Remembering the first time I stood on German soil.

Many thanks for the recommendation, dbf. Do we know if padres were routinely moved around the battalions within a brigade (or even a division) and posted where they were needed most at the time? It seems that quite a number were WIA and KIA so the turnover must have been quite high during the actual fighting. I've discovered that my grandfather was on the strength of 44 Inf Bde (6 KOSB) from June to October 44 but no mention of a transfer to 6 RSF in August and September, as per the recommendation.
Thanks again
Adam

 

Hi Adam

A W Sawyer is listed in the 6 KOSB field returns as joining the battalion 25th October 1943 and is listed with them until September 1944. The October Field Return for the battalion that I have lists a G P Jack as the Battalion Chaplain and joined on 10th October 1944. A W Sawyer is not listed on any of the other months during 1944 so he must have permanently left sometime between 30th September and 10th October 1944. There's no entry in the war diary pages of him leaving between these dates but the battalion was undergoing training and doing admin etc in early October 1944 so it would fit with him being replaced for what ever reason.

 

Many thanks, Drew. He was actually made Senior Chaplain to the Division on 10 October (as per his service records and the quote from Muir's book that Joe kindly provided) and was then presumably away from the front line after that.
Thanks to everyone for their help.
Adam

 

Adbw.

Adam:

The close relationship of the Padre with the officers and men of his Unit would only be disturbed if there was a need to review the overall deployment within a Division. Clearly, the loss of your Grandfather from the 8th Royal Scots was a serious blow to the Battalion. There had to be good reason why the change was made.

When later I served with the 7th/9th Royal Scots, we lost the Rev. Ronald Selby Wright who was during the War known as the 'Radio Padre'. Minister at the Canongate Church in Edinburgh, he was an integral party of this Edinburgh TA Battalion. When I first joined the Battalion as a young inexperienced officer, he made a point of having me walk with him through the Battalion area and he always stopped to talk to the men. He inevitably addressed them by their first names, knew if they were married and if they had children, which part of Edinburgh or the Midlothians they lived, and whether a Hearts or Hibs Football supporter. He was quietly showing me a side of 'man management' that a young officer should be aware.

Padres were generally to be seen were the action was taking place, ready to be on hand when the men needed him most. The Rev Selby Wright was succeeded by the Rev. James Wood, another very fine dedicated Church of Scotland Minister. Read Jimmy Wood's verse 'Eve of Battle: November 1944' which is reproduced in the Gallery section of this website and appears in the section under my name. It is about a small group of men on the eve of battle asking him if they might have Sacrament before their first-light attack in a few hours time. Ten of the lads that attended that little service close to the enemy positions 'their useful lives did give' that day and lie in Bergen Op Zoom Commonwealth Graves Cemetery.

Your Grandfather was that kind of Padre . . . his Military Cross a token of his Calling and Vocation exercised on the battlefield as he brought love, peace and sanity to those suffering the horror of a war that engulf them.

Joe.

 

Joe
This is very much appreciated and will be of great interest to the family. We actually knew Rev. Selby Wright through my grandfather of course, who was also closely involved with the TA after the war, although I don't remember him mentioning his wartime experiences in any great detail. I wasn't aware at the time, for instance, that he managed to get away from St Valery and catch one of the last ships back from Dunkirk.
Very interesting to get a first-hand account of the kind of padre my grandfather was. A story has him going round the front-line trench positions with the battalion piper, encouraging the troops.
I also noticed one of your photos on the site (the *RS RAP being shelled). Was this by any chance the occasion the 8RS padre (Rev. Barry) was killed and the doctor in charge of the RAP was Myer Makin, who was a good friend of my grandfather's during and after the war and who I'm guessing you probably knew as well?
Many thanks once again
Adam

 

Just wanted to put the record straight on my comment about Rev Selby Wright escaping from St Valery and Dunkirk. My information was from a 1995 obituary, which said, "After appalling adventures at St Valery he somehow managed to escape from the oncoming German army - he ascribed it to Divine Providence - but after six days and nights "without one kip", he told me, he got back to Britain on one of the last of the small craft from the Dunkirk beaches".
According to Augustus Muir's book (quoted earlier), however, he was in fact with 7/9 Royal Scots (as their Padre) when they were sent across to St Malo on 12 June 1940 and then to Silly-le-Guilleaume east of Le Mans. After the Battalion made a gruelling journey up to Cherbourg for evacuation to England on 17 June, he stayed an extra day with a rear party (mostly transport). As he said, "I stayed with them and to everyone's regret we had to burn all the transport, as well as our precious possessions that were stowed away in the vehicles - and then we had to get clear as best we could in small groups. My own party started out with about twenty Royal Scots, and ended up with more like eighty from many regiments, but we got safely on board ship. Although we were machine-gunned from the air, I am glad to say we got back without casualties". Muir continues, "To remain behind with the last party of the Royals at that critical time was a characteristic action of the Padre. Ronald Selby Wright was well loved and deeply respected by everyone, and carried with him wherever he went an abiding spirit of confidence and good cheer".

Goes to show you can't believe everything you read in the newspapers ...