288 Sportsmen Parsons in Peace and War 



I believe the crosses were meant to represent kisses. 



I am glad to find the Free Church chaplains fully realise 

 what sport means to the soldier. One of the Baptist chaplains 

 says : " The men must have their cricket, football, and boxing 

 even while guns are dealing out death and destruction all the 

 time. The love for sport follows Tommy wherever he goes. 



" I attended a football match the other day played under 

 first-class rules by first-rate players. 



" Two regiments were competing for the simple glory of the 

 win, before an admiring and appreciative crowd of soldiers. I 

 watched the game from between a couple of Uhlan lances that 

 served as goal-posts and admired the dash and good humour of 

 the contest from start to finish. The only good and convenient 

 ground was against a heavy battery, which thundered out death 

 to the Germans during the game and drew some rather startling 

 replies from the enemy, but the game continued all the same ; 

 it added spice to the sport. 



" I enjoyed the time thus spent with the men immensely, for 

 it was a clean, healthy, and profitable piece of sport." 



The Padre who enters into the men's love of sport and 

 games reaches their hearts by the shortest cut. 



I have heard many soldiers discussing the chaplain question. 

 One man said, " I was five months in the thick of the fighting 

 during the early part of the war with the old army, and I never 

 set eyes on a parson once, either in the trenches or out of them, 

 except when we had to attend church parades within a few 

 hours of leaving the trenches, when we were aching for sleep and 

 rest, but were told all uniform, brass buttons, etc., had to be 

 cleaned for an early morning church parade. How we cursed 

 it and the parson, who was the only one having a good time. 

 He was fresh as paint, we were dog-tired." 



Another man said, " Oh, the chaplains ! The Base is 

 crawling with them having a ' cushy time,' eating up all the 

 good things and sending on to us what they don't like them- 

 selves. They keep all the strawberry jam and send plum-and- 

 apple on to us in the trenches ; that is considered good enough 

 for us." 



A happier example was a man who said, " Our parson was 

 the finest chap in the world ; any one of us would have died for 



