From the January Parish Magazine 1917
... Another matter which has become very clear in the course of the National Mission is the need of making more evident, and giving outward expression to, that sense of Christian fellowship which should animate all members of the Church. As a help towards this, it is proposed to hold occasional social gatherings of Church-people of all sorts. The first of these gatherings is to be held at the Institute on Wednesday, Jan. 17th, from 7.30 to 9.30 p.m. A committee of ladies will act as hostesses. Music and games and light refreshments will be provided; and in order to cover expenses a charge of 6d. each will be made for tickets. No children under 14, except infants in arms can be admitted. Offers of cakes, tea, coffee, butter, and milk will be gratefully received, and should be made to Mrs. Hobson by Friday, Jan. 12th.
In order to give to our people increased opportunity of taking part in the sacred duty of praying at this time for our country, for the men on Service in the Fleet and at the Front, and for their own friends and relatives who are serving in the Forces of the King, it is proposed to hold very short open-air Services at some half-dozen points in the Parish on one or two nights each week. At these Services there will be a hymn; the names of the men fighting, assisting the combatants, sick and wounded, or fallen in the war, whose homes are near these points will be read; and two or three short prayers will be said. The arrangements for the present will be as follows :—
Mondays
6.30 p.m. Bridge Street, corner of River Lane.
6.40 p.m. North Street, by the Clock.
6.50 p.m. Middle Road, lower end.
{7.10 p m. Poplar Road, corner of St. John's Road
{7.20 p.m. Clinton Road, corner of Reigate Road
in alternate weeks
{7.25}
{7.35} In alt. weeks. Church Road, corner of Church Walk.
Thursdays
6.30 p.m. Kingston Road, corner of Barnett Wood Lane.
6.50 p.m. Kingston Road, corner of Oak Road.
It is hoped to make a beginning on Monday, Jan. 15th.
On Wednesday, Dec. 13th, there was an Organ Recital with Carols in the Parish Church. Mr. Webb was at the organ, and our Choir was very kindly helped by members of the St. John’s School Choir. All who were present must have found much encouragement and comfort in this beautifully-rendered service. The collection, on behalf of St. Dunstan’s Hospital for Sailors and Soldiers blinded in the war, amounted to £3 14s. 6d.
Programme.
Organ ... Andante (Violin Concerto) ... Mendelssohn.
Carols “The Manger Throne”, “Christ was born on Christmas Day”
Organ ... Aria in G ... Bach.
Carols “Child Jesus came to earth this day” “O come, all ye faithful”
Organ ... Largo (New World Symphony) ... Dvorak.
Carols “When Christ was born” “In dulci Jubilo”
Hymn “Once in royal David’s city”
Organ “Finlandia” ... Sibelius.
We thank most gratefully the kind friends who sent evergreens, and flowers—perhaps more beautiful and in greater quantity than in former years,—and the ladies who spent many hours and an infinity of trouble, for the decoration of our Churches at Christmastide.
THE PARISH MAGAZINE.
The sale in aid of the effort towards clearing off the heavy debt upon the Funds of the Parish Magazine was held on Wednesday, Dec. 6th, in the hall of the Unionist Club, and was a great success. £24 8s. in all was realised, and as the expenses came to just 8s. the sum of £24 was placed to the credit of the Fund. We hope that Miss Hewlins and the many friends who took so much trouble to make the Sale successful, will feel that their efforts were rewarded by the result.
It is of course necessary to take all possible precautions against any increase of the debt which is still undischarged: and to effect every practical economy in order to pay off the £50 which is still outstanding.
It has long been found impossible to continue publishing the monthly list of men serving in the Forces of the King, which aroused much interest in the Parish but did not lead to any appreciable increase in the sale, whereas the additional cost of publishing the list was considerable, and rose month by month as the list of names grew longer. With the same object of reducing expenses the monthly “Thanksgivings and Intercessions” issued by the Bishop have now been cut down so as to include only those which have not appeared before.
It will not be possible to publish the list of Lent and Advent Services in full in the Magazine, as has always been the custom hitherto. It is difficult to see what further reductions can be made without altering the whole character of the Magazine, which at present, it appears, compares favourably with most others in the country: but it is obvious that it cannot be carried on at a loss. It has been suggested that the Bishop’s Letter, which generally appears, but which he sometimes omits to send, should be cut out: but the Vicar is very loth to take any step which would shut us out from occasional glimpses of the larger life of the Church, and which would tend to confine us within the bounds of that excessive Parochialism to which we are already too much inclined. For the Diocese, and not the Parish, is the unit of Church life.
THE VICAR’S LETTER.
My Dear Friends,
The year that is gone has brought sorrow into very many of our homes, and the New Year finds us still at war, and is clouded with more anxiety for the future than most of us felt twelve months ago. But surely, on the one hand, the blessed truth of the Communion of Saints has become far more definite and clear than it was to the minds and hearts of most of us: and we understand that there is no real separation between those who strive to live on here as loyal servants of Christ, and those who have laid down their earthly lives in His faith and fear.
And amid the grief inevitable at the parting for a while from those we love, the Festival of Christmastide has brought with it thoughts of truest cheer and deepest thankfulness to Him who came down to earth that all who believe in Him and follow Him might have undying fellowship with one another in His love; and on the other hand we must feel that in any privation, and pain, and sorrow which we have to endure, we are making our contribution, small or great, towards the victory of the great cause of righteousness and freedom, for which those who have been taken from us have sacrificed their earthly all.
And we shall not, through any shrinking from the cost, or dread of what may lie before us, stay our hands until that victory, if God will, is achieved: we will not, through any reluctance to bear our share of the burden, allow the sacrifice of those dear lives to be, so far as our generation is concerned, in vain. May God grant us a happier year than that which is past, and peace on solid and lasting foundations; but not a peace in which we are content to leave things as they are, through weariness of the strife, and all the loss and suffering that it entails; not a peace which draws no distinction between good and evil, between the guilty and the innocent: that would be to leave all the work to be done again in our children’s time, or it might be, even in our own: to acceptsuch a peace would be to betray all for which those whom we mourn have fought and died. The sacred memory of their self-sacrifice must brace us to endure to the end. God give us grace and strength to be true to Him and them!
Several things which I might have said in this letter, appear in a more broken-up form under the head of Notices, where I hope they will more readily catch the eye.
On Christmas-Eve, Mr. Henry White, of the Knoll, our honoured and, I think, our oldest fellow-parishioner passed peacefully away at the great age of 93. It is not possible to speak of his life and work in Letherhead in this number, but I hope to do so in the next.
I remain,
Yours very faithfully,
T. F. Hobson.
The following is the Message of the Bishop of the Diocese, which was read in Church on Sunday, December 31st:
Farnham Castle,
December, 1916.
My Dear People,
As 1916 draws to an end, I write to send you my word of greeting and of blessing for 1917..
At a time like this he who speaks may well beware lest he prate. It is for God to speak; for us to hear. The things which are happening are too big and their meanings too enormous and mysterious for words of ours. Yet we must speak one to another as God bids us, trying to see, and to help each other to see, what it is that God would have us learn in these great times.
First I bid you to thankfulness. We have reason for it, both as English people and as Christians.
(a) A year of awful war has brought no disaster. The mighty Fleet which God has given us for shelter still rules the seas. There is no defeat. Our supply of food has been threatened and lessened; but it is still abundant. There is no famine. The alliance of nations which fight for a just and peaceful future seems only to grow closer with time. There is no break-up.
But there are greater things than these. Our Armies and those of France are better than those of the enemy : and this is no mere result of guns and shells : these are needed: but it is the result of human spirit, valour, endurance. We have new reason to thank God for England, and for being English.
(b) But we have a 'better citizenship ’ yet, that is an heavenly: here on earth but yet above earth’s common life.
And as Christians we have deep grounds for thankfulness. God has blessed us in 1916. Looking back a year behind the National Mission, we can see how much we have received. We have been taught to think more, and to pray better. We have felt the call of a great opportunity. We have been drawn close to one another in the things of God: we have had larger opportunities of helping and serving one another. The Service of Messengers who have gone from one part of our Diocese to another, or come as strangers to help us, is just one example of this. We thank God for the signs that, in spite of all our faults, He is still with us in His Church.
I am quite sure that such thankfulness, if genuine, will not make us proud, or boastful, or self-complacent.
Not boastful as English folk, for God has as yet held back anything like decisive success.
Not boastful as Church-folk: for the blessing of the Mission has come to us largely through more knowledge of our faults, more willingness to learn, more readiness to see how far, far better than they are things might be with us as Christians and as a Church.
First, then, humble thankfulness.
And then, secondly, a brave, stedfast, faithful looking forward. Words would be lost in trying to speak of 1917. It is a tremendous year in the world’s history. No year ever came along bringing with it bigger possibilities of good or evil, success or trouble. The great War upon which everything depends hangs in the balances: we feel it swaying: sanguine hopes and gloomy forebodings interchange.
The down-trodden nations still groan and suffer. For ourselves the screw slowly tightens. We must be prepared to find that we have much more to put up with, and to bear, and to give up, than we have as yet understood. I use, in substance, the words of a Government speaker in Parliament.
