246 pages, 27 black and white photographs.
Pen and Sword, 2010
ISBN 978-1-84884-159-8
Pat Leonard was born in 1889 in Cumbria. After graduating from Oxford he obtained a Territorial Army Commission in the King's Own Royal Lancaster (KORL) Regiment. He served as a curate in a Manchester parish before being accepted as Chaplain to the 8th Battalion, KORL from September 1915. Pat wrote letters home to friends and family on a regular basis; this collection is taken from those letters and it is sympathetically edited by his eldest son John and his son-in-law Philip.
In his letters home, Pat described his life and the war as he saw it. He was very active, visiting KORL men in the trenches, going out into No Man's Land with them, as well as holding services and burying the dead. When one of his men kills a fellow soldier in a French beer cellar, Pat has the unpleasant duty of sitting with the condemned man the night before his execution by a firing party.
His letters start with the battalion's posting to Sanctuary Wood and Ploegsteert in October 1915 as part of 76 Brigade, 3rd Division. On 21 November, the brigade came 'out of resting' and marched a further 10 miles towards the front line. First they camped 'in the mud' on the outskirts of Reninghelst in order to serve in their new trenches at Verbranden Molen. As Christmas approached, Leonard became more involved in services and Church Parades. On Christmas Eve he arranged to spend Christmas Day with his battalion in the front line trenches, luckily without the bitter strafe which he thought had been arranged for the 'birthday of the prince of peace'..
1916 sees Leonard and his battalion in the Ypres Salient, where he describes the training General Plumer directed the men to complete before an offensive. Once again Leonard is up with the men so he sees the wounded and the German prisoners returning to the front line. He visits Talbot House in its early years: begun when Neville Talbot rented a house in Poperinghe for officers and men to use when off duty.
He also describes an invitation to visit the artillery at Mount Kemmel when the mysteries of their arts are explained to a party of officers. Here he is able to watch the preparation for a bombardment of the German lines from a position of relative safety! As part of his role as entertainments and sports officer, he is drawn into boxing, which is how he acquired the title 'The Fighting Padre'.
When the Battle of the Somme opens, it is only a question of time before the 3rd Division is sent south to take part. The move occurs in early July and the battalion is involved in the Battle of Longueval in the middle of July. Forbidden to go over the top with the regiment, he spends time in the front line in dugouts and crouching in holes dug out of the side of a bank. He also helps the doctor open their Regimental Dressing Station, which he has later to evacuate when the doctor is hit by machine gun fire and the stretcher bearers are sent back down the line suffering from shell shock. He describes what it is like being under artillery bombardment, burying the regimental casualties and watching one of the RFC being shot down by anti-aircraft fire, and a 'dog fight' over the trenches. At the end of the Battle of the Somme, Leonard is awarded the DSO for the work he undertook in the Aid Posts and advanced Dressing Stations.
In April - May 1917, Leonard's battalion is involved in the Battle of Arras and in September moved up to the Salient for the Third Battle of Ypres. While here, Leonard applies to transfer from the 8 KORL to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and he joins No 9 Squadron RFC in November, 1917. His 'parish' initially included four squadrons (7, 9, 21 and 23) and he quickly becomes involved in organising sports fixtures and concert parties. As his squadrons are based in Belgium, his work takes him back to Talbot House where he forms a close association with 'Tubby' Clayton. This section, his work with the RFC, is probably the least interesting in the book, since squadrons come and go into and out from his 'parish'.
The ace, Major EM Mannock, is CO of one of Leonard's squadrons (85) and, when Mannock is killed in July 1918, Leonard is involved in his Memorial Service. He is still with the RAF when the Armistice is signed in November.
All in all, this is a good read. Leonard shares his life (running the Mess, censoring letters, organising concerts, sports and football matches) with his family in these well-written letters. As mentioned, his activities in the front line show he was a brave and very popular chaplain.
Reviewed by Peter Palmer.
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