Revs. Peel, Gooderham and Beresford, D.S.O. 233 



devoted in his attentions to the sick and wounded, and was 

 wounded in several places while attending the sick at the Battle 

 of Festubert and obliged to return home. 



As I have already stated, before taking up his military 

 chaplaincy he was vicar of St. Paul's, Beckenham, before that 

 rector of Wrestlingworth for about three years. Before that 

 again, and after leaving Oxford, he worked in the slums of 

 Bethnal Green, being ordained in 1899. 



To a sensitive man of considerable refinement the plunge 

 from Oxford amidst the leisured classes to the squalor of Bethnal 

 Green, while being most satisfying to his spiritual aspirations 

 and longing for earnest work in the cause of God and poor 

 humanity, must have been trying to him in many ways. His 

 sympathies must have been divided and torn into fragments, 

 his olfactory nerves tried to the utmost, and his big heart 

 damped by the vastness of the field for work. 



Some temperaments would have felt this less keenly than he 

 did, for at all times he mistrusted himself and his powers, fearing 

 he did not make the most of his opportunities and thinking he 

 •might have won more souls by better work. 



Perhaps Mr. Peel was not a great preacher ; they are few 

 and far between ; but he was intensely sympathetic and gentle, 

 which, if he could only have realised it, carried as much, or more, 

 weight than much fine oratory. 



When first he went to work in the East End he found the 

 church empty, schools neglected, and things in general at sixes 

 and sevens. How Mr. Peel faced it all with his very indifferent 

 health I cannot think. He took great interest in the Church 

 Lads' Brigade founded in 1896, and being anxious to make 

 himself thoroughly proficient in drill so as to undertake the 

 management of one of the clubs, he had a regular course of 

 instruction which qualified him to pass as battalion officer. 

 He said it was necessary for a commander to inspire both small 

 and large boys with a proper mixture of love and fear. 



Unfortunately Mr. Peel's health obliged his giving up the 

 East End work, but he had the satisfaction of leaving all church 

 and parish matters on a sounder footing, churches full and 

 schools full. 



Then followed three years in Bedfordshire amid healthier 

 surroundings, while rector of Wrestlingworth and vicar of 



