Record of the Week: A letter from the firing line

Today is Remembrance Day and we have chosen a record from the First World War to commemorate 100 years since the beginning of that great conflict.

ARCAT has a series of letters written to Archbishop Neil McNeil from a Toronto soldier with the 3rd Division of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. Gunner Gilbert Sim had been studying for the priesthood before enlisting in 1915.  Periodically, Sim wrote to the archbishop of the conditions in the trenches, asking for His Grace's remembrance and blessing:

"August 1916...I am now at the firing line.  I have had many adventures since leaving Toronto but my heart ever turns to that fair city to which I feel I belong.  Day and night a constant stream of troops, wagons, and timbers are moving up the line. It is very sad to see the beautiful  churches all blown to ruins.  Of course I cannot write much.  I beg your Grace will remember me.  I am learning lessons in the very hard school in which I find myself..."
First World War, FWGC02.04

After being in action during the Battle of Arras, the storming of Vimy Ridge, and the taking of Passchendaele, Sim wrote of his desire to be discharged.  He wanted to continue his clerical studies in order to return to the front as a military chaplain.

You can see Gilbert Sim's personnel records on the Library and Archives Canada website, and search the digitized records of soldiers of the First World War.

Archbishop Neil McNeil was the ordinary of Toronto during the Great War and he is known for defending the Pope's neutral position.  McNeil is also credited with delivering one of the war's shortest patriotic speeches to a Toronto regiment about to be deployed.  At the non-denominational meeting he simply said:

“You are tired and anxious to spend these last hours with your friends and I will not keep you long.

If I were a young man I would be going with you. But I am an old man and must stay home.

Keep yourselves physically fit to fight and spiritually fit to die. God bless you.”*

*Boyle, George. Pioneer in Purple (Montreal: Palm Publishers, 1951), pp. 139-40.

New exhibit on Military Chaplains

Today, St. James Anglican Cathedral in Toronto opens a new exhibit to mark the centenary of the Great War.  Called to Serve presents records and artifacts from chaplains of numerous faiths serving Canada's military from the nineteenth century to present day.

ARCAT contributed photographs to the exhibit, including the image on the poster below.

According to the media release:

"The first ever of its kind in Canada, this exhibit will chronicle and pay tribute to the
brave service of the padres who donned battle dress and joined members of the armed
forces on the front lines of past wars and still walk with them today in regions of armed
conflict and natural disasters. Unarmed and often working alongside medical field
personnel, chaplains lend spiritual support to fighting troops, comfort the wounded and
bereaved, console the dying and provide dignified burial for the dead. They also care
spiritually for the families of military personnel. 

"Reaching back into history, the comprehensive display will chronicle the Canadian
chaplaincy’s evolution from its largely Christian origins before the Boer War to the
inclusive multi-faith mosaic of men and women it is today. Called to Serve will tell its
powerful story through photographs, paintings, press clippings, posters, letters, poems,
uniforms, insignia, embroidery, liturgical apparel and artifacts, as well as testimonies
from across generations and across the land."

If you are looking for a unique way to observe Remembrance Day, stop by this unprecedented (and free!) exhibit in the heart of Toronto from now until November 16th.

Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the First World War

This week Canadians commemorated the 100th anniversary of our nation's entry into the First World War. On August 5, 1914, Britain declared war on Germany, which meant that Canada was also involved. Before the war ended in 1918, 620,000 people were part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. 67,000 were killed, and 250,000 were wounded.

The Catholic Church considered itself impartial, and condemned the fighting. However, it did play a part. Many chaplains were fielded, and parishes participated in relief efforts.

At ARCAT we have records of another way the Catholic Church tried to help. Within the office of the Secretary of State of the Holy See, the Ufficio Provvisorio per Informazioni sui Prigionieri de Guerra (Temporary Office for Information on Prisoners of War) was formed. As detailed in an article "The Vatican and The Missing" in The Sacred Heart Review (Volume 58, Number 13, 8 September 1917 pp. 8-9), the office was formed in response to letters that Pope Benedict XV had been receiving from many countries with pleas for assistance in finding information about captured and missing soldiers. Catholic officials across Europe were able to visit prisoners of war and gather information, which was meticulously filed and made available to family members.

Archbishop McNeil assisted Catholics of the Archdiocese by personally writing to the office. Below is an example of a response which was received:

A letter to the Archbishop of Toronto acknowledging receipt of a telegram requesting information regarding Esmonde Clarke and instructing him to wait with patience while the necessary research is undertaken.

Below is a letter to Archbishop McNeil from an official of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, writing on behalf of Sir John Aird for information about his son, Hugh R. Aird.

We don't know what happened to Hugh R. Aird while he was in Turkey, but we do know that the family received a response:

Other things we know about Hugh are that he was born on September 2nd, 1892, and that he was a lumberman when he enlisted in February, 1915. He was 5'8", and had fair hair and blue eyes. His father, John Aird, lived at 89 Madison Avenue in Toronto. This information comes from Hugh's attestation paper, which can be found in Library and Archives Canada's Soldiers of the First War database.

Hugh's name can be found in a list of men who were in Eaton's Machine Gun Battery, but we know from his father's letter that he eventually became a part of the Royal Naval Air Service and served in the Gallipoli Campaign.

We do know that Hugh was able to make it home safely, because he went on to marry, and he became the father of John Black Aird, the 23rd Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.

We also know that Hugh died in 1971 and is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, as found on the website findagrave.com.

The 'Great War' was extremely brutal and devastating to human life. By remaining impartial, the Catholic Church was able to bring comfort to soldiers and their families. As Archbishop McNeil explained in his 1918 pastoral letter The Pope and the War, "The Pope is necessarily neutral in this war. He is in justice obliged to be impartial. Catholics are patriotic in their respective countries. The war has made this clear. Whether right or wrong in judgement, they are convinced of the justice of their respective countries' cause, whether French or German. If the Pope publicly condemned either group of belligerents at the outbreak of war or at any stage of it, he would thereby place many millions of Catholics in the agonizing necessity of choosing between their Church and their Country, and he would favor one section of the Church at the expense of another. The war would go on in any case."

As we take time to commemorate this event in history, we pray that the lessons that were learned between 1914 and 1918 will be remembered and that peace can be attained for all people.