All this is plain. What I ask you to think of is something which will be true this year, whatever happens. Whatever happens, it will be something which will make a big demand upon us, upon the national character, and upon each of us.
Plainly so, if there should be trouble in store: if the submarine danger should increase, if our food should become scarcer and dearer: if there should be some defeat or disaster by sea or land. However great British power, however brave and skilful our commanders and men, all these things are in the hand of the Lord. Plainly in case of trouble our courage and patience and temper would be tried to the uttermost
But what if God allows and gives the victory for which we look with increasing hope 1 Is there any harder thing for a nation to use rightly than success. Victors are apt to be arrogant. In the hour of success a nation’s sobriety and self-control are easily lost. To deal fairly with a conquered enemy might easily be even a harder task than to conquer him.
But, further, beyond victory would come Peace. Peace with its freedom and relief, like the rolling off of some horrible nightmare. But also Peace with its opportunities, its problems, its enormous difficulties. There is no harder task than that of a nation ‘settling down ’ after a huge upheaval like this. Millions of men to be provided with employment: women too, now drawing high pay on war work: wages perhaps falling for a time: employers and employed having to start again without quarrelling and civil war, with better understanding and sympathy. A nation that can conquer itself and govern itself is even nobler than a nation which can win a war.
Therefore I repeat, and I ask you to consider in your thoughts, and to remember in your prayers, that whatever 1917 brings, it will call for all, and more than all, the very best that is in us. How can we come by that 1 Every Christian knows the answer. Only by God’s help. Only through the grace and truth of Jesus Christ. Only if we have the strength and understanding and godly fear which His Spirit gives. Only, therefore, if we walk humbly with our God.
Therefore I beseech you in the name of the Lord, do your little best as a Parish, do your little best, each of you, to make England in 1917 a brave, wise, patient, humble England by the grace of God, which He gives in answer to His people’s prayer.
This is my earnest exhortation and request.
It is not another, but part of the same if I beg of you, parson and people, to work together to make your Parish, God’s Church in your Parish, more worthy of the Christian name. It is something even to learn that God’s people in a Parish are indeed a body with a common responsibility and duty. In some places we had almost forgotten it.
I remember, as I write these words, in what different places they will be read, tiny churches in little country parishes, and big centres of crowded towns. But it is true of all alike and of each that God’s people can do something in 1917 to make their worship and their way of life better, heartier, and purer.
We have had in the National Mission a great opportunity. You have answered to it. You have seen a little more what things might be and ought to be. You have made beginnings of more prayer and thought. You have had glimpses of better things for Church and nation; how the children may be better trained to a godly, sober, and Christian life: how the young of both sexes may have nobler thoughts and ways in their lives, and with one another: how in all our dealings we may be more true and just. The War has made us see some fine things in English life: but it has shewn us also other things, some very wrong and shameful, some very shallow and second rate. It is for us all to try and find what we can do on the right side.
I beg you keep hold of what you have received. Put it out to interest. Let not things be just as they have been. Determine that they should be better. Consult together about it. God puts us in trust with His own cause. Let us by His help be better trustees.
I beg you with all my heart to remember in your prayers the Bishop who tries to have you in his heart. We need one another’s help.
Yours faithfully in our Lord,
EDW: WlNTON:
From the February Parish Magazine 1917
THE BISHOP’S LETTER
My Dear People,
Each stage of the great struggle brings, and ought to bring, its own thoughts. The discussions about Peace and the American Note have, I think, plainly done good service by compelling us to think and speak more clearly about our principles in the War. We are forced back upon our ideals. We are compelled to remember that a country's strength lies not only in money, guns, or ships: but in the goodness of its cause. Stifled as it is by censorships and often misled by intelligenc ” Bureaus, the conscience of mankind still counts as a force: and it makes a real difference to a nation to be able to appeal to it.
More clearly now than at any time since the first moments of the War, we recognize the high and noble things for which we fight and suffer. We fight for liberty, justice, and the peace of the world. The Nation is united in the thought: and more keenly alive to it from having to meet the challenge “What do you fight for and to search its heart.
But I want to say to you that, as not only citizens but Christian citizens, we may and must look deeper still. Just so far as we can say (as thank God we can) that Britain is fighting not chiefly for her own interests, still less for her own gain, but for the freedom of others, the rescue of the oppressed, and the service of the world's welfare, against ambition, violence, and power-worship, we may feel that we are fighting for the right, as we have learnt it from our Master. We are resisting the gospel of force in the name of the Gospel of service, and as we bear our sacrifices of life and treasure we may dare to see, upon our share in the War, some mark of the Cross.
But if we think such thoughts and use such words we must in common honesty challenge ourselves, the home-life of our nation, and our common ways, and see how far we are consistently loyal to these great principles. Between man and man, between men and women, between class and class, between interest and interest, is it love or selfishness, service or gain, mere competition, or mutual helpfulness which mainly governs us?
So in a very practical way, thinking about our answer to President Wilson should bring us back to consider again how far the Spirit of the Lord Jesus governs our lives.
Another feature of the time is the confidence of victory. Our gallant Field-Marshal tells us to be sure that we can win. The nation has been putting out its strength, and lending help in money and munitions to its Allies, and we are told that the Allied cause is now everywhere the stronger. We may well be hopeful and thankful. But who does not see the danger to our spirits? “Trust in God, and keep your powder dry,” said Cromwell. But if we are always hearing and thinking about the dryness of the powder, the other and greater thing may be neglected. “I will not trust in my bow, it is not my sword that shall help me, but it is Thou that savest us from our enemies, and puttest them to confusion that hate us.”
This is good religion: it is also good sense. Experience is always reminding us of the fallibility of the best human calculations. (How the Germans, who thought they had organized certain victory, must feel this?). It is not of the Lord to save by many or by few. How that came true at the battle of Ypres, when, by what was almost a miracle, the commanders of the great German Army allowed themselves to be stopped by the thin line, without reserves, of the little British force!*
Again, we were always confident that with such and such a fleet we must command the seas. This has been so, nobly so: may it be so to the end! But it has hardly been enough observed how an entirely new factor, the submarine or U boat, has created an anxiety which could not have been anticipated. Illustrations like these help us almost to see, as well as believe, the uncertainty of the best human plans, and our dependence on the Providence which rules the changes, chances, and accidents of life.
Yet how much is written to the effect that we must win because we have more men, money, guns, ships than the enemy.
Keep thinking and praying with these things in mind, so that we may walk faithfully and humbly with our God without vainglory and self-confidence.
“Hallowed be Thy Name” should be keynote of our lives as well as of our prayers.
Yours faithfully in our Lord’s service,
Newquay, Edw : WlNTON :
January 13th, 1917.
* “Why he allowed it, by what error he allowed it has never been explained,” —H, Belloc.
It is hoped to hold another Social Gathering for the Parish at the Institute on Wednesday, Feb. 14th, from 7.30 to 9.30 p.m. That which was held on January 17th seem to have been a real success. After it was over, the question was heard on all sides “When are we going to have another?” Our most grateful thanks are due to the Committee and the entertainers who worked so hard to make the evening enjoyable : and thanks to their labours and to the most kind contributions of many friends, the gathering paid its way. For the 14th offers of cakes, tea, coffee, butter and milk will again be most gratefully received, and should be made to Mrs. Hobson by Friday, Feb. 9th.
The Street Prayers for those who are serving in the Navy and Army are now being regularly held on Monday evenings beginning at the lower end of Bridge Street at 6.30 p.m. On alternate Mondays the upper part of Poplar Road will probably be reached just after 7p.m., and Clinton Road about 7.10 p.m.: the corner of Church Road and Church Walk about 7.15 p.m. and 7.25 p.m. in alternate weeks. Prayers are held in Kingston Road on Thursday evenings.
THE VICAR’S LETTER.
My Dear Friends,
In the course of this month the solemn season of Lent will begin,—the annual season of reminder to the Christian soul of the duty of attempting to walk more closely with our God, of clinging less tightly to the things of this life ; of the duty of self-denial and abstinence as a help to attain these ends. And this year the religious call to the soul for its own welfare is re-inforced by the call to self-denial and self-sacrifice for the sake of providing for our country’s material needs in these days of her necessity.
More clearly than ever before our individual duty towards God, and our duty as citizens to our country make precisely the same demand upon us: there is not the slightest room for doubt that we cannot fulfil the one if we neglect the other. It is surely clear to us all now that God alone can bring about the results for which we hope from the sacrifices which we are called upon to make for our country, and for the whole cause of humanity and civilization in the world : and the call to turn to Him with all our hearts is sounding more imperatively than ever in our ears. Lent is intended year by year to bring that call home to each one of us: to give us some help, encouragement and opportunity for more complete obedience to it: let us all resolve to make a real use of the opportunity which it brings to make more effort to gather together for worship of God and prayer to Him, more use of the means of grace which He offers in order that by them we may become more faithful to Him, more resolute in resistance to evil, to the many temptations to indolence, slackness, carelessness and self-seeking.
