Private Papers of Reverend D Railton CF

Photocopy of a ts transcript (39pp) of extracts from his extremely interesting and opinionated letters home covering his service on the Western Front as the Church of England chaplain attached to the 18th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers and the 103rd Infantry Brigade (both 34th Division) from January - March 1916 and to the 1/19th Battalion London Regiment (141st Infantry Brigade, 47th Division) from April 1916 - March 1917 and as Senior Chaplain to the 19th Division, April - May 1917; the correspondence includes references to the 141st Brigade's operations at High Wood and on the Transloy Ridges during the Battle of the Somme (September - October 1916) and reveals the writer's beliefs about the most important attributes and proper place for a padre on active service, his assessment of the Church of England's opportunities in the war, and the war's likely effect on religious practices, while there are many indications of his intense admiration for the resilience, humour and humanity of the officers and men of the BEF and of his hostility towards the Germans.

Cataloguer RWAS

Catalogue date 1979-01-04