How it all began

I grew up knowing that my father had been in the Desert Rats during World War Two.  Beyond that I knew nothing.  Unfortunately he died before I had a chance to be old enough to ask him about his war experiences.  As my interest in family history grew, I managed to find his Army Service Record, which gave me a lot more details about his Unit and places of action.


However, in an act of what I believe was some kind of divine agency, I received a telephone call in 2006 from a lady in Colchester telling me that a relative had recently died and in her effects there was a collection of items to do with my father.  Did I want to collect them otherwise she would dispose of them?  It really was no decision to make, and the next day I drove all the way from Yorkshire to Colchester to collect a carrier bag stuffed full of papers and other items.

 
As my wife and I sat eating lunch I peeled back letter after letter written in my father's neat small handwriting, all dated between 1940 and 1946.  I picked out letter after letter, each one revealing fascinating information about his life back then, three decades before my birth.  Over the next few months I faithfull typed up every word of each of the 170 letters and felt I grew to know my father as young man in his 20s.

 
I learned a fascinating story, one of faith under pressure, one of meeting the challenges of the most serious dislocation of British society in centuries.  I began to want to place his experiences in their correct context.  How typical was his story?  What was the bigger picture for Christianity during the 1940s?

 

Pte. J.W.N. Broom 7374615 R.A.M.C.

 

I had completed an undergraduate degree in History in my early 20s, but realised that if I wanted to answer the above questions then I would need further training in the academic disciplines of academic research.  Therefore I paid to do an MA in Local and Regional History through the Open University and then enrolled as a PhD student at the University of Birmingham, being supervised by Dr Michael Snape, an international expert on Religion and Warfare.

 
The project I am undertaking is called `Onward Christian Soldiers', a study of the impact of war on aspects of Christian faith, Nationhood, Morality, Ecumenism, Evangelism and the Christian's view of military life.

 
I shall endeavour to keep this blog regularly updated and encourage the exchange of information and ideas.

 
All offers to help to sustain this project will be gratefully received.

 
John