It is impossible at this point to put forth any scheme of special help in the way of special services and addresses, such as have been usual in former years. None of us clergy know what may be required of us in the coming months. Like every one else, we too must respond to the call for national service in any way which is possible for us and is permitted by the authorities, civil and ecclesiastical, to whom we owe obedience. All of us have desired to do more than has, for many various reasons, been so far practicable in all cases, to give definite and obvious assistance to the general need. But now a definite effort to “mobilise” the clergy for national service has been already begun.
In this Diocese the Rural Deanery of Letherhead has, I believe, had the honour of taking the lead. At a meeting of the Chapter of its Clergy, held at the end of January, those present unanimously passed the following resolution :
“The Clergy of this Deanery assembled in Chapter, feeling that some reorganisation of the work of the Deanery might be so arranged as to free certain of their number for other duties in aid of the Nation’s need at the present crisis, desire to offer themselves unreservedly to the Bishop for any change of work to which he may call them.”
It is accordingly certain that some of us will be shortly called away to serve the nation in various ways, and that those who are left will have to take up the most essential part of their neighbour’s work in addition to their own. And in order that they may be able to do this, their own duties will have to be limited to what is absolutely indispensable. In what way exactly we in Letherhead shall be affected cannot be told at this moment, but will probably be evident quite soon. And in every Parish there will have to be a reduction of the ordinary number of Sunday Services, and in the amount of other Parochial work.
In consequence all that is now possible to state with regard to arrangements for Lent is that Canon Denham, Canon Residentiary of Rochester, has kindly promised to take the “Three Hours Service” on Good Friday, and that it is hoped to arrange a course of special sermons on Sunday evenings during Lent in at least one of our Churches; and also one for the first four days of Holy Week, So far as can be foreseen Services on week-days will continue during Lent to be what they are at present: and it is to be hoped that greater numbers will make the effort to join in them as a help towards drawing nearer to God.
I have been asked to go to Shottermill for Sunday, Feb. 11th, and I ask that your prayers and thoughts may be with me on my short visit to that Parish, one of those to which I was sent last Autumn to deliver the Message of the National Mission.
I remain,
Yours very faithfully,
T. F. Hobson.
From the March Parish Magazine 1917
NOTICES.
... The Annual Confirmation will be held in the Parish Church by the Lord Bishop of Winchester on Wednesday, March 21st, at 3 p.m. It is hoped that Parents arid friends of the Candidates will be present, and that their God-parents whose duty it is to see that the children “be brought to the Bishop to be confirmed by him” will also attend, in all cases where it is possible to do so.
On the same day at 2.30 the Bishop will dedicate the War-Shrine which is to be placed on the wall of the Clock-tower in North Street. This has been presented by some ladies of Letherhead and contains the names of those Letherhead men who have fallen in the War on the centre panel: and on the wings the names of those who are, or have been serving, with space for additional names.
THE BISHOP’S LETTER.
My Dear People,
In the vision of St. John in the Book of Revelation—the man who was taught to look steadily at the things that were coming upon the earth and to show them in pictures—there comes first a procession of horsemen. It is led by the proud horseman on the white horse of conquest; next comes the horseman on the red horse of war and slaughter; and then a dark figure, the horseman on the black horse of famine; and behind him follows the horseman on the pale horse whose name was Death.
Famine! we have heard of it in India and China times and again, working hideous destruction.
But to us it has sounded a far off name, like plague, that the world of our civilization had got the better of and put away. In one sense indeed it was there, gnawing at the vitals of our prosperous life in the constant hunger of many of the poor. But the stoppage of supplies, the gradual fall of the food in the national cupboard and basket, the need of increasing stint to make it hold out, the steady rise of the price—this was a different thing which we had not known. Now it threatens everywhere. Germany feels more and more its grim hand. The neutral nations—Holland and even Switzerland—have a share of it. In Russia, starving districts reach out hands for the food that does not come. The torture of it is upon Syria and Palestine, and now we ourselves begin to feel the first turns of its screw. But there may be much more to come. Some are predicting a general world famine from actual shortness of the stock of food upon the earth. So far it only comes really hard upon some of the poor whose wages have not risen with the war. For the rest of us it is at present only wholesome discipline, a part of Mr. Lloyd George’s “ National Lent.”
But let us set our minds towards it:—
(l.) Let our special prayers this month of March be in the words our Litany: “From famine ... Good Lord deliver us.” “That it may please Thee to give and preserve to our use the kindly fruits of the earth, so as in due time we may enjoy them.”
(2.) Let us note the way of its coming, unforeseen. How many English people remembered that England’s stock is never more than will supply two months of food, and that would run out unless wheat and meat came pouring in across the sea ? Did there cross our minds this thought— “What if there come danger on the sea?” If so, there was the prompt answer—“ The Fleet will prevent that, the great British Fleet, kept unrivalled and invincible.” And even after the War for many months things seemed to turn out in this way: the German Fleet pinned in harbour, but all the English ports open as ever to the world’s supply. “ Food as usual.” There was not even any warning to save food or to grow it. Then, as it often happens with calamity, the unforeseen began. The little submarine, which the great warships cannot see or catch, was at work. New possibilities came into our minds. But soon again our minds were eased. The submarine trouble was, so the phrase went, “well in hand.”
But then came rumours. New submarines, many in number, far more powerful, able to get out upon the deep waters of the trade routes and to stay out for weeks.
And now “ there is a cry heard” : in the newspapers, in speeches of statesmen, and in common talk, “a peril is upon us n; and there is hurrying to and fro, one way to save food, another way to sow what in six months’ time may bring in a small increase of home-grown wheat and vegetables.
Why do I write this? Not for panic. Nothing could be more useless. I have a strong and confident hope, though no one can have a sure and certain one, that the skill and bravery of England will be able to cope with the danger.
But as Christians we ought to recognize a fresh instance of old experience. “When they are saying Peace and safety, then sudden destruction”—or it may be only danger—“cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child.” Such experience it is which is used by God to train in us a humble and sober temper, to chasten boastfulness and self-trust, to quicken in us the faith which finds its only real stay in God, and will not put confidence in man. It also moves us to greater mutual sympathy and care of all for each.
Such an experience, so used by ourselves, may prove to us a very true blessing in disguise. ‘‘Fullness of bread ” was one of the evils which God saw not only in guilty Sodom, but even in fuller measure in His own chosen people. It kept company with “pride” and “prosperous ease.” Is there not something for us to think of here,—for England and our particular selves.
I will not say more about it. Only let us pray and ponder, and try to possess our souls in patience, and “walk humbly with our God.”
Yours very sincerely in fatherly regard.
EDW : WlNTON :
LETHERHEAD WAR HOSPITAL SUPPLY WORK ROOMS, FETCHAM GROVE.
SPECIAL APPEAL.
Gifts of old linen, both personal and household, are urgently needed, in order to meet the Emergency Appeals that are now coming in.
Materials for shoes, such as old cretonne, flannel, flannelette, cloth, serge, velvet, velveteen, linoleum, cork carpet, etc., are also much wanted.
The Central Depot relies upon its Branches to enable it to send off enormous consignments at a few days notice. 50,000 bandages and 50,000 surgical dressings have recently been despatched to Roumania from Cavendish Square, and many more are wanted.
Will many more workers please come and help?
E. Hicks, Hon. Sec.,
Kent Cottage, Linden Gardens.
From the April Parish Magazine 1917
THANKSGIVINGS FOR APRIL.
Response after each, “ We thank Thee, O Lord.”
1. For the Resurrection Victory of Jesus our Lord and Light over all the powers of darkness and death.
2. For the passing of the Winter’s darkness and the first brightness of the Spring.
3. For the continued security of our shores and homes, and for the safety of our fleet.
4. For the united spirit and mutual fidelity of the Allies.
5. For the response of so many men and women to the call of sacrifice and duty.
6. For the deeds and successes in Mesopotamia, in Palestine, and in Flanders, of the troops, white, and coloured, of our King.
7. For the opportunities, past, present, and future of the National Mission.
ADDITIONAL INTERCESSIONS.
Response after each “We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord ”
a. That Easter may bring the joy of the Lord's Victory nearer to our hearts.
b. That those who have been confirmed may continue Thine, and constantly increase in Thy Holy Spirit.
c. That Thou wouldest give Thy comfort, according to their various needs, to the sick, the wounded, the prisoners of our own and every nation.
d. For our Russian Allies that they may go forward without discord and suspicion.
e. That we may all with one heart and ready will respond to the call for National Service, and submit to self-restraints for our country’s sake.
For the Meeting of the Diocesan Conference (April 26 Sc 27).
g. For the gifts of counsel and understanding to the Bishop and other Members of the Archbishops’ Committee on the witness of the Church to Labour.
NOTICES.
The Rev. F. N. Skene, Vicar of Oxshott, who is serving as Chaplain to the Forces in the 42nd General Hospital at Salonica, asks for magazines, illustrated papers, or other light reading for the patients. They seem, he says, to be rather “side-tracked" and get very little of such things, the need for which is great. Miss Moore, of Kingston House, has kindly undertaken to forward any which may be sent to her. There are many of our Letherhead men serving in the Army at Salonika, and this appeal has a special claim upon us.
