 'broke down' which suggests a more timely service.

 

On the other hand on the 1st of July 1916 Julian is at an ADS with two other C of E Chaplains, one of whom is wounded on the second day and evacuated.  Initially their concern, and that of the medical staff is with the living.  Eventually the two chaplains undertake the task of of identifying the dead but they are still unable to bury them, single burials were impossible.  Julian notes all the time he was doing this the words 'The living, the living shall praise thee, were beating in my brain.'

Finally some men are found to dig a trench for a mass grave. (Later that comes under artillery fire and they all have to take shelter in the trench).  He records from 9p.m to 11p.m on the 2nd July his colleague is burying the dead, then he comes out to relieve him.  Funerals were generally conducted after dark near the front line as groups of men inevitably attracted the attention of the enemy.  The work continues the following day.  It's difficult to imagine in these circumstances a full service, as described above, would be conducted.  Being High Church would Julian admit he had steered away from the Authorised version?

 

This site has a film of a funeral at Etaples following a bombing raid at the end is fragment of men in kilts burying a soldier.  No sound, and I can't even open it anymore as it needs Flash which is a pity as my great uncle is in one of the coffins but you might have more luck.  If you can open it it's only 4 minutes long which suggests a fairly short form of words.

 

' The Diaries' note many conferences with the Chaplain General though as with many 'conferences' these seem pretty uninspiring and its not clear if any guidance was offered.  What is clear is that great efforts were made to attend to the spiritual needs of the soldiers. 

 

Ken

 

 

Edited 6 March , 2018 by kenf48

[rolt968]

8 hours ago, kenf48 said:

I don't have a definitive answer but as with most other things Great War I suggest  'it depends' on the circumstances.

 

For example in 'The Bickersteth Diaries' there is a description of the funeral of a Captain Christmas, fatally wounded in hand to hand combat with a German officer, both men were brought in and both died around the same time.  They were both afforded full military honours and presumably the dignity of a C of E service during which two soldiers in the carrying party 'broke down' which suggests a more timely service.

 

On the other hand on the 1st of July 1916 Julian is at an ADS with two other C of E Chaplains, one of whom is wounded on the second day and evacuated.  Initially their concern, and that of the medical staff is with the living.  Eventually the two chaplains undertake the task of of identifying the dead but they are still unable to bury them, single burials were impossible.  Julian notes all the time he was doing this the words 'The living, the living shall praise thee, were beating in my brain.'

Finally some men are found to dig a trench for a mass grave. (Later that comes under artillery fire and they all have to take shelter in the trench).  He records from 9p.m to 11p.m on the 2nd July his colleague is burying the dead, then he comes out to relieve him.  Funerals were generally conducted after dark near the front line as groups of men inevitably attracted the attention of the enemy.  The work continues the following day.  It's difficult to imagine in these circumstances a full service, as described above, would be conducted.  Being High Church would Julian admit he had steered away from the Authorised version?

 

This site has a film of a funeral at Etaples following a bombing raid at the end is fragment of men in kilts burying a soldier.  No sound, and I can't even open it anymore as it needs Flash which is a pity as my great uncle is in one of the coffins but you might have more luck.  If you can open it it's only 4 minutes long which suggests a fairly short form of words.

 

' The Diaries' note many conferences with the Chaplain General though as with many 'conferences' these seem pretty uninspiring and its not clear if any guidance was offered.  What is clear is that great efforts were made to attend to the spiritual needs of the soldiers. 

 

Ken

 

 

Thank you for all of this. As a frequent dipper into the Bickersteth diaries. I was going to look for anything useful.

 

Julian might just have been a bit biased about the conferences as he despised the Chaplain General who was low church.

 

RM

[familyhistoryman]

On 05/03/2018 at 20:47, Tom Carroll said:

Hello again. I have had some wonderful help on this site, which has helped me in my writing for the stage. I have another request if anyone can help. 

