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there was one breed of non-combatants that has been rather forgotten:
chaplains.
By
the end of the war there were 3,500 clergy in khaki, going about their rounds
in a dog collar and representing God while all hell broke loose.
They
were a