TOPIC:

As my family roots lie in Primitive Methodism I occasionally view and contribute to the “My Primitive Methodists” website. This time I did a search for “Boer” and received 6 hits. One told me that the Primitive Methodist Church, as a pacifist organisation, vehemently opposed the Boer War. It even took them six months to change their opposition to World War 1. However, three of my great uncles, all the sons of a Primitive Methodist Minister enlisted as Privates in September 1914. My paternal Grandfather joined them 9 months later when he received the news that one of his younger brothers had been mown down on the Gallipoli peninsula in what appears to have been a dress rehearsal for the first day of the Somme offensive a year later. Two returned home intact but with health problems – one physical, the other mental. The youngest returned home in triumph with a MC & bar and having risen to the rank of Captain……but I digress.

The other hit that attracted my attention was their write-up on Robert Featherstone Wearmouth (1882-1963). He was the son of a coal miner in County Durham and descended underground aged 10, as my Great-Grandfather did thirty years before. Richard's first attempt at escape was to enlist in the Northumberland Fusiliers when they came recruiting for the Boer War. At this stage the “My Primitive Methodists” write-up moved on without further comment. Having discovered his service record on FMP I can tell his story a little more fully.

Robert enlisted in June 1901 (aged 19) as Private 8075 and after basic training was assigned to the 3rd Battalion. However, when on home leave he attended a meeting of the Christian Endeavour movement and “saw the light” and decided, a bit late, that war was not for him. From other service records I have perused, new recruits seemed to be able to opt out free of charge at 7 weeks but Robert must have missed out on this and seems to have done a deal by paying £10 (£1,260 in today’s money) the Army seemed to have reduced his obligation from the original 12 years (7 active + 5 in reserve) to about 16 months and without the need to fight. Consequently, Richard. and some other members of his Battalion, embarked on 30th April 1902 for Antigua where Boer Prisoners of War were being held. On 23rd July 1902 Robert embarked for South Africa presumably to help repatriate the Boer PoWs. He arrived back in Blightly on 28th October 1902 and was immediately and fully discharged from the Army.

Back home he once more descended underground by day but at night he studied and worshipped. He was accepted to train as a Primitive Methodist Minister at Hartley Primitive Methodist College in Manchester and was ordained as a Minister in 1910. Again, this is an almost exact repeat of my Great Grandfather 30 years earlier except Hartley College did not exist then and he went to Sunderland Primitive Methodist College.

At the start of WWI Robert sought permission from those in charge of the Primitive Methodists to rejoin the Army as an Army Chaplain. Initially they refused but they eventually relented and Richard embarked for France during July 1915. He kept a diary which showed he had several near misses and wrote an article about the life of a WWI Chaplain in France – this is an extract “For the most part the Chaplain’s job was diverse, difficult and dangerous. He had to accompany the troops on their long marches, footslog it on the cobbled roads, be exposed to the sweltering sun or the pouring rain, grope his way through the intense darkness, live with the lads in the narrow trenches, the flimsy shelters, the battered houses, the destroyed villages, the shelter of the ridges. Although unarmed he sometimes went with them over the top, into the fury of the battle, not to fight, but to rescue the fallen, attend the wounded, minister to the dying, reverently bury the dead, write to their loved ones, break the sad news about wounds or death, and to comfort all who suffered or who were in distress.’ I believe more than one WW1 Chaplain was killed in action.



During WW2 Robert acted as Chaplain to RAF Bovingdon in Hertfordshire.

The photo depicts Robert at the time of WWI and thanks go to Dr Jill Barber for her research.