CONFIRMATION.
The annual Confirmation was held by the Lord Bishop of Winchester in the Parish Church, on Wednesday, March 21st. Candidates from nine of the Parishes in the Rural Deanery were present .... This is the first time the present Diocesan Bishop has himself held the annual Confirmation in our Church. The last occasion on which his predecessor officiated was in 1905.
THE VICAR’S LETTER.
This number of the Magazine appears in Holy Week. And the thoughts which should be in all our minds may well centre on the words at the foot of the War-Shrine which has been so lately dedicated in our midst, “Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
It is that crowning sacrifice made by our Lord Jesus Christ in His love for man which we celebrate on Good Friday, and to which our thoughts should be specially turned on the days which come before it. He laid down His life in the most intense suffering of soul and body, that we might live in the Life Eternal. And yet on how many, who are Christians in name, does His reproach fall. “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by h ” Surely we might in greater numbers make the effort to gather together, and think together with heart-felt, repentant, gratitude and loving reverence of Him and what He endured for us: for all our hopes of freedom from the fetters of sin and misery in this life and in the world beyond it are founded on what He has done for us ; and on what He still does, in giving us the power to follow His example, and make real sacrifice of self. And beyond it all is the Easter assurance of life undying, life triumphant, life of endless joy in virtue of our union with Him, who “ by His rising to life again hath restored to us everlasting life.” That is the sure and certain hope which He has brought to the world : and we are so much inclined, often unconsciously, to rest indolently upon it; to think that the crown must be ours, whether or not we have borne the cross of self-denial, of sacrifice of self, through which alone, as He has told us, that crown of glory may be won.
Those who have laid down their lives that we might be safe on earth, that their country might live, and fulfil the task assigned to it by God in the evolution of the world, have followed closely in the steps of the Lord and Master of us all. We all feel that : and we have commemorated their supreme sacrifice for England and their friends as fittingly as we could: and none of us will “pass by” the Shrine on which their names are inscribed beneath that Cross which is the symbol of the boundless Sacrifice of Love, as if it were “ nothing to us ”; and without a prayer that God will draw their souls ever nearer to Himself in Paradise, and bring us at last with them to the fulness of His joy in Heaven. And that should help to keep us all, from not “passing by,” on our way through the daily duties and business of life, as if it were “nothing to us,” the memory of all that our Saviour suffered, in order that we might live with Him for ever ; should remind us that He “laid down His life for His friends,” and that as He told us, “we are His friends, if we keep His commandments : should lead us to honour and reverence Him more fully in spirit and in truth.
T. F. Hobson.
March 27th, 1917.
FOR KING AND COUNTRY.
The Military Medal has been awarded to
James Sanders, 1st Life Guards, now on service in Egypt.
Howard Worsfold, 18th Canadian Infantry, now on service in Flanders.
The following have given their lives for their country:
Absalom Henry Harvey Summerfield, 8th Royal Queen’s West Surrey Regiment, killed in action, Nov. 17th, 1916.
Albert John Treadgold, 6th Royal Queen’s West Surrey, died of wounds received in action, March 12th, 1917.
Ernest Clements, Corporal, Royal Fusiliers, killed in action, March, 1917.
THE WAR SHRINE.
The War Shrine which has been placed on the wall of the Clock Tower in North Street by some of the ladies of Letherhead was dedicated by the Lord Bishop of Winchester on the occasion of his visit for the Confirmation. The clergy, including the Rural Dean and the Headmaster of St. John’s School, and choir, headed by the Processional Cross, left the Parish Church shortly before 2.30 p.m., and were joined at the Vicarage gate by the Bishop, attended by the Churchwardens, and also by the Chairman and the Surveyor of the Urban District Council. On arrival at North Street they were joined by other members of the Council and by the Nonconformist Ministers. A very large number of people had assembled in North Street, in the centre of which an open space was kept by the Volunteer Training Corps and a detachment of wounded soldiers from the Red Cross Hospital.
After the hymn “O God our help in ages past” had been sung, the Vicar said prayers for our sailors and soldiers, including thanksgiving for the devotion of all who have in any way offered themselves for their country's cause, and commendation to God’s mercy of the souls of those who have given their lives for it. The Bishop, whose own youngest son was killed in action in France last summer, made a most touching and heart-stirring address (which is fully reported in the Letherhead Advertiser of March 24th). The Union Jack which covered the shrine was then drawn aside, and the shrine being opened, the Bishop dedicated it. The hymn “Let saints on earth in concert sing” was sung, and after the Benediction had been pronounced by the Bishop the ceremony closed with the National Anthem; and the Choir, Clergy and Bishop returned to the Parish Church for the Confirmation Service.
All the necessary arrangements were most admirably carried out by Mr. Grantham, who made the shrine from a design submitted to him by the donors. Our thanks are also due to Mr. C. Brewer, of the Letherhead Town Band, for leading the singing of the hymns with his cornet.
The shrine is a triptych of fumed oak. The centre panel presents a large cross in low relief, under the arms of which, on a white ground, are inscribed the names of those who have fallen in the war. Above are the words, “Grant them, O Lord, eternal rest,” and below “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” On the wing panels are the names of those now serving in the Forces of the King. On the shelf below are placed vases of flowers which it is to be hoped will be replenished from time to time by the relatives of those who are commemorated on the shrine.
The greatest pains have been taken to obtain all the names that should be recorded. About 830 were received, but every effort has proved insufficient to make the list absolutely complete, and arrangements have been made for future additions from time to time. At the side of the shrine there is a box for the names of any who have been omitted. The full Christian name and rank of the man serving should be given, with the name of his regiment and number of his battalion, if in the army ; or the name of his ship, if in the navy. His home address should also be added.
Any enquiries may be made of the Vicar, or of Miss G. Wanklyn, Angleside, Church Road, to whose labours as Secretary the carrying out of the work was chiefly due.
From the May Parish Magazine 1917
CHURCH OF ENGLAND WAIFS AND STRAYS’ SOCIETY.
We are asked to give notice that instead of the usual annual meeting of this Society—one in which so much interest is deservedly taken in Letherhead—a Special Service will be held at 3 p m. on Tuesday, May 15th, in the Church of S. Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, at which the Sermon will be preached by the Bishop of London, and the Offerings will be given to the War Emergency Fund of the Society, which has now under its care the children of 1200 men on Active Service.
PREVENTIVE AND RESCUE ASSOCIATION for the Rural Deanery of Letherhead.
The Annual Meeting of the Association will be held on Friday, May 25th, at 3 p.m., in the Christ Church Room, Epsom (near L. & S.W.R. Station). The Bishop of Guildford and Miss Skrine will speak on its work. All members are asked to come and bring friends.
ANNUAL VESTRY MEETING.
There was a small attendance at this meeting, held on the evening of Thursday in Easter-week in the Church Room.
.. Mr. Lindsay Young raised the question of the unsatisfactory results of continuing the custom, so long observed here, of allotting seats at the 11 o’clock Service at the Parish Church. A desultory discussion followed, in the course of which the Vicar expressed the hope that as “allotted” seats fell vacant, no fresh allotments would be made, and so in course of time all the seats would become free: and it was agreed that the change in the ringing of the bells at five minutes to 11, marking the moment at which all unoccupied seats are free shall be more precisely observed.
Most grateful thanks are due to the kind donors of flowers, and of money for providing flowers, for our Churches at Easter. Through their generosity, and the labours of the ladies who decorated the Churches, these were quite beautifully adorned.
FOR KING AND COUNTRY.
The following have given their lives for the cause :—
Lewis Arthur Bates, Machine Gunner, 2nd Royal Berks Regt., formerly Lance Corporal in the 19th Hussars, killed in action in France, April 4th, 1917. Bates was formerly in the C.L.B. and for many years a member of All Saints Choir.
Frederick Bexley, 6th Royal West Surrey (Queen’s) Regt., killed in action in France, April 10th, 1917.
Frank Arnold, 1st Royal Fusiliers, killed in action in France, April 14th, 1917. He was a well-known and much respected Parishioner, Assistant-Superintendent for this district of the Prudential Assurance Society, and latterly Inspector for Surrey of the London and Lancashire Assurance Society, and a much-valued member of All Saints’ Relief Committee. In spite of uncertain health, he displayed a most cheerful and resolute devotion to duty: and a courageous determination to do the utmost in his power for his country’s cause.
The Military Cross has been awarded to Captain Willoughby G. Chapman, 2nd Bn. Gloucestershire Regiment. It was awarded some months ago to his brother Captain Henry E. Chapman, R.F.A.
From the June Parish Magazine 1917
Mr. E. Gorring, who has for so many years been caretaker of the Churchyard, has been obliged from failure of eyesight to give up his work: and he and Mrs. Gorring left Letherhead at the end of last month in order to live with their daughter at Battersea Park. The Parish is the poorer by the loss of two very earnest and devoted Church-people, whose lives bore witness to the reality of their religion.
