LOVE FINDS A WAY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21555, 18 January 1940, Page 10

LOVE FINDS A WAY

WAR DIFFICULTY SOLVED The story of Victor Chaplin, the cowman, and Gertrude Barbrook is of the kind to become a legend in the Suffolk village of Rendham. Victor, soon to be called up, and Gertrude were to be rriarried. Twice the banns had been called at the centuries-old village church. Then the vicar, the Rev. G. C. Vyse. fell ill, and, when the banns should have been called for the third and last time, there was no Sunday morning service. Service Abandoned And there was no Sunday evening service either. The village cannot afford black-out material for the large windows, so evening services are abandoned. So, when Sunday went by, it looked ' as though there was to be no wedding for Gertrude and Victor. Before the next Sunday came round Victor would have left the village to join the forces. The whole village of 200 souls worried about the young lovers and their misfortune. It was they who found the way out of the difficulty. They sent a messenger to the Rev. C. L. W. Bailey, rector of Cransford, the next village, asking him to come and conduct a special service at Rendham. In Darkness Darkness had settled on the village when he arrived, but messengers went from cottage to cottage calling the folk to church. So in pairs and groups the villagers stumbled through the churchyard and groped their way into the pews in the church. Then, in complete darkness, the rector of Cransford conducted the service, hymns, prayers and all. And Victor and Gertrude heard their banns called for the third time. When Victor reported for duty the other afternoon' he was able to say “Married.” The wedding was in the morning.