 

Would anyone know if there was a standard form of words that a chaplain would say over the fallen in a burial in the field? Would this have been the same regardless of religious denomination?

 

This is for a play I am currently writing.

 

Many thanks in anticipation.

 

😊

I don’t know if the following helps. It was part of a letter from Pte Albert Croft RAMC in 1915

 

‘We were knocked to pieces. Private Cockshoot and myself stitched nearly 40 brave English soldiers up in their blankets, but I am pleased to say we placed them away with holy reverence. Private Cockshoot read the burial service and I offered thanks to God for their splendid lives and asked for a blessing for those who were left at home who would never see them again. I have had soldiers die in my arms with my hands and face streaming with blood. I volunteered to help bury four men who were lying dead in a corner. I went at midnight and was accompanied by four other volunteers and a corporal. We dug the grave, lapped the men up in their greatcoats and then committed their remains to the earth. I shall not soon forget the awful solemnity of it all. We stood there in the dark hours, before the challenge of the not-far-distant sentry and with bared head I offered prayer. You are very near to God on occasions like this; you don’t even notice a stray shell bursting, your mind, for the time being, is unmoved’.

[nigelcave]

It would depend entirely on circumstances - and these were often extraordinary on the battlefield. For example, field burials would hardly be in consecrated ground and would lack all sorts of items used ritually/liturgically in normal conditions. The burial service would simply have to be adapted. An RC burial, if done by a chaplain, would certainly have had some Latin and would have included prayers for the repose of the soul of the dead and prayers for him - there would have been theological differences within the prayers as well. That might be getting somewhat technical!

 

In Fr Doyle's letters home he describes several horrifying 'burials', which in a number of cases simply involved a hasty anointing of the killed (including in at least one one instance the great difficulty of finding some part of the flesh undamaged enough to do this).

 

So, from a distance and out of ear shot, I suspect hurried field burials would look similar except for the RC and High Church Anglican chaplains anointing as possible.

 

In a base hospital or anywhere relatively safe, then there would have been identifiable differences between denominations and, obviously, between religions, even if a truncated burial service was used. 

 

On the other hand, chaplains would be burying men who would be from other denominations, inevitably. In the forward zone, whatever was done was likely to be very hasty and apart from the most basic essentials (i.e. a couple of prayers), there would have been very little in pre war liturgical books to cover that situation. Mass burials in difficult conditions were not new, however: just think Black Death or clearing up after battles such as Waterloo.

 

Edited 7 March , 2018 by nigelcave

[Bernard_Lewis]

I think I have an account written by the chaplain who buried 2nd Lt Christopher Tennant in Sept 1917. I'll have a look later...it was in a letter to Christopher's mum, so quite 'fresh' when written.

 

Going out now, back later.

 

Bernard

[Bernard_Lewis]

Here we go:

 

The letter (dated 4 October 1917) from the Chaplain to the mother of Christopher Tennant, Welsh Guards, killed in action 3 September 1917, near Langemarck. Buried at Canada Farm Cemetery. (Quoted material is held at the West Glamorgan Archive Service, Swansea and remains under the control of the Coombe-Tennant family.)

 

[QUOTES FROM CHAPLAIN BEGIN]

 

... I think you may care to know the exact service which I used. I like to read always exactly the same service for officers and men and you will understand that the men are not all accustomed to our prayer book services; and that they are not easy conditions for a service, to stand for a long time, sometimes when shells may be near.

 

I have tried therefore to make the Burial Service rather short so that the men may attend carefully all the time – and as simple as possible that they may understand it, and I have tried to bring out the glorious hope of Resurrection to eternal life, and the fact that the soldier’s spirit – his real self – still lives, and that we are burying the body only.

 

So I enclose the exact form of service I read, and I ask you to forgive me if you are disappointed that the full Prayer Book service was not used, and if the alterations and additions jar upon you. I do appreciate so much the views of those who love our Prayer Books and wish for that only: but out here I do also feel the other side.

