Edward Brittain in France - 2 September, 1917

from Letter from Edward Brittain to Vera Brittain, 2 Sept. 1917, page 373:

We have now got a padre who is the last word in absurdity and so we had what I should call a fatuous church parade this morning rendered additionally humorous because somebody had lost all the hymn books; we stood there stolidly with beatific expressions on our faces while the bands played 4 or 5 verses and an amen for each hymn; those of us who were capable of remembering the words didn’t dare to sing in a vast and conspicuous minority The attitude of the Army towards religion is very odd.
cite as

Letter from Edward Brittain to Vera Brittain, 2 Sept. 1917. In A. G. Bishop and Mark Bostridge (ed.), Letters from a lost generation : First World War letters of Vera Brittain and four friends - Roland Leighton, Edward Brittain, Victor Richardson, Geoffrey Thurlow (:London, 1999), p. 373. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1400692928686 accessed: 9 December, 2024

location of experience: France

Listeners

Edward Brittain
captain, Officer (armed forces)
1895-1918

Experience Information

Date/Time 2 September, 1917
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, in public

Notes

Edward was serving on the Western Front with the 11th Sherwood Foresters.


Originally submitted by hgb3 on Wed, 21 May 2014 18:22:08 +0100