Challenges of the Great War, 1914-1918
/Geoff Ettridge explores the challenges faced to Cathedral life by the Great War. Featured in The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 2019.
During the Great War the Cathedral and its staff had a pivotal role in maintaining morale and providing for the spiritual needs of the inhabitants of Rochester and also the thousands who moved into the area. By August 1915 the population of the Medway Towns had quadrupled.
The following account of events associated with the Cathedral during the Great War has been compiled from articles in the national and local press of the time.
War is Declared
Those attending the service held in the Cathedral on the Sunday after war had been declared could not deny that the day was different from previous Sabbaths. The sound of marching boots and the singing of marching ditties could be heard over Dean John Storrs as he gave less of a sermon and more of an address to the congregation.
The Oxford Movement at Rochester Cathedral, 1895-1930
David Cleggett examines the times of Bishop Edward Talbot, Bishop John Harmer and Dean John Storrs over the late 19th and early 20th century, a High Church period in the history of the Cathedral.
In recognising the crisis which the country faced and that war was always horrible, hideous and ghastly, he felt that peace with dishonour would be far worse. He maintained this view through to the end of the war. When it was clear that the country was weary of war and it looked as if a peace treaty would be sought, he spoke out saying that only a decisive victory would prevent another war breaking out in 20 years' time.
A Place of Worship and Remembrance
The Medway Towns were a major muster point for soldiers heading for the Front. A green-tented village appeared, ranging from Gillingham, along the Lines and over the horizon at Strood. The Medway Towns were also amongst the first to receive the wounded from France. There was, therefore, evidence all around that this was not going to be an adventure which would be over by Christmas. Going to war was something not to look forward to but something to fear!
Revd. John Harmer, Bishop of Rochester 1905-1930, leads a drumhead Holy Communion service on the Somme in 1916 for the King’s Liverpool Regiment. Caption: ‘Official Photograph. Crown Copyright reserved. Daily Mail photographer’. Copy in Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library.
Many soldiers - many away from home for the first time - wished to attend services at the Cathedral; so many in fact that arrangements needed to be made for particular battalions to attend alternative churches. The Cathedral, though, made every effort to accommodate everyone who wished to attend a service there at Christmas and Easter. Extra services were arranged and at Christmas 1915 Communion was given in the Nave for the first time since the Reformation.
Although both the Bishop and the Dean recognised the legitimacy of a war which had been 'forced upon us by stern necessity', they steadfastly prayed for peace. At the end of the war we learnt that the Dean and a small company had gathered daily in the Lady Chapel to pray for the sailors and soldiers, the cause for which they were fighting and for a final victory.
With the death-toll ever increasing, in March 1916 the Dean and Chapter decided that they could not allow any more memorial brasses to be placed in the Cathedral, but by the end of the year they had opened a shrine in the Jesus Chapel (NW Transept) for the remembrance of the fallen.
Normal Service Disrupted
The Cathedral could not avoid many of its traditions being disrupted by the war, the first impact being the loss to the war effort of laymen associated with running the Cathedral.
Music at the Cathedral was disrupted by the call-up of the lay clerks and later, in 1917, of the organist Charles Hylton-Stewart.1 Pending the arrival of Miss Hilda Milvain1 FRCO, who had temporarily been appointed as the Cathedral's organist, Evensong was sung by the choristers with one of their number at the organ.
Great War organists, 1914-1918
Simon Shreeve tells the story of the organists of Rochester Cathedral during the Great War, Bertram Luard-Selby, Charles Hylton Stuart and Hilda Milvain. Featured in The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 2019.
Read more
Miss Milvain was not the only woman with responsibilities at the Cathedral: there was Deaconess Grace Partridge, who had long been involved with providing pastoral care for the many women who moved into the area to undertake war work, and soon there would also be a female bell-ringer and verger, an occurrence worthy of being mentioned in the national press but sadly no names.
Evening services were also curtailed. The black-out meant there was no street lighting which made it dangerous for people to attend services after dark. Heating was also cut back due to restrictions placed on the use of fuel - this particularly annoyed the Bishop as places of entertainment did not face a similar restrictions.
Cathedral Crypt used as an Air-raid Shelter
Rochester was in a 'danger-zone' as far as air-raids were concerned, particularly at the time around a full moon when pilots could follow the river to the many targets around Rochester.
In 1917 the Dean and Chapter arranged for the Crypt to be opened in the event of an air-raid, but it seems that this was misused because many people visited Rochester near the time of a full moon to take shelter in the Crypt. The Mayor of Rochester was particularly appalled by the number of young men who took advantage of the Crypt - he felt that they should be at home defending their families or serving on the Front Line. Restrictions were therefore introduced: the Crypt would only be opened when an order of 'take-cover' had been given and was only to be used by people in the vicinity of the Cathedral at the time of the warning.
