The Bishop of Lonoon in Camp.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume V, Issue 7, 1 January 1915, Page 78

The Bishop of Lonoon m Camp.

TWO MONTHS WITH THE' LONDON RIFLE BRIGADE. Writing from Crowborough, the Bishop of London has detailed some of his experiences as chaplain of the London Rifle Brigade from the outbreak of the war. Few things (says the Bishop) were more sudden than our departure from Beachey Head on August 2nd, when war became imtainent. I had come down on the ist (Saturday) to get things ready for Sunday, and as the Brigade was not arriving until Monday afternoon I had arranged a voluntary service for six p.m. The Brigade arrived on Sunday before four, and had dinner, but at 5.50 the orders came to return to London, and at 6.10 the Brigade was off back to London. I conducted the service with a handful of boys from a cadet corps, and picking up my own and other

people's belongings, motored back to I/ondon by n p.m. Then followed a long period of waiting m i billets m I/ondon, where I had three Brigades on my hands, one of Artillery m the meadow, one of Cavalry m the courtyard, and my own m Charterhousesquare. The old Fulham Palace courtyard made an admirable place for a Church parade. At last the orders icame to start, and the first camp at Bisley was a very happy time. The weather was delightful, the men all round one m the best of spirits, and the neighbourhood gave us a most friendly reception. The only thing left out of the arrangements at first starting was religion, and when I went down " on my own " to join the camp, there were no chaplains on the strength of the whole Iyondon Division of 15,000 men, anil the first Church parade which I took consisted of 5,000 men. The excellent General of the Division (General Fry) soon altered that, and. after a long consultation with me, arranged that there should be six chaplains for the Division, two for each caimp of 5,000 men. He also arranged that there should be a Roman Catholic chaplain for the Division, and a Wesley an. . . . Our Churchpeople will be pleased to hear that the early service of the Holy Communion at 7 a.m. was attended each Monday by .130 communicants, and that as the f tents were visited every evening one by one, I found that 99 out of the 100 of the young men were m touch, so far as our Diocese was concerned, with one or other of our clergy, and with regard to those who came from the Dioceses of S,outhwark and.S. Albans the same appeared to be the case, although. l did not, of course, personally know the clergy m the same way. From 'Bisley we received orders to march to Crowborough, and here we are now encamped at the top of a hill, eight 'hundred feet above the sea. I will say nothing now about the early discomforts of our arrival, except to note the extreme good temper with which they were borne by the whole Brigade. ' We arrived at 11 a.m., and halted on a bare heath with no tents and no food, nor did anything arrive till the evening, and the biting wind after the heat of the inarch tried many tempers and

many constitutions, but, although, many of us jwent to bed on two or three biscuits, it was felt that this was only practice for the " real thing " if it came. >. The biting east wind lasted for several days, but has now, when I write (September 22nd), given way to the most glorious sunshine. Our own camp of the 2nd Brigade (5,000) is a busy scene of drilling (I myself have had a stretcher drill daily at Bisley), bugles, signalling, digging trenches, and so on. Now, why do I write about all this at all ? Partly that you may have some idea of what your Bishop has been doing during the two months he has been away from you. He has been away from London but not from, Londoners, and it would, have been a sad pity if these 15,000 Londoners, nearly all young men between seventeen and twenty-five, had had no spiritual friend near them to help them to face what will be the ordeal of their lives. As it is they pour m morning and evening, before and after drill, and talk, about theirmost private affairs. But I have a further object — to encourage the clergy and lay-work-ers m their work. The immense majority of all these men are Churchmen, and nearly all, as I have said, I find m touch with the clergy of their parish as having been m some club or guild or choir. Their faces light up when they find I know Mr So-and-so, and many of them tell me that I have oonfirmed them. I say this now especially because out of the 1,000 or more clergy who have volunteered to go out to the front, it has been only found possible to send fifty,, and therefore the immense majority will not be sent at all. Let those of us who- are not sent still feel that we, are taking our part m the war. Bvery young man whom we properly train m guild or class forms a valuable element m the tone of a regiment, and nothing has convinced me more than these two months m camp of the immense work which! the Church is quietly doing for the country. The great thing at this crisis of our country's history and of the history of the world is to do thoroughly and quietly the work which lies to pur hand, and to do. what we are ©ailed to do will be our

best contribution to the new kingdom of righteousness and peace which we hope will succeed the horrors of war. Those pictures of Moses holding up his hand above the battle, and* of Aaron " running m between " the living and the dead are ever inspiring- our intercessions, and I shall go back from my two months with the London Rifle Brigade more convinced than ever that the daily round and common task on which we are engaged m our spiritwork, are achieving a good result which will last for ever.