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Sources: Faith in Wartime

The learning activities for the 'Faith in Wartime' theme are based on the following stories. You can use the extracts as they appear on this page, or follow the links to read the full stories.

Only I can speak for my conscience

My father, then aged 23, went before a Conscientious Objector's Tribunal in 1940 and pointed out the illogicality of needing to have someone else to speak for his conscience. This was recorded in the local press at the time, as follows:

Text of a newspaper report on a Conscientious Objector's Tribunal in Southampton. From The Daily Echo, Southampton 13th June 1940

Witnesses to Conscience - Tribunal willing to receive evidence.
The value of evidence in support of applications for registration as conscientious objectors was commented upon by the chairman, Judge Maurice Drucover, at yesterday's sitting of the tribunal at Southampton. Edwin Norman James Nias, Emsworth Road, Southampton, an articled solicitors clerk, was asked if he had any witnesses. "I can't see what a third party can state as to my conscience," he said. "I am prepared to stand here by myself." The chairman said the Tribunal attached importance to what witnesses were able to say about an applicant. Nias said he had been a Methodist practically all his life and had done Sunday school work.

A Conscientious Objector's Wartime Story

The vicar was preaching peace the week before it started and then preaching war two weeks later. How could that be? Had GOD suddenly changed HIS mind? What was right and what was wrong? ... Glastonbury was a small town and reports of the cases of a CO was reported in the local paper. I was refused chocolate in the local sweet shops although I had the necessary coupons and money. Families were split up on the issue, for the war and against the war. It was extra hard for me because my father was Major Frank Smith MBE, who fought in the South African War 1899-1902, and the First World War 1914-1918. He wrote me a letter saying he could get me an easy, safe job in the Pay Corps at Exeter, with him. I resented this attitude.

God's providence: Dunkirk 1940

In the dunes he prayed fervently and told God that if he would get him back across to Britain safely he would believe in him. My uncle told me that he did get back across safely, but didn't follow through with his promise. He wanted to impress upon me the deceitfulness of the human heart and said that it was not until years later and under different circumstances that he did believe in God.

D-Day and Belsen Concentration Camp

After that we were taken back in trucks to England and then on to Ostend and finally we took over a convent in Eccloo in Belgium. We turned it into a military hospital. We were very busy as there was a lot of fighting ahead. Some major battles were fought and finally we were taken in Dakotas to a place in Germany and put into trucks to Belsen, two days after liberation. Up until then I believed in a loving God and since that time I have never regained my faith...

Church Service at the Front

We listened intently to the sermon as delivered by our beloved Padre, Crawford Smith. We were closer to God than we'd ever been, unlike so many services held in Canada and in England when other things were on our young minds. We sang the treasured hymns, amongst them the most treasured of all, 'Abide With Me'. Never had a hymn meant so much to us as it did in those unlikely places of worship. We sang with uncommon reverence, drawing on the power of those moving words to bring forth out of our inner selves whatever courage was there that we needed to ease the rising fear within our hearts.

The Faith of a Child - Light in Darkness

Mum tells me that she consoled herself and kept the edge off her fear by sticking verse cards and pictures from Sunday School on the walls under the stairs. When the raids were particularly bad, she found great comfort in the picture of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. This gave her confidence that He was watching over her and her family.

Kept Safe During the Manchester Blitz by "BK"

My sister and I resolutely refused to enter into the dark and dismal place, so we sheltered in the hallway of our own house... On this particular night, we did go into the shelter. From time to time we felt drops of water on face and hands, and put it down to condensation. The night seemed interminable. The following day, an old lady, who lived near us, and who was my Father's Godmother, came to call. She earnestly told us that she knew we would be kept safe, as God was looking after us, as she was blessing us by sprinkling holy water over us all the time we were in the shelter. She had absolute faith in the powers of the holy water.

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