The Conveyor of Good News
The Cathedral's bells, along with others across the country, were silent during most of the war - the first time they were rung following the declaration of war was in November 1917 to announce a victory at Flanders. This was perhaps a measure of the despondency being felt within Rochester and the need to try to raise morale. Sadly it was premature, as by the end of the month the Germans had launched a successful counter-attack.
As 1918 progressed and the Allies steadily moved towards certain victory, more use was made of the bells. In August 1918 a 'Great Remembrance Service' was held in the Cathedral and another on the Esplanade at which 'all shades of religious bodies could join'. An extraordinary number of people attended the Cathedral service and Verger Levitt was 'taxed to the utmost to find seating for as many as possible'. During the day peals were rung on the bells of the Cathedral and St Margaret's church.
As people became ever more optimistic that victory would soon be delivered, the Cathedral's bell-ringers petitioned the Dean and Chapter to sanction the addition of two new bells to the existing peal to commemorate the declaration of peace when it arrived.2
At the Cathedral service on 10 November 1918, the Dean announced from the pulpit that should news come through that the Armistice had been signed, the Cathedral's bells would ring out and 30 minutes later a service of thanksgiving would be held. At 11.30am on 11 November the bells began their celebratory peal but they were not the first to announce the news - that had been done by the hooters and horns of the dockyard, where the workers had heard at 9.30am that the Armistice was due to be signed.
At 12 noon, as the Dean had announced, a service of thanksgiving was held in the Quire, attended by an estimated 2,000. Sadly that morning the Dean had learned that his son, Francis Storrs RNVR, had died of the flu aged 35, but he still took part in the service and addressed the congregation. 'O God, Our Help in Ages Past', sung to the never dying St. Anne's tune, went up from hearts which were overflowing with joy and thankfulness.
Bells and Belfries
Ten bells are hung in the bell tower. The Dean and Chapter commissioned Gillett and Johnston of Croydon to recast the existing eight bells and to add two more in 1921.
A Great Service Marked Armistice Day
Every place of worship was packed to sing the praises of peace on Sunday 17 November 1918. Throughout the day the bells of the Cathedral and St Margaret's church rang out merrily.
The public had become accustomed to the Cathedral's 6.30pm Evensong being packed, so people thronged the doors from around 5.30pm. By 6.30pm there wasn't a vacant seat in the building.
Special seats were reserved for Australian officers from Cobham Hall for the service, which was attended by admirals, generals, officers and men, Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS), soldiers, sailors, nurses, wounded, munitions and civilian workers, all of whom had come together to give thanks for peace; and 'how they sang: people singing as they've never done before!' In memory of the fallen the hymns 'Forever with the Lord' and 'For All the Saints' were included in the service.
The service was supported by a 60-strong Royal Engineers band dressed in their scarlet tunics.
The roll of drums, the sound of martial music, the great organ and the praises of overflowing hearts had a mighty impact.
A march along Rochester High Street in 1919.
Looking to the Future
In an address to the Rochester Diocesan Conference in July 1918, the Bishop of Rochester, John Harmer, warned that the church had to engage with weighty issues if it wished to influence the reconstruction of the country. He also believed that the church had to engage more with the laity as his experience was that the opinions amongst the wage-earning classes were very sound, far more so than in the so-called societal classes.
Some weighty issues though were out of bounds - a meeting of the Kent Central District of the English Church Union, held at Rochester in 1916, resolved that it was contrary to Holy Scripture and the tradition of the Church that women should receive Holy Orders.
Christmas 1918
Christmas Day was heralded with a peal of the Cathedral's bells which started at 6.15am and continued until the service started at 7.00am, the earliest for some years that the Cathedral belfry had been so occupied. Mr Osbourne and Mr Haig and their comrades of the belfry 'made the welkin ring right and merrily'.
Geoff Ettridge
Reillustrated by Jacob Scott, Heritage Office
Featured in The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 2019
Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Reports
The Friends of Rochester Cathedral were founded to help finance the maintenance of the fabric and grounds. The Friends’ annual reports have become a trove of articles on the fabric and history of the cathedral.
Footnotes
1 Biographies can be found in the Friends' Annual Report 2018/2019, p. 11-13.
2 In 1921 the existing ring of eight was recast into ten by Gillett and Johnston of Croydon. Some of the bells have inscriptions commemorating servicemen and civilians lost during the Great War including Francis Storrs. Full details of the bells can be found in the Friends' Report for 1998/8, p. 11-15, and Love's Guide to the Church Bells of Kent, at kent.lovesguide.com
