CAMP WEDDING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 200, 25 August 1942, Page 4

CAMP WEDDING

SOLDIER AND BRIDE IMPRESSIVE SERVICE For the first time in New Zealand a Nuptial Eucharist was celebrated in a military camp chapel on August 12, when a soldier and his bride were married at the Church Army Institute in the Dominion's largest inland camp. The couple were Private Harley Matson Johanson, son of Mr. and Mrs. L. S. McAsey, of Hawera, and Lorraine Hannah, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. K. J. Goile, of Ohakune. The service was performed by Captain Harold Irving, Church of Eng. land Chaplain to the Forces, and was attended by a number of civilian and military friends.

Sergeant K. J. Goile, in Home Guard uniform, gave his daughter away. The bride's twin sister, Mrs. Comilings, young widow of the present war, whose husband was killed in Egp-pt, acted as matron of honour. Private A. O. Burke was best man.

Set masculine atmosphere of a military camp, the service was an impresive one, as through the solemn ritual of the marriage service there intruded the undertones of war, the impatient stuttering of machine gun on one of the camp ranges, and the faintly heard commands of instructors on a near-by parade ground. During the service Sergeant-Major T. J. Kirk-Burnand, the well-known musician, officiated at the chapel organ, and his unit also provided a guard of honour with fixed bayonets An unofficial and unrehearsed ovation was given the bridal party as they left the chapel by a battalion of soldiers which had just been dismissed from the adjacent parade ground.

Following the service a reception wedding breakfast were held in the Church Army hut. During the reception it was remarked that although one or two weddings had previously been held in camp chapels this was the first time that the fill? service of the Nuptial Eucharist had been celebrated under such circum stances.