It has been thought that many Parishioners would like to give some token of their appreciation of Mr. Gorring's care of our beautiful Churchyard by making a little present to him - on the occasion of his departure from the Parish. Subscriptions of 1/- and upwards for that purpose may be sent to the Yicar, or to Mr. W. R. Hewlins, Bridge Street.
The Jumble Sale for the General Parish Purposes Fund on May 16th realised £16 18s. 4d. Our warmest thanks are due to those who sent articles for sale and to the ladies who so kindly carried out all the arrangements.
THE VICAR’S LETTER.
My Dear Friends
I think that the best message which I can give to you this month is a copy of the King's Proclamation enjoining restraint in articles of food. I trust that every household in Letherhead is already doing its best to act in accordance with it as a matter of personal honour and duty to our country.
Yours very faithfully,
T. F. Hobson.
BY THE KING A PROCLAMATION GEORGE R.I.
We, being persuaded that the abstention from all unnecessary consumption of grain will furnish the surest and most effectual means of defeating the devices of Our enemies, and thereby of bringing the War to a speedy and successful termination, and out of Our resolve to leave nothing undone which can contribute to these ends or to the welfare of Our people in these times of grave distress and anxiety, have thought fit, by and with the advice of Our Privy Council, to issue this Our Royal Proclamation, most earnestly exhorting and charging all those of Our loving subjects the men and women of Our realm who have the means of procuring articles of food other than wheaten corn as they tender their own immediate interests, and feel for the wants of others, especially to practice the greatest economy and frugality in the use of every species of grain, and We do for this purpose more particularly exhort and charge all heads of households to reduce the consumption of Bread in their respective families by at least one-fourth of the quantity consumed in ordinary times to abstain from the use of flour in pastry, and moreover carefully to restrict or wherever possible to abandon the use thereof in all other articles than Bread.
Given at Our Court at Buckingham Palace this 2nd day of May, in the Year of Our Lord, 1917, in the Seventh Year of Our Reign.
GOD SAVE THE KING.
Now we the undersigned members of this household hereby pledge our selves on our honour to respond to His Majesty’s Appeal.
FOR KING AND COUNTRY.
Captain Geoffrey Le Blanc Smith, who has been serving in East Africa since the outbreak of war, was awarded the “Africa General Service Medal,” in the autumn of 1916, the “Military Cross” in January 1917, and a Bar to the Military Cross in May 1917. He was also awarded the “Distinguished Conduct Medal ” as a trooper in November 1917.
Lieut. Frank White, R.E., has been twice “mentioned in despatches” since the beginning of this year.
The following have given their lives for the cause :-
Levi Powell, 16th Bn. (Pioneer) Canadian contingent, killed in action in France, April 16th, 1917. He was formerly bailiff at Cherkley Court.
Louis Collis, 27th Bn. Bedford Regiment, died on May 5th of wounds received in action in France on April 15th, 1917. He was latterly gardener at Peaslake, Surrey.
George Hill, Machine Gun Corps, died in France on May 5th, of wounds received in action on April 25th, 1917. He was well known as one of our postmen in Letherhead.
The greatest sympathy will be felt by all for the families who mourn the loss of these brave men.
Mr. and Mrs. Hill and family, of 6, Burton Villas, Poplar Road, and Mrs. George Hill, wish to thank everybody for their kindness and sympathy to them in their great bereavement.
From the July Parish Magazine 1917
On Sunday, July 22nd, Principal Lloyd will preach at Mattins in the Parish Church on behalf of his great work in Western Canada, which aims at securing that the rapidly increasing population of Western Canada shall remain loyally British in sentiment and Christian. There is serious danger lest it should cease to be either in the future: and Dr. Lloyd has the full sympathy and support of the Canadian Government for his efforts. He is well known in England as, until recently, Archdeacon of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan; and for the interest which he has shewn towards emigrants from England, among whom are some who have gone out from this place.
Sunday, August 5th, will be the first Sunday of the fourth year of the Great War: and will be observed as a day of Special Intercession for our Country and Empire, and for our Allies.
The All Saints’ Branch of the King’s Messengers will present a Play entitled “Patriotic Peace” in All Saints’ School on Tuesday, July 24th, at 7.30 pm., and in the C.E. Schools, Poplar Road, on Thursday, July 26th, at 7.30 p.m. We hope there will be a large attendance. Those of us who were present at their performance of “The Way of the King’s Sons,” last winter, have recollections of a very charming rendering of an excellent Play. Admission 8d. and 4d.
THE BISHOP’S LETTER.
My Dear People,
If I do not write much to you this month, it is not because there is not much to say.
We are drawing near to the end of the third year of the War (I hope we shall keep the anniversary reverently on August 4th and 5th), and the breathless hopes and anxieties rise and fall each day.
More and more we feel the wonderful help of all sorts, to our spirits and hearts as much as to our strength, that the coming in of America has brought. Perhaps we reject how little we reckoned on this upon one side, or upon the other on the paralysis for the time of the Russian strength in which we trusted ; and perhaps we learn again and on a vast scale the old lesson of the vanity of the best human counsels, and the need of trusting in God who disposes according to His sovereign-will.
For ourselves at home I hope that in such thoughts as we have time for, we keep looking backward and looking forward: backward to the leadings and stirrings of the National Mission of Repentance and Hope: forward to the return of our men (and many women, too) to their homes and parishes, and to all that will have to be done after the War, if we are to begin again better and to make a nobler England. This is the task to which God calls us.
Pray on that we may see more clearly, and that all our countrymen may see, what God would have us to do, and how He would have us do it.
That great meeting at Leeds the other day where the word “revolution” was heard is a sign to be pondered. The people who were there may not be very important (though there were over 1000 delegates, each representing probably some thousands), and we know how little right they have to speak for labour at large. But some of the things for which they were eager were very good: and they were very earnest.
Now “revolution” is almost always (and in a free country always) the wrong way for changes to come: it is a way of strife and bitterness and may easily become one of cruelty and violence. The better way is that of which I have spoken, and for which we are to pray: the way of mutual goodwill, when men and classes “look not every one on their own things” only “but every one also on the things of others” : and when all really desire what is best for all.
The Church of God should be full of people praying with all their hearts for these things.
Then it will pray also for its own particular things. I do beg at this time for very special and united prayer for the five Committees of the Archbishops’ appointment (my own on the Witness of the Church to Labour among them) which are now at work hard and hopefully. The Intercessions for them should go up from many hearts.
Let me also commend to you two special things. (1). The new Evangelistic Council of the Diocese, which can do nothing without the Spirit of God : but by His help may be strong to set going and to keep going different ways of work which will help our parishes, and make our work for God, and against the evil, stronger and better, It is of clergy and laity, both men and women.
(2) The work entrusted by our Diocesan Conference to the Bishop of Southampton and a Committee to make known the plans for self-government of the Church drawn up by the Archbishops’ Committee under Lord Selborne. This may do a great deal to make people understand, and so to care.
I wish to remain,
Your faithful Bishop and Servant:
EDW : WlNTON :
FOR KING AND COUNTRY.
The Military Medal has been awarded to Rifleman Lewis Faithful, 21st London Regt.
The following promotions have been made in the East Surrey Regiment.
1/5 Bn. (India) Capt. G. B. Chetwynd-Stapylton to be Major.
2/5 Bn. (Kent) Major (temp. Lt.-Col.) W. A. Gillett to be Lt.-Colonel.
The Vicar will be very grateful for any items of information about officers and men from Letherhead who are serving in H.M. Forces.
SIDNEY HERBERT CHAPLIN.
Very many have given their lives for the great Cause no less truly than if they had met death in the course of active service in war. Among these was Mr. S. H. Chaplin, of the Shieling, Park Rise, who was killed instantaneously in the air raid made on London on June 13th. Mr. Chaplin was a most keen and energetic member of the Letherhead Platoon of the V.T.C. and greatly interested in all that made for the well-being of this Parish. On Sunday, June 17th, in the course of a route-march of the V.T.C. a memorial service was held in the Church of Little Bookham. He was buried on Monday, the 18th, at Hayling, where the body of Mrs. Chaplin, who died there some few years ago, had been laid to rest. The greatest sympathy will be felt for his three orphan children.—R I.P.
LETHERHEAD WAR HOSPITAL SUPPLY WORK-ROOMS, FETCHAM, GROVE.
The Work Rooms are open as usual, on
Tuesdays, 11—1 and 2.15—6.
Wednesdays 2.15—6,
Thursdays 2.15—6.
Workers and gifts of old linen-materials are much needed.
E. Hicks, Hon. Sec.,
Kent Cottage, Linden Gardens
Y.M.C.A. HUT IN FRANCE.
The sum of £60 has been sent to the Y.M.C.A., London, of which £40 was contributed by the Waste Paper Depot in Bridge Street, and £20 by the Broken Silver Fund.
It is proposed that this and future contributions shall be devoted to the erection of an “Ingle-Nook,” attached to a Hut, for the comfort of the men, with which the name of Letherhead shall be associated.
Details to follow latter.
