Chaplain’s Experiences On Active Service

Northern Advocate, 23 August 1943, Page 2

Chaplain’s Experiences On Active Service

Speaking m ihe Whangarei Mcihnciisi Church yc-so-rclay afternoon to the Men : Fellowship, Rev. F. Gardner Brown, reeemly n-mrned from the Middle East, said dial one of the greatest uplil'is to ihe moral.- ol ihe men overseas is ifi.- reeeipi <-i loners In.m their loved ones back in Ni w Zealand. Mr. Brown said dun he considered it a great privilege to have been whit HiNew Zealand. Division overseas, and ic have been of assistance io a givai many men in die hospitals. The life ol a padre on aciive service was a very exacting one, especially when he had io visit men suffering from all kinds of wounds. Rev. Blown was chaplain in No. 2 General Mospiia! ai Hclwaii. a : lion distance from I 'ail’o, which was ivael'n ct by Djesi l-eitgincd trains. There trains and railway-carriages were made ~r Ludapi.si in pre-war days, and iravell.cl at a speeu of tin m.p.h. along Hat stretches of line. I 'IIn- majority of chaps, said Mr. Brown, growled (iii a Sunday morning when compulsory church parades were held, bu l with good hymns to be sung, die hoys soon forgot their grumbling and all enjoyed ibe services. Services at lirsi were conducted in a little stone chapel which proudly boasred a pipe-organ, but later a move was made id titi large hospital dining-room. Tile Goal Amuses One day. when a service was being conducted in the little church, a goal wandered in and trotted happily up the passage io the back of the church, where a man was busily employed pumping air inic the organ. Suddenly die goal turned a somersault and landed in me chancel, and was lasi seen disappearing through the doorway of die church. The padre, said Mr. Brown, was never out ol a job—visiting patients, sharing their worries, writing letters, straightening out problems of life. The requests made io nim were amazing'. The hospital, although nominally New Zealand, had Polish, Czech, Syrian, Australian and British patients. Men of all nationalities and religions were paiictus. At No, 2 General l-lospiial there were two padres, and while one visited ihe medical seeiion the other went around the pal lent s’ in the surgical waids. On ihoir visits they usually took a large bag containing cigarettes, choeolatc-s, razors and blades, soap, etc. This service, said Mr. t.roun. might seem very materialistic, bin ii also gave an opportunity of speaking of religious matters to the men. Many a man had discussed religious, domestic, moral and oilier problems with him in his room. 'The speaker toid of a man, formerly a farmer, who was injured about the head and became blind: of how he had taken rite blind man for walks, and of how this parieni had found a now lease cf file, and new was a member of the Auckland Insiinue for ihe Blind, learning basket-making.

Piek-and-Shcvd Work On one occasion, when lie had been transferred to a new hospital being erected in tire desert, he had bad to take up pick and. shovel to help get the hospital erected in time to receive the wounded coming in from the iirst battle lof Libya. In three weeks the hospital, comprising nine or ten wards, an operating theatre built of stone to keep out dust and sand, as well as quarters for the staff had been erected. Surgical wards were built throe feet into the ground so that tlte patients had protection from bomb-blast. Arrival of Conveys When the convoys arrived, the male orderlies who. said Mr. Brown, were tiv-hardest-worked men in’the Army, carried the patients into the wards, where tnc sisters and nurses took over. The speaker Paid an eloquent tribute to the sister:: whom, he said, worked hard and were very kind to the patients, most of whom, when brought in from the battlefield, wove in a shocking condition. Most of the patients had no belongings, and once again the padres had.ro come to the fore, and from somewhere or other, manage to (ill their needs. Mr. Brown said that, tlte men. almost “purred" wl'di, upon arrival, their wounds wore washed and dressed and they wore put to bed in-twoon clean : beets. The story of how the New Zt-aland Division. had stepped and held tin- Germans at Mersa Matrtih; of how, though surrounded, they cut thi-ir way through tire I enemy and took their places in the now line at El Alamcin, was graphically told by Air. brown. Two hospitals which the Germans had captured were retaken by the British Eighth Army, but the patients were in a terrible condition. In 43 hours, 20 to SC biood transfusions had to be administered. The majority of neurosis casus would be cured. It was remarkable what could be clone through the medium of occupational therapy. A Great Leveller Army life was a great leveller, said Rev. Brown —rich and poor, educated and uneducated —all became one in the great purpose of winning the battle for peace. Mer.. no matter how hard their outlook on life, always prayed when in a right corner. Mr. Brown told the story of how a body of soldiers left behind in Crete, escaped fi'om the island "under the very noses of the German guns.” Setting our in a stranded, invasion barge, they found themselves short of food and water. After' being at sea for eight days, the leader, an Australian, suggested that the only thing left to do was to pray. In. turn they prayed to God. humblv and reverently. Two hours later they sighted British-held Sidi Barani. Rev. Brown said . that the Church held the .supreme place in establishing the new order for the men-on their return. *