ARMY CHAPLAIN'S DEATH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume L, Issue 175, 24 October 1917, Page 5

ARMY CHAPLAIN'S DEATH

SOLDIERS* APffifetJiAMOK

By the last mail pai-ticufota have arrived giving details of the death of th« Rev. F. K. Harbord, Chaplain, to th» Forces in France. An insight into the influence an Army ChJiplaiti c&ri exert on the soldier is given .front the foP | lowing extracts from the Dunchureh Ap- ■ vertiser's report of his death. In jwjpjiting to Mrs Harbord, an officer of. the ii.A.'M.C said: "Your husband had;.* •billet on the main road and, as.wak his custom, he used to give a cheery word to the men da they passed. It was while talking to a sergeant and one 1 or twp men that the fatal shell came. I do not think he could have" suffered mucn pain—the shock would <t>e so great; . . . rie was a personal friend;:..to everyone, and in that degree his-c lo$« to us is a personal one. How vividly some of his' great thoughts stand' outthoughts that had helped many.Off via to bear these hard things in the past and to look forward with some hope to the future. He 'used to say to tls- iri his service and in the mess that whosoever maue the supreme out . here made it as it was made 2000 yeara ago. It is a fine thought." Another soldier wrote: "I cannot possibly tell '.y. on how terribly grieved we are at the death • of our ±*adre. He was a friend- of every single man in the Divisional Artillery, and especially in this' (Brigade, Svith wli6m he had lived for 12 months. '** The commanding officer said: "It may comfort you to 'know that he performed his d'utie s often under severe fife with cheerfulness and personal bravery.".;'ln the course of a memorial service at ©unchurch, the Rev". C. M. ißlagdenr said the impression which TTrank Robert Barf bord's ministry made on him- vuis> that it was, from * first to- last, a spiritual ministryi tainted by no desire for personal "gain or personal (advancements He had done things which most other men had not done; he had travelled far afield; he had knowledge pi distant lands, . and he had had experience ,cif another great parish in this So he brought to "his ministry there a s-yitli-pathy and oroad-mindedness which en l abled him, however strong the opinion which ho held himself, to enter imo the views which other men held; Then they would think of the way his-min-istry came to an end. There wits ho one more fitted than he to luhdertakV the dxities ,of chaplain to the fot'ceaa He.had experienced the life of a chaplain years ago in .South Africa;, he had been alifoad at the very beginning of the war; had heard. the talk in neutral countries, arid seen the.feeling in Franca itself- that, swept every man when thejr found {/he enemy drawing hearer afld nearer. . "When he might have sto6d on one side, or when he riiiirht, after having been at ,the lyont, have giyeh iifr his. work there and come bacfc hdiiie again, he said', 'I carinbt , leave'; £fcmi Army when the hardest" fighting' iS, to take, place.' That was, the spirit; :jiiwhich he laved and 'died,—tse sp'irit "* 'which had itiade -the Bishop of. "Wcfrceiiter write to the churchwardens"of Duiftchufch, 'lt is with great sorrow arid .personal feeling, tiiat j hear of the death of dear Harbord. . He was nificent indeed, and justified all the" best opinions we hadof. him.' worfla could- exiiifess,the .life of ah army cMapikin better than this—phe that as called upon to 'minister to .the' sick, to frtyd and tend, the wounded-, and to iive, the last consolation to tile dvihtr. That wail exactly .what, our-Lord did ah earth, arid when death found "im doirkr our Lord's work, then surely .he, is .privileged, lb shar e in the dt*ath of the Savioiii'-, gave His- life..for him. . ..'. i> The latei.,Rey. F. ■: >R. Hrirbbrd was A son-in-law ot Mr T. Field, sehr.