Father Finn 277 



by " Lord Kitchener expresses his sympathy. " The King and 

 Queen also sent messages of sympathy. 



Father Finn had a strong presentiment he would be killed, 

 and in a little more than a month from his leaving England's 

 shores the presentiment was fulfilled. 



It is difficult for those at home to picture what that landing 

 meant. Admiral de Roebuck in his despatch gives us a little 

 idea of the superhuman task the brave 29th Division were 

 called upon to face at V. beach. He says, " This beach it 

 was anticipated would be the most difficult to capture. It 

 possessed all the advantages for defence which W. beach had, 

 and in addition the flanks were strongly guarded by the old 

 castle and village of Sedd-el-Bahr on the east and perpendicular 

 cliffs on the west ; the whole foreshore was covered with barbed- 

 wire entanglements, which extended in places under the sea. 

 The position formed a natural amphitheatre with the beach as 

 stage." In the ffi-st boatload of men to leave the ship all were 

 killed or wounded, another boat entirely disappeared, in a third 

 only two survived ; the boats were heaped with dead. 



The letter of another chaplain who landed with the 29th 

 Division is before me. He writes, " We put off in small boats 

 towed by pinnaces from the warship. Those who went ashore 

 first had an awful time, especially the Dublin and Lancashire 

 Fusiliers. In both regiments the Colonels were killed, the 

 Adjutants, and practically all the officers, including chaplain 

 Finn. On landing I found hundreds of wounded and dying ; 

 most of them were the Dublin and Lancashire Fusiliers, and to 

 them belong the honours of the day. They stormed up a steep 

 cliff with fixed bayonets in the face of a galling fire from rifles 

 and maxims, but they made it possible for us to land. They 

 won for themselves everlasting renown." 



A loving hand quickly fashioned a wooden cross to mark 

 the place where Father Finn rests. 



And how has all this carnage profited us ? That is the 

 thought that pursues us. What has been gained by the death 

 of all those mothers' sons ? 



The Rev. William J. Finn, otherwise known as Father Finn, 

 spoke of himself as a Yorkshireman with a strain of Celtic blood, 

 an Irishman battened on Yorkshire Moors. He was born at 

 Hull and was the son of Mr. Austin Finn, a well-known citizen 



