St Francis Gorton Honour Roll

 

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





There is a Memorial commemorating the loss of thousands of soldiers in Gallipoli.


"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives… you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets where they lie side by side here in this country of ours…
You the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears.
Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace.
Having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."

Mustafa Kemal


Medal card of Furlong, Rev F
Royal Army Medical Corps Attached 42nd Division 4th General Hospital
Reverend Chaplain to the Forces
Chaplain
Date 1914-1920

He was commissioned 5th December 1914 as Chaplain to the Forces 4th Class - according to the 1916 Army List.

The 42nd (East Lancashire) Division - took precedence over the other Territorial divisions. and they now found themselves heading the front line position - they were the first Territorial division to be sent overseas during the First World War.

Lancashire Fusiliers going to Gallipoli

In his last letter home - on June 13th 1915 - a young Private wrote to his parents "We are still in the thick of it, but I thank God he has spared me, and pray that he will spare me till the end of the war. I am very glad to be able to tell you I have been to Holy Communion this morning. There is a priest with one of the ambulance sections here, I went to confession on Saturday, and received the Host this morning. Mass was said at six o'clock. It was a sight that brought tears to my eyes. Boxes served for an altar, but the priest had all his vestments with him, and there, out in the field of battle, bare to the world, and awful shells bursting less than 200 yards away - we had mass " - this mass was conducted by the Rev Father Frederick Furlong.

The boy's parents received the first news of his death in the following kindly letter dated 21st June 1915 - " Dear Mr and Mrs D****, I very much regret the death of your son. Ready hands at once attended to him, but he died immediately.  Rev.Father Furlong,of Gorton, officiated at the funeral. I am extremely sorry for you in your trouble"

As chaplain to the British Forces Father Frederick Furlong OFM went ashore with the troops at Gallipoli. He saw horrors no man should see. He accepted responsibility with which no man should be burdened. Father Frederick conducted hundreds of services and funerals, and often under enemy fire.
 Father Furlong distinguished himself at Gallipoli by his bravery and practicality, as well as his spirituality, and was highly regarded by the troops.
The division fought at Gallipoli, in the Sinai desert and on the Western Front in France and Belgium.

Home service December 1914-April 1915, Gallipoli and Egypt May 1915-January 1916, France ( 42nd Division ) March 1916-November 1917, Etaples, Camiers Nov 1917 - April 1919

After the evacuation of Gallipoli, the division returned to Egypt and participated in the Battle of Romani and the advance across the Sinai. While the build up in Egypt had been large and rapid, with troops coming from India and Laso from the French theatre, once the decision was taken that France was the main focus, the movement of troops from Egypt was equally fast. Of the 14 divisions from Gallipoli, France and the United Kingdom, or those formed in Egypt - six were gone before the first quarter of 1916 was out and four more by the end of the first half of that year.
Diphtheria broke out in April 1916. Divisions were sent away in the order in which they stood in military value, which meant that all the best troops were taken. Four Territorial divisions only remained, and of these the 42nd also was to be withdrawn early in 1917.

In March 1917 the division moved to France and joined the Fourth Army - and they participated in heavy fighting until September that year.
Father Frederick would regularly go out into the Battle front, ministering and praying with the men, in the most horrendous conditions, literally with bombs exploding around him - praying with the wounded and the dying and encouraging the fighters - praying constantly with the soldiers.

He was in Etaples - Camiers November 1917 - April 1919 
- Christmas 1917 was spent at the hospital - the nurses there decorated the wards with small home-made flags and the soldiers looked forward to it - Father Frederick organised Christmas carols and celebrated Midnight Mass  with the other Chaplains - soldiers quietly listening in their beds - soldiers  who would maybe never see another Christmas, and who had just been through the most terrible times  ..... Some of them seriously wounded, some gassed and some just slightly wounded - most of these men would never fight again - as most of them were with just one arm or something else just as bad.  Several were blind - no eyes at all - caused by hand grenades.

Father Frederick spent the last of his war service at the hospital - where there was an incessant thudding of guns in the distance - the only antidote was preoccupation of some other kind, something to take the mind off the war - he held Mass every morning and Rosary each evening - reading sometimes - (they had a few papers now and again) .....  A game of bridge sitting on the sides of ramshackle temporary beds, or on a soapbox - as well as debating competitions .... Father Frederick made a lasting impression on many of the soldiers there - for his devotion to duty and for his sensible, down to earth capacity for resolving, through reflection, the question of what one is to do !

He disembarked 18th April 1919 and on his "exit" papers - there were very good remarks about his abilities as an Army Chaplain - but an officer was asked if Father Frederick had a weakness .... his reply "tends to be rather argumentative " ..... what a wonderful line ... An outspoken man, he was never afraid to battle bureaucratic obstinacy and sometimes relished expressing a disdain for people who used theory instead of practice. This made him a popular and greatly respected figure amongst the soldiers whom he always saw as being his most important and valuable charge !

Blood red poppies sway
Over silent fields
Where birds no longer sing
Now a stark memorial
for mothers and lovers.
 
Here the big guns roared
And young men
Incontinent with terror
fell dying in no-man’s land
Drowning in the mud.
 
The army chaplains searched
Among the carnage
For their God
And found him gassed and bloody
Crucified upon the wire
One poppy among the thousands.
 
         Colin Ian Jeffery      

Just as an added note
.... From the migration records it appears that a certain Father Fred Furlong sailed from Liverpool for Iquitos, Peru, on 12 November 1912 aboard Booth Line steamship HUAYNA (master W.W. Bustin). There were only 4 other passengers on board: Mr W.G. O'Donnell, Fr Leo Sambrook, Fr Felix Ryan and Fr Cyprian Byrne. For all, "Country of Intended Future Permanent Residence" is Peru .... And also here he is  - Frederick Furlong Chaplain 4th General Hospital 286 Gorton Lane,West Gorton (source - 1918 West Gorton Absentee Voters List)

What a man -  Father Frederick Furlong ......


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