 

So if I have done less than you would have liked, I can only ask you to forgive me, and to feel something of a chaplains difficulties out here dealing with all sorts and conditions of men: and yet for whom there is ‘One God and Father of All’.

 

I remain, yours sincerely,

 

G. Miles Stoveley Oldham.

 

The Service

 

Versides

I am the Reserruction…die externally. S. John XI. 25.26.

We brought nothing…nothing out. I Timothy, VI, 7.

The Lord gave…name of the Lord. Job I. 21.

 

Psalm XXIII (in full)

 

The Lesson

Part of I Corinthians, verses 20-22 (both inclusive)

Verse 54 (Then shall be brought to pass…to end of chapter omitting verse 56)

Committal Prayer as in Prayer Book

Substituting ‘our comrade’ for ‘our dear brother…’

 

Verside ‘I heard a voice from Heaven… saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours.

 

The Lord’s Prayer

 

Prayer of Commendation

Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of them that depart in the faith and fear of the Lord, we commend to Thy loving mercy the soul of this our comrade, who has laid down his life in the service of his country. We pray Thee to pardon all his sins and to show Thyself to him in Thy saving grace: that so he may pass from this earthly strife into the peace and joy of Thy Heavenly Kingdom: through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.

 

Prayer for those who mourn at home

Almighty God our Heavenly Father, regard with Thy tender compassion those at home to whom this our comrade is near and dear. Strengthen them to bear their sorrow and lead them to put all their hope and trust in Thy loving mercy and Fatherly care, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.

 

The Blessing

Into God’s gracious mercy and protection we commit thee: and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be with thee – now and for evermore. Amen.

 

 [QUOTES END HERE]

 

The body was draped under a Union Jack prior to burial in a plain sheet. A Welsh dragon being unavailable for temporary draping. Three officers attended as well as did all other ranks who were not in the Front Line.

 

I've written an article on Christopher (7,000 words) that will appear in the 2018 journal of the Neath Antiquarian Society. I am now researching his brother's life and hope to get a book out of that! Their mother, Winifred Coombe Tennant, was a compulsive keeper of letters to and from her sons. 

 

Bernard

Edited 7 March , 2018 by Bernard_Lewis

[Tom Carroll]

Thanks a lot, guys. As usual, some great help, which is much appreciated. I think I have what I need now.

 

For your info. this information is for a play I have in development at the moment, but you may care to keep an eye open for the first of my two WW1 plays, which I hope to bring to the stage in the north west of England and/or North Wales later this year. It is entitled “Before The Trenches”

 

Thanks again

😊👍

[clive_hughes]

Bernard,

A very interesting (to me) explanation of the exact Anglican liturgy used on a battlefield.  The Nonconformists probably had different versions again.

 

Just to clarify one minor point  - the scripture reading would have been 1 Corinthians Chapter 15 verses 20-22.

 

Thanks,

Clive

[depaor01]

I find the approach of various Christian denominations to the anointing and burial of the dead fascinating and this thread has made me look up the various shades of Christianity.  It's an education for a vanilla Irish Catholic. I never knew there were shades of Anglicanism that were almost Catholic. I did work for a Church of Ireland boss who professed to be Catholic but not Roman.

Slight aside but relevant I think.

Dave

[Bernard_Lewis]

Thanks, Clive. The joys of typing between a Window with images and a Window with a Word doc in it! 

 

Bernard

[David_Underdown]

Another minor point, they are versicles (with a C and an L), not versides (with a D).

[Bernard_Lewis]

Thanks. That was hard to read in the original and I wasn't familiar with the term being a Corrugated Galvanist myself... 

 

Bernard

[Tom Carroll]

Thanks for the help, guys. Just FYI, I have finished the play now and I'm hoping to have it staged, probably in North Wales (where it is set) some time later this year or earlier this year. I'm also hoping to stage another WW1 play in Liverpool later this year. I'll post details on the site just in case anyone is interested. Many thanks again. T