A. M. Thompson, E. Hicks, M. Mitford.
From the August Parish Magazine 1917
The following [listed] are the names of those who contributed towards a present to Mr. E. Gorring, late caretaker of the Churchyard, on his leaving Letherhead, down to the time of going to press with this number. The total amounted to £6 12s. 6d.
THE BISHOP’S LETTER.
My Dear People,
The third anniversaries are with us, and still there is War: war more intense, more devouring, more appalling than ever. And still our gallant forces stick, and serve and fight, under the almost intolerable strain. And from among them come the stories of individual heroism, that of the airman who plunges into the centre of a whole squadron of enemy ’planes: that of the private who swims back over the Yser under enemy fire to bring the end of a rope by which comrades who cannot swim and are between the enemy and the water may have a chance to get across and save their lives. These are just outstanding examples of what is done, and men are ready to do, by hundreds and thousands.
God be praised : and manhood be honoured for such things.
But the fruits of war are not all good. Even from the front they tell us sometimes pathetically how hard it is for men not to become hard and coarse and reckless, or to let faith in the goodness of God give way: and though at the front the old generosity towards the enemy in the main still remains, at home we have to keep sharply on our guard against the poisons of hatred and revenge. It is easy to forget that these are worse than any injuries which the German can do us: and that we punish ourselves more than him if we denounce ‘Huns’ and practice Hunnishness. We can trust our Government to hit back—the harder the better—but by honest fighting ways, and blows at strategic points. But let us remember that we are Christians, and if we must fight at duty’s call, let us leave vengeance to God. Above all, let us not justify ourselves by treating the Old Testament as if it were the New, and quoting things and words which might be right for God’s half-taught children in rough old days, as if they were also right for us, who have been brought out of twilight into the glorious light that shone on the world in Christ.
When I was going to write this letter I found the following words in the Oxford Diocesan Magazine: and I felt the strong wish to copy them for you—even though it may make-you wish that you had such a man for your Bishop as my dear friend who wrote them!
They touch the clergy first, but there is much that touches the people, too, in our little country parishes. I send them in sympathy for both clergy and people. This is what the Bishop of Oxford writes :—
“There is no class in the community which seems to me to be doing its work under more trying conditions than the clergy of small country parishes—with populations lamentably shrunken, with almost all the young and middle-aged men taken away for the war, and work connected with the war, and with the older boys in the absence of their fathers more than usually unmanageable. Add to this that there is little or even no spiritual revival discernible in most places (I am thankful to say that there are blessed exceptions), and the country clergy have their full share in the general wave of unpopularity under which all we clergy at home seem to be suffering. Yet I am convinced that it is those who see deepest and think farthest ahead who will be most eager to encourage the country clergy and to make them feel the importance of their position. A ‘better England’ cannot be, unless there is a ‘re-colonizing’ of the country. The welfare of England is bound up with the country life. We cannot but expect a serious attempt to reconstitute country life after the war. And if the country clergy will seriously equip themselves by prayer, by thought, by observation, and by study, so as to be ready effectively to play their part in this social reconstruction, they may yet find themselves among the men in England who have the best opportunity for service both social and religious. Meanwhile, let us all pray for the country clergy that they may none of them lose heart or spiritual purpose.”
Brethren pray for us, and God be with you.
I desire to he,
Your faithful Servant and Bishop,
Edw : WlNTON :
THE WAR.
The Third Anniversary, August 4th (and 5th).
I invite all Christian People in every Parish, to come together for earnest prayer for the speedy victory, if God will, and the peace through victory, which we all so passionately desire.
The Cathedral will, I believe, have a great Special Service at noon on Saturday, the 4th, and special features in the Services of Sunday, the 5th.
This is best, where it is possible: but in most places the main commemoration will probably have to be on the Sunday.
The forms issued by the Archbishops, and obtainable from S.P.C.K. or Messrs. Warren, of Winchester, have, of course, my authority for use in this Diocese.
Let us join with prayer thanksgivings for England’s safety, and for the noble things which have been done and borne in her service.
Edw : WlNTON :
FOR KING AND COUNTRY.
Pte. Herbert Henry Shepherd, 10th Bn. Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment, was killed in action in Flanders on June 27th, 1917. Not quite a year previously, his brother, W. C. Shepherd, of the 3rd Battalion of the same Regiment was also killed in action on the same front. The deepest sympathy of all will go out towards the Parents who have lost two gallant sons within a twelvemonth.
From the September Parish Magazine 1917
Miss Morley wishes to thank all the contributors to the handsome Testimonial which she received on August 1st. She would have liked to write a letter to each one; but as this is impossible, she hopes they will accept her sincere thanks and appreciation through this medium.
BERNARD CLEMENT STENNING.
Early in 1916 Bernard Stenning enlisted in the C.L.B. Battalion of the King’s Royal Rifles, and in the course of the year received his commission as Lieutenant in the East Surrey Regiment, and went to France last January. He was subsequently attached to the Royal Engineers, and while serving with them was terribly wounded on July 26th and died on the following day.
His death causes a profound sense of personal loss among all classes of our community. His professional work as a solicitor was characterized by a keen personal interest in his clients; he was absolutely unsparing of pains on their behalf, and his acts of kindness more especially to the poorer among them were innumerable. All sorts of people learned to look upon him as their friend. His work as Secretary of the Unionist Club was marked by the same self-lessness and thoroughness, and was the main element which contributed to its character and success: and as Secretary of the Mercantile Association he was brought into the closest touch with the commercial life of the place.
But it is of his work for the Church here that I wish especially to speak. An ardent High Churchman himself, he set himself to carry out in action the principles which he professed; and was unceasing in his efforts to live the Christian life, and to do all that lay in his power towards helping others to do the same. He gave up the whole of his spare time to labour for this end.
In 1907 he became Superintendent of All Saints’ Sunday Schools: and by his efforts, and those of other members of his family, the excellent influence exercised by that School has been greatly inspired down to the present time. In 1906 he became Lieutenant of our Company of the Church Lads' Brigade and was gazetted as its Captain in 1908, an office which he felt it necessary to resign, owing to his absence on active service, just a month before his death. He brought the Letherhead Company to a very high state of efficiency in external matters ; but the essence of his dealing with it was to make its members realise, that the sole reason for its existence was that it should be a help to them in training them to live the kind of life which a Christian man ought to live. He spent night after night throughout the year with the lads, made friends not only of them but of their parents, and kept in touch with them when the time came for them to leave the Brigade. The influence which he gained over them, and the example of his transparent sincerity, devotion and whole-heartedness, has been a permanent power for good in the lives of many scores of lads who came into contact with them. He was a most loyal and true-hearted servant of our Divine Master and Lord, and many indeed are they to whom he, though dead, will speak as an encouragement to upright living through all their days on earth.— R.I.P.
T.F.H.
RETIREMENT OF MISS MORLEY.
It was with great sorrow that the Managers of the Council Schools received the notice of Miss Morley’s resignation, under doctor’s advice, of the Headmistress-ship of their Infant School. Miss Morley was Headmistress of the old Church of England Infant School on Gravel Hill for nearly 22 years: and for the last five years has been Headmistress of the new Council Infant School in Kingston Road. During the whole of that period her work has been of the very best, and she has most worthily played a principal part in the training of the youth of Letherhead from its earliest years. She felt very deeply the change of conditions involved in transfer from a C. E. to a Council School: but while she accepted the limitations thereby imposed upon her with absolute loyalty, she exercised her influence for good with no less completeness and effect; enjoyed the highest esteem and fullest confidence of both Boards of Managers under whom she taught, and of the Parents whose children were under her care; and won the love as well as the respect of her pupils and her staff.
There was, very naturally, a general desire on the part of the people of Letherhead to testify to their appreciation of Miss Morley, and of the admirable work which she has for so many years carried on here; and accordingly at the end of the Summer Term a large gathering was held in the Council Schools. The proceedings began with a charming performance of songs and dances by the Infants: then Mr. Burgess, Headmaster of the Upper Council Schools stated that Miss Morley was about to be asked to accept the gift of a silver purse containing a cheque for 52 guineas, contributions to which had ranged from one farthing to three guineas, of a book containing the names of the subscribers, and of an illuminated address which bore the arms of the County of Surrey and Letherhead and representations of the Council Schools.
In the unavoidable absence of the Chairman of Managers of the Council Schools (Mr. A. H. Tritton), the presentation was made by the Vicar who spoke warmly of the debt which Letherhead owes to Miss Morley’s life and labours in the place, and of the universal affection with which she is regarded in it. Miss Morley replied in most feeling terms, and paid a special tribute to the assistance which she had received from Miss Hurskine during the past nine years. Miss Hurskine expressed the devotion which Miss Morley had always called forth from her assistants, and the proceedings closed with the National Anthem.
Though she has been obliged to give up her work, Miss Morley will continue to reside in Letherhead, and we hope that she will have many years of life among us.
FOR KING AND COUNTRY.
The following have given their lives for their country :—
July 27. Lieut Bernard Clement Stenning, died of wounds received on July 26.
Aug. 3. Pte. Harry Watson, 54th Canadian Machine Gun Section, died of wounds received on July 28.
