The British Christian Scientists

Continuing the unfolding story of Christian Science Wartime Activities (WWI), our correspondent Joyce Voysey reports --

Still in England, on to Dover. One thinks of how close Dover is to France and the implications of that at that time.

There were constant raids and bombardments from the sea. A great number of the inhabitants moved out of their homes so that the houses might be available to soldiers and sailors.

At Chatham (p. 217): “There were good cases of healing recorded in Chatham, but it is noticeable that many men quickly learnt to do their own work, when once they started reading the books.”

There is a photo in the book. It shows a huge sign on the side of a three storey building: Christian Science Reading Rooms for Soldiers.

At Ripon the military police approved of the good the Reading Rooms were doing. “The military police were particularly struck with the order and refinement of the Rooms, one of them remarking, "You do get the best men here." (p. 218)

If one looks at a map of Europe, and Germany’s options for getting its ships into the Atlantic, it will be noticed that there are two paths: the English Channel and through the North Sea and over the top of Scotland. A lot of the traffic went over the top. The area was prohibited under the Defence of the Realm Act. There were mines being laid in the waters.

At Inverness: “As there was no local Christian Science organisation, a Worker from the north of England was appointed, and he and his wife set off as pioneers, in a true missionary spirit. They were equipped with special military passes….” (p. 226)

At Plymouth there is mention of the moral value of the rooms. "I cannot tell you how grateful I am for these Rooms. They have saved me from so much I could only regret. Not that I am naturally vicious, but I had nowhere I cared to go, and in the streets temptation was flung at me from every corner.” (p. 228)

A worker wrote: "From the first day, we placed the work of the War Relief Room in the care and under the guidance of divine Love…” (p. 229)

At war’s end there was much shipping activity in Liverpool with all those men needing to be sent home. And there was traffic the other way with all the Britishers coming home from the East.

“On one occasion a body of 11,000 men, mostly from Boston and its districts, passed through on their way to embark for the East, and when they saw the Monitors*, the distributors were nearly mobbed. The officer in charge came up and smilingly offered an apology for his men.” (p. 233) They were mostly from Boston!

The book always stresses the value of the Monitor.

Aha! Page 240 gives a mention of Church Army Rooms and Y.M.C.A.s The interested reader may remember the Church Army Rooms getting a mention in relation to my brother’s experience of letter-writing in quiet retreats during WWII.

At Blandford, Dorset county, there was a large R.A.F camp. An interesting snippet: “A portion of the hut was partitioned off at the special request of their commanding officer for the use of recruits under eighteen years in training for the Royal Air Force. These boys, who were arriving in weekly drafts of from two to three hundred, were quite undisciplined and many of them drawn from the slums.” (p. 244)

I am always looking for items that might show that my father may have come in contact with Christian Science during his period of time in Europe, both in the trenches and as a prisoner of war in Germany (in hospitals due to a leg wound). So this is of interest to me:

“Early in 1917 permission was obtained to send literature regularly to a number of British and Canadian prisoners of war in Germany and to men interned in Holland. Literature has also been supplied to German prisoners of war in internment camps in Great Britain and many of the men who have been repatriated have gone back to Germany with Christian Science literature in their pockets.” (p. 247)

Joyce Voysey

*The Christian Science Monitor