St Francis Gorton Honour Roll


My God and my All ... Deus Meus et Omnia.


 

The British Army has had Chaplains attached to various regiments since the 1600’s, and similarly for the next two hundred years they increased. It was on 1st April 1844 that Dr.George Robert Gleig was appointed Principal Chaplain to the Forces, and he laid the foundations for a modern Chaplain’s Department within the British Army.

Prior to 1858 the Army Chaplain’s Department was made up entirely of Church of England clergy, but in that year the Secretary of State for War increased the provision of religious observance by the appointment of fifteen Roman Catholic and five Presbyterian Chaplains.

During the Crimean War there were sixty Army Chaplains serving with the British troops, and twelve of them died there. In World War I the number of Army Chaplains killed in action was 179. Three Army Chaplains have been awarded the Victoria Cross for their gallantry.

For Army Chaplains there were four Classes, 4th Class = Captain, 3rd Class = Major, 2nd Class = Lieut-Colonel, 1st Class = Colonel.

"Throughout history, evidence links soldiers with a religious figure who would comfort and encourage them and who would intercede with the god or gods in their behalf.  This priest or shaman has as its counterpart, the army chaplain ........ "
Army Chaplains Museum

Father Athanasius Johnston OFM - was one such man.
He was commissioned as chaplain 4th Class in April 1915 (4th class being the rank of Captain) .... his "call up" letter was dated 17th June 1915 and it was sent to Fort Matilda - where he was Honorary Chaplain to Regiments near Glasgow.

"St Francis' people believed in the power of prayer for themselves and their loved ones, many of them were in the kilted regiments in battle, and in 1915 the parish priest himself, Father Athanasius Johnston, joined many of his boys in the forces, serving right to the end in in France and Flanders "

Father Athanasius was selected for duty abroad and was asked to submit to a medical examination - this revealed he was fit for duty - and he was asked to proceed to Folkstone for embarkation as soon as possible - he was to provide himself with a Field Service Communion Kit and an anti Typhoid inoculation was recommended

London Gazette 14-5-1915
ARMY CHAPLAINS DEPARTMENT.
The undermentioned to be temporary Chaplain to the: Forces, 4th Class: The Reverend Arthur (Athanasius) Johnston. Dated 25th April, 1915

The Great War of 1914-18, with its long periods of intense discomfort and its terrible casualties, inevitably provided opportunities for Chaplains to bring comfort to those in mental as well as physical pain. In France, Father Athanasius devoted himself to the welfare of his soldiers. He went where he was needed - he, like so many thousands of others, witnessed hell in the trenches - and he was one of the many thousands who suffered but did not die.  He showed the same bravery as so many other Chaplains like him who gave the Communion to the faithful and the Last Rites to those who needed them.They were priests who suffered for their country and suffered for their faith during four long years of war - they held services in many places - in huts, cellars, barns, in dug-outs, in the trenches, in the ruins of churches where the rain and snow came through, on altars built of ration-boxes or shell-boxes, under camouflage in the open-air in all weathers.

Men knew that death was around them and were striving to be ready in case they were called - men could go to him with a troubled soul and he would listen intently for as long as it took. Father Athanasius' dedicated service to the well-being of others -  his humble self-sacrifice and his common but little known bravery - would still inspire today - a battlefield communion kit and hymnal prayer book was all he really needed.





This was a man who with his soldiers - endured the rain that came down in torrents - the mud - the rats and the overall desolation of the regiments  - his work in the Field Ambulance - where there was the greater call on his services  - where the ground was covered with wounded men -  they lay on stretchers and waiting for cars to carry them to the casualty clearing-station - the tents also were full of wounded -  these men receiving the attention of the doctors - some of the wounded he had to carry. Many were almost dying for a drop of water, he was able to give them that - but he was also able to pass round tea and Oxo as quickly as they could be made - and provide cigarettes and sometimes clothes of which they were in need and in some cases he 'wrote home' for the men ! Hours and hours he worked - sometimes not realising until the end of the day that he had not eaten.

"Then the ambulance, after forming a dressing-station, was ordered to retire, with the rest of the army. In haste the Red Cross flag was hauled down, the waggons packed, and even as we moved out of the yard round the buildings we had occupied as a temporary hospital the shells began falling, and in half an hour the place was a smoking ruin."

For three days he retreated with his comrades - three days in which they had only six hours' sleep and two real meals. During the day the heat was almost tropical - at night it was fiercely cold. Rain came on - freezing rain. Men dozed as they stumbled along - some fell and had to be left where they lay - padre and private were happy when they could pause for a brief spell and rest on a pile of corn sheaves in the open field in the rain and cold. Our army turned on the enemy, and the immortal battle followed. After a time the approaching German batteries made it necessary for the ambulance to move still farther back. To the chaplain was given the work of shepherding the wounded who could walk, and seeing them safe to the railway-station. "I never want such a task again," he wrote. "Up and down that road I walked urging one poor fellow to hop faster, expostulating with another who, seated by the roadside, declared he could go no farther, and that to fall into the hands of the Germans would be no worse than the agony he endured as he walked. At last I came across a farmer's cart, and taking the law into my own hands, commandeered it, and made the man come back with me and pick up all who could walk no more. Time and again there would be a burst of shrapnel in the road, but as far as I could see nobody was injured. Just off the road the cavalry were at work, doing their best to guard our flank as we retreated, for now I learned we were in full retreat. Amongst the cavalry the casualties were heavy. Such as we could reach we carried with us. At last, to my infinite relief,our destination was reached, and I was relieved of my charge."

The retreat went on. A neighbouring school packed with wounded. "The scene presented was such that I will not harrow your feelings in attempting to describe it. I passed down the lines of broken men, saying such words as God gave to me, but not daring to tell them that we should have to leave them where they were." Still on! The dreadful night that followed left its mark on all who passed through it. Aching in every nerve and in every bone, thirsty beyond words, so long without food that they had forgotten to be hungry, they pressed on. At one point the padre paused - feeling that he could go no farther.

In four days he had only had ten hours' sleep and three proper meals. He sat by the roadside and once went off to sleep. He reached soon after sunrise an ambulance-waggon, with a water-cart. The water was wanted for the wounded. Just then a battalion of exhausted infantry came up, saw the cart, and made a dash for it. Thirst had now reached a point where it was torture. He spoke to the men and explained that there was very little water left in the cart, and that it was wanted for the wounded. "I'm thirsty myself," he said, "and I'm awfully sorry for you chaps, but you see how it is - the wounded must come first." "Quite right, sir," the men replied at once. "Didn't know it was a hospital water-cart." And parched as they were, they moved on.

The retreat continued until September 6th - then they turned on the enemy. "At dawn on Sunday, September 6th," wrote the chaplain, simply and nobly, "we turned our faces north once more, and thanked God that we were able to do so. It was another Sunday without public services, but it was rich in private communion on the march, in bivouac, and ambulance-waggon, and as at the close of the day I wrapped myself in my greatcoat to sleep in the long grass by the roadside, I thanked God that He had honoured me by calling me to such high service."

I'm not sure exactly when he was there - but in a letter to the Times Jul 31 1925 - he said he visited Locre, Belgium during the war. He wrote about the Convent and Institute of St Anthony's welcoming members of the British Expeditionary Force including him.

Father Athanasius (just like his saintly namesake) had yet a great heart and intellect. He was a very " ordinary " man - meaning "gentle " ...... but he obviously had a very strong inner core - he came home from the war with " weak nerves " but after three years working with the Cavalry Field Ambulance - nothing else could have been expected ! In spite of that - when the telegram came for him to think about re - enlisting in the Reserves in 1928 .... he made himself available - and was prepared to answer the call -  even though he was now 54 years old - but he was not selected this time - although the spirit was very definitely willing.

Coming home after the war .... Father Athanasius resumed his life within the Order and went on to become revered for the work he did ... and later became well known thoughout the length and breadth of England - in connection with the work of the Lenten Missions with the C.T.S., and with the Third Order - and who worked as a direct priest in Gorton parish after World War II  ..... ( and did you know - he's the one who proposed  - in 1910 - finishing off the church by the erection of the tower at the west end - in time for the Golden Jubilee of the St Francis Monastery in Gorton in 1911 ? )

He was a very good man - brave as they make them - yes -  a very good man !

Medal card of Johnston (Rev), Arthur (Athanasius)
Cavalry Field Ambulance Army Chaplain's Department
4th Class
Date
1914-1920
http://www.rootschat.com/links/027f/

London Gazette 7-10-1919
Decorations conferred by
THE PRESIDENT OF THE PORTUGUESE REPUBLIC.
Order of Christ
Officer.


The Reverend Arthur (Athanasius) Johnston, Temporary Chaplain to the Forces (R.C.), 4th Class, Royal Army Chaplains Department.Arthur Johnson was born in Harwich, Essex on 2 May 1873. He received the habit of the Franciscan Order, the Friars Minor (O.F.M.), in Killarney, Ireland on 13 December 1888 and he entered the Order on 14 December 1889 taking the name 'ATHANASIUS'. he was ordained at Gorton, Manchester on 13 October 1895. Johnstone was a friar at Glasgow, 1896 - 1902, the Guardian at Stratford, London, 1907 - 10 and a Vicar at Manchester, 1911 - 13, and Glasgow, 1913 -15. He was commissioned as an Army Chaplain 4th Class on 25th April 1915. His last address being given as the Friary, South Ascot, Berkshire. He served in the Army Chaplains' Department in France and Flanders from 26 June 1915. For his wartime services his was awarded the Officer Class of the Order of Christ by the Porteguese Republic. He relinquished his Temporary Commission in June 1918 and returned to the Friary at Cumberland Street, Glasgow. During 1921 - 24 he was Vicar and Guardian at Stratford. He was at the Friary at Gorton, Manchester, 1924 - 30, was Guardian at Glasgow, 1932 - 33, at the Friaries at Woodford Green, Essex, 1933 - 42, Nottingham, 1942 - 45 and Manchester, 1945 - 47, returning to Woodford Green in 1947, where he died on 3 December 1947.

Buried at St Patricks RC cemetery, Leytonstone, London.

Reverend A Johnstone , Army Chaplains' Department.
His medals were sold at DNW Auctions in London on 23 September 2005

These were 1914 - 15 Star (named to Rev. A.C.D)
British War and Victory medals (named to Rev.)
Military Order of Christ ( a breast badge in silver -gilt and enamel, slip-bar on ribbon.

They sold for £820.00

( here's a snippet ...... He was received into the order as a cleric on 13th December 1888 in Killarney and took his final vows a year and a day later on 14/12/1889
....  but with another name .... Andrew Hannen Johnston, son of Charles Johnston and Susan Webber - born in Harwich England on 2 May 1873 and named Brother Athanasius )
 


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