Aug. 6. Sergt. Walter Henry Channell, 173rd Coy. Machine Gun Corps, killed in action.
Aug. 25. Arthur Albert Fillery, Able Seaman, R.N.
We are asked to print the following extract from a letter sent by his Major to the parents of Pte. Watson :—“ Harry was one of my best gunners, and received the fatal wound standing by his gun in action, his pal being instantly killed at the time. He was always a good soldier, and well liked by all in his Platoon, and his loss is keenly felt.”
From the October Parish Magazine 1917
THE PARISH MAGAZINE.
Our readers will notice that certain items of importance, hitherto repeated month by month, have in this number been either shortened in form, or omitted. This step has become absolutely necessary if publication of the Magazine is to be continued. For many years past its financial position has been very far from satisfactory; and last year it appeared so serious, that a friend was good enough to take, at my request, the trouble of enquiring thoroughly into it. The result of his labours has been, first, that a few ladies most kindly undertook the effort of raising a fund to clear off the existing debt of the Magazine; and, secondly, that a small Committee has been formed for its management.
This Committee consists of :—
Miss E. Hicks Miss E. B. Hewlins (Hon. Sec. and Treasurer)
Miss S. O. Maw The Vicar (Editor)
Miss E. L. Maw Mr. H. J. Thompson.
The annual cost of producing the Magazine has for a long time exceeded the receipts from its sale, and the increased cost of paper and printing has of course tended to swell the deficit. Figures are the most expensive items in printing, and the Committee decided to omit the monthly statement of Alms given in Church, which is always posted at the doors of the Church, and can thus be investigated by any one who is interested in it: and also the table of hymns which it is proposed to sing at the services, as these are put up in Church before service; and also to shorten the form in which the standing information as to Services, Church Officers, &c is given. It is hoped that these changes, combined with the increased support which the Magazine ought to receive, will enable it at least to pay its way, and will obviate the necessity of adopting the course to which too many other Parishes have been driven, and ceasing publication altogether. There can be no doubt that the whole Parish would greatly regret such a step, if it had to be taken : and I desire to thank very heartily the other members of the Committee, and the friend above-mentioned, whose labours have, for a while at least, postponed its necessity.
T. F. H.
THE BISHOP’S LETTER.
My dear People,
There is a matter—and a very difficult one—upon which I think that some words from me to my people may not be unwelcome: and are perhaps a duty.
The weather has been in all our thoughts. In two ways fine weather has been of more importance than at any time within living memory: first, for harvesting our home food supply at a time of dearth: secondly, for an effective offensive in Flanders in the crisis of the greatest of wars. And at this moment we have had an almost unprecedented August (beginning, just as our move started, with torrential rain for four days), and a broken September. We go back to last autumn and remember how torrential rains reducing the country to ‘liquid mud’ checked as with a bridle our earlier advance on the Somme.
How are we to think? “Why is God always against us ” said a General abroad. “The weather has turned Boche” is another saying, evidently not of a moralizing parson!
There is an instinct in most people to see some kind of ‘providence’ in these things. Is it a sound instinct, or a superstition?
I suppose under the Old Testament there would have been no hesitation; pestilence, dearth, calamity were all ascribed to God, and to His chastening Hand.
But in the Old Testament itself the question is in the book of Job (and cf. Ps. lxxiii.) sharply raised. Admitting that it is often true that calamity is chastisement, the universal truth of this is challenged. And Job, who challenges it, is markedly blessed. But what of the New Testament and what would Our Lord teach?
In passages often quoted, about the Galileans whose blood mingled with the sacrifices (human cruelty), those upon whom the tower in Siloam fell (physical ‘accident’), and the man born blind (natural infirmity), He rebukes easy and confident interpretations (as that the victims or “his parents” were specially sinful).
But it is to be observed that He does not say that ‘these things are purely accidental’ and leave it there. His words in the first two cases seem, indeed, half to suggest that the victims were sinners, though “not above all” the others. In the blind man's case He even indicates an object ‘that the glory of God may be made manifest in Him which resulted, and may have been intended.
[So if we throw back again our thoughts for a moment to Job, the opening and close of the book expressly indicate that the calamities came with a purpose, and with Divine allowance, though not with that purpose which the friends so confidently affirmed.]
Further it seems impossible to think of Him Who said the words about the sparrows and the hairs of our head (St. Luke xii. 6 and 7), and Who walked in such constant and conscious relation to God, as putting down to chance or ‘accident’ the happenings in God's world. In the case of calamities which came to Him by the crime of men, we know that, though they were done in deliberate rejection of God, He foresaw them, and when they came bore them as part of what would come upon Him in the doing of the Will of God.
There is no sign that St. Paul thought that all the shipwrecks and sufferings of which he gave such a catalogue came to him as punishment for his sins: nor the bodily trouble which he calls ‘the thorn (or stake) in the flesh'. For this last he was led to see a purpose of God, but of a different kind. “My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. xii. 9). But it is St. Paul who has given us what always seems to me the word that carries most help and comfort (Romans viii. 28): “We know that to them that love God all things work together for good." ‘Good' or ‘bad' the grace of God and the faith of man working together turn them to good, and bring good out of them.
In this connection I wish to quote words from one of our best living philosophic teachers (Professor Seth Pringle-Pattison, The Idea of God, 1917, p. 415): “The religious man will no doubt accept whatever happens to him as from the hand of God, and by so doing he will make this account of the occurrence true, because he thereby transmutes the event into an instrument of spiritual growth. But the spirit in which he meets the experience does not imply that he traces the event as a natural occurrence to the operation of a particular providence."
He proceeds to argue that a world of ‘contingency, casualty, or accident is just the one “better fitted to be a nurse of what is greatest in human character than any carefully adjusted scheme of moral discipline.” What seems to be accident, and even the wickedness which wreaks harm, cause— he would have us acknowledge—the severest discipline, and the most arduous and therefore noblest opportunities.
This is very finely said: even though it may be permitted to us to think that there is even more of divine providence in such things than he allows or than we can (one may add) at all prove. After all, the happenings of both nature and history must be one of God’s ways of silent speech to us: one of His ways of dealing with us.
Is not the last and best word on the matter that of humility? Reverent humility makes us know that God’s 'ways ’ are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts’: and so holds us back from too confident and hasty speech about God’s purposes in this or that. Penitent humility, mindful of our manifold faults, personal and national, will find in untoward happenings what may well he God’s chastisement, and what does at least give us the opportunity of humble acknowledgment. And thankful humility, building upon God’s faithfulness and love, will see in such things what His goodness and our patience may turn into occasions of blessing.
So when they happen we shall not let our hearts be hardened by taking them sullenly as the work of cruel fate: but they shall draw us nearer to the God in Whose hand are all our ways.
Yours very sincerely in fatherly regard,
EDW : WlNTON :
FOR KING AND COUNTRY.
We regret to announce that
Pte. Ernest Slemmonds, Royal Fusiliers, died of wounds in France on August 31st, 1917 ; and offer our most sincere sympathy to Mrs. Slemmonds and her children.
Lieut. B. C. Stenning died on the day on which he was wounded, July 26th, 1917, and not, as stated in the September number, on the following day.
From the November Parish Magazine 1917
THE PARISH MAGAZINE.
At a meeting of the Committee held on Oct. 19th, 1917, it was resolved that for the future, beginning with January, 1917, yearly subscribers, paying in advance, should be charged 2/6 per annum for copies including the Church Monthly: and 3/- per annum if payment were made later. Single copies to be 3d. each. Copies of the Magazine which do not include the Church Monthly will be 2d. each or 2/- per annum.
THE BISHOP’S LETTER.
Farnham Castle,
October 16th, 1917.
My dear People,
We have had some real encouragement in the war, and to what noble bravery we owe it! But it is plainer than ever that we are not to come through easily to any achievement of victory: we are being tested to the uttermost. Please God we may stand the strain. Let us pray for patience and self-control, and mutual consideration. A great nation in a great struggle ought to be drawn together without ‘nagging’ and without bitterness in the pursuit of a noble cause
The discussion on reprisals has been confused and confusing.
It would have been less so if some of our would-be teachers would remember that the instinct of revenge is a very natural one, and carries strong temptation : and that nations as well as individuals may be tempted to it: and that the temptation gets stronger as the strain continues, and as greater and greater provocation is given by enemies,
We must leave much to our responsible leaders, political and military, We shall hear with great satisfaction of any big attack upon German military places, communications, stores, harbours, and the like. All this cannot be done without some risk to civilians. That is inevitable. But let us hold fast to our Christian principles and not ask for the blood of women and children and other non-combatant people. “If you had seen what I have seen,” said (in substance) a speaker in the House of Lords who knows the East End of London intimately, you would not desire to inflict the like anywhere.
It would be a real help to Diocesan unity if when prayers are asked for our fighting men, “and especially for those who have gone out from this Parish,” the words “and from this Diocese” may be added.
I earnestly hope that amidst the tumult and absorbing interests of the war, our care for the spread of the Gospel of the Kingdom throughout the world may not be slackened. It is not difficult to feel, and to show that all the deeper lessons of the war impress, or imply, the duty of loyalty to the Kingdom which is for all the nations and all the races the key of true life, and the power of God unto salvation.
I trust that S. Andrew's Day (or a day close to it) may be observed more and not less earnestly than ever as our special yearly opportunity for united prayer and thanksgiving for this great and holy cause.
Your faithful servant,
EDW : WlNTON :
FOR KING AND COUNTRY.
The Military Cross has been awarded to Capt. Herbert Impson, 8th Bn. Norfolk Regt.
The Distinguished Conduct Medal to Corporal Percy Wilsden, 98th Brigade R.F.A. (Salonica).
The Military Medal to Rifleman Walter Jelley of the Royal Irish Rifles.
The following have given their lives for the Cause :—
Sept. 24. Pte. Arthur Clapshew, 1st. Bn. London Royal Fusiliers, killed in action.
Sept. 30. Driver Augustus George Coldman, A.S.C., killed in action.
Oct. 9. Pte. Percy Edward Taylor, Royal Sussex Regt., died of illness contracted on service with the colours.
Oct. 11. Pte. Albert W. Wickens, Essex Regt., attached R.E., killed in action.
We desire to express our deepest sympathy with the relatives of the above gallant soldiers. All of Mr. F. Taylor’s six sons have served in this war; three have given their lives, and two more have been severely wounded.
From the December Parish Magazine 1917
Mr. and Mrs. W. Gorring desire to thank very warmly all those who joined in making a present to them on their departure from Letherhead.
THE BISHOP’S LETTER
My dear People,
Italy! We are all, I think, thinking the same thoughts, giving the same sympathies, sharing the same anxieties, and offering, I hope, the same prayers. “Like a thundercla ” “undoing in forty-eight hours the work of twenty-eight months ” are the sort of word that come from the spot, Venice, Verona, Padua—what thoughts of loveliness in peril the names suggest! And what suffering as the quiet inhabitants of the fair plains are rolled up and driven off from their homes and fields along with the confusion of retreating armies.
But as from me to you, one thing seems to me to want saying. We have been trying all along to think of the war in its coming, in its course, in what may be its effects, as in the sight of God, or as in His Hand. What does this overwhelming stroke, this sudden reversal of the tide of success, this catastrophe of defeat say to us ? Surely the old, old lesson; the shortness of human vision, the weakness of human strength, the fallibility of human counsel.
Think of Italy and of Russia, and go back to the earlier days, and recall the calculations so carefully worked out, so strongly grounded, of how things must go, through the gradual closing in on every side of powers slowly massing strength upon the more and more exhausted Empires.
And then again if the result is not an increasing prospect for us of failure, and of a peace that is not peace, what is the chief reason but another event as colossal, and I suppose as unexpected, the coming in of America, united, aglow, gathering up incalculable forces? How entirely both ways it is not as we foresaw—or as our statesmen or our newspapers or our strategists foresaw! Does not this teach, once again, and with amazing impressiveness, the old lesson of the weakness of all men’s best and most confident trust, and help us with fresh reality to look to the one and infinite Wisdom, and the one and infinite Love, Who alone is able to control all, and to guide all in due course to His purposes of good?
I remember asking you to make more of the Lord’s Prayer: and all this seems to bring us back to its first words, “Hallowed be Thy Name.” “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in man.”
We hope that our fighting and sacrifice is for freedom and justice, so that we can bring it all into our prayers that His “Kingdom may come ” and “His Will be done”: but all this drives us back to that first prayer that His Name may be hallowed. He is our starting point: our Alpha. And He is with us all the while.
This is what made November 8th a red-letter day. It brought us our King’s strong and earnest call to prayer on January 6th, and with it President Wilson’s noble words to his own people for their “Thanksgiving Day.” Some of you may have missed this last, and like to have it reprinted.
“It has long been an honoured custom of our people to turn in the fruitful autumn of the year in praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God for His many blessings and mercies to us as a nation. That custom we can follow now because, even amidst the darkness that has gathered about us, we can see the great blessings God has bestowed upon us, blessings that are better than mere peace of mind and prosperity of enterprise. We have been given an opportunity to serve mankind, as we once served ourselves in the great day of our Declaration of Independence, by taking up arms against a tyranny that threatened to master and debase men everywhere, and joining with other free peoples in demanding for all nations in the world that we then demanded and obtained for ourselves.
“ In this day of the revelation of our duty, not only to defend our own rights as a nation, but to defend also the rights of free men throughout the world, there has been vouchsafed to us in full and inspiring measure the resolution and spirit of united action. We have been brought to one mind and purpose. A new vigour of common counsel and common action has been revealed in us We should especially thank God that in such circumstances, in the midst of the greatest enterprise the spirits of men have ever entered upon, we have, if we but observe reasonable practical economy, an abundance with which to supply the needs of those associated with us as well as our own. A new light shines about us. The great duties of the new day awaken a new and greater national spirit in us. We shall never again be divided or wonder what stuff we are made of.
“And while we render thanks for those things, let us pray to Almighty God that, in all humbleness of spirit, we may look always for His guidance that we may be kept constantly in the spirit and purpose of His service, that by His grace our minds may be directed and our hands strengthened, and that in His good time liberty and security and peace and comradeship and common justice may be vouchsafed to all the nations of the earth.”
At a time when we are tempted to think that things material govern everything, let us remember quite distinctly that it was a moral force (indignation at piracy, etc.) which brought America in, that the President has consistently put before his people a ringing moral appeal to fight the war on moral and spiritual grounds. It may well prove that this is the deciding factor—so faith comes into its own.
I shall probably say more next time about “ Proclamation Sunday.”
But I hope in the Church and among all Christian people there will be careful preparation for its observance. I hope, if God will, to take my own part in the Cathedral. Such a day should not just stand alone. The anticipation of it should give occasion for trying to reach deeper and higher levels of thought and prayer. This will blend excellently with thoughts of Advent, and if the great Message of Christmas adds the right sort of confidence and of thanksgiving to our prayers we shall not mind what may at first seem like a clash with Christmas and Epiphany. No day appeals to the thought and imagination of all citizens like the first Sunday in the New Year.
Yours in fatherly regard and care,
Edw: Winton :
LETHERHEAD WAR HOSPITAL SUPPLY WORK ROOMS.
FETCHAM GROVE.
Contributions of old linen of any kind are much needed, and will be thankfully received: also, materials suitable for shoes, old cretonne covers, curtains, serge, felt, velveteen, etc.
Sheets and towels are always greatly in demand, and are most difficult to supply, owing to lack of material.
New workers will be welcomed.
E. Hicks, Hon. Sec.
WALTER CARRINGTON HEARNDEN.
Although he had plainly been suffering from strain and over-work for a long time past the sudden death of Dr. Hearnden from haemorrhage on Nov. 2nd came as a great shock to his many friends in Letherhead. He had lived and laboured among us for more than 35 years, and by his extraordinary generosity and never-failing sympathy and kindness had made himself universally beloved. No man ever more unsparingly devoted his services and his great skill to the services of his fellow-men, and in many a home his loss is mourned as that of a most true friend.
LETHERHEAD SILVER PRIZE BAND - ABSTRACT OF REPORT.
The Band turned out on 30 occasions during the year, including Route Marches and Church Parades of the V.T,C. and for the 21st successive season carried out a series of Promenade Concerts. The Committee very heartily thank those who so kindly placed their grounds at the disposal of the Band, and all subscribers and supporters for their generous help during the past year.
Twelve members of the Band have joined the Forces, of whom three have given their lives for king and country, viz. Cpl. G. H. Port, Ptes. W. Bussey and E. Haffenden.
The Committee would be glad to hear of new members for the recruit class, who should apply to the Band Master Mr. C. Brewer, Bank Chambers, North Street, and also cordially invite experienced players to join. They suggest that employers of labour might help materially by giving preference to bandsmen. The Secretary of the Band is Mr. G. Walker, Clovelly, Clinton Road.
To the above condensed Report, I venture to add that, in addition to the valuable work of the Band in providing an elevating form of recreation for leisure hours, the generous assistance given by it during the last 21 years to good works and charitable objects which appears from the statement shewn above, forms an irresistible claim upon the support of all the inhabitants of Letherhead.
T. F. Hobson, President.
FOR KING AND COUNTRY.
We greatly regret to record the deaths of
Pte. Henry E. Wheeler, 2/2nd Bn. London Regt. Royal Fusiliers, killed in action in France, Oct. 26th, 1917.
Pte. Archibald Francis Edward Taylor, 11th Royal Sussex Regt. He enlisted at Coolham in 1914 and has been missing since Oct. 21st, 1916. His parents, who came to Letherhead at the beginning of the war, have been informed by the authorities that he must be presumed to have been killed.
We offer our sincerest sympathy to the relatives of these gallant men.
All will feel the deepest sympathy for Mr. and Mrs. George Wild, who have received the news that their eldest son Pte. Cyril Cordon Wild, 2/3rd London Regt. Royal Fusiliers (grandson of our beloved Sacristan Mr. Wm. Crockford) is missing since the action of Oct. 26th, and will trust that he may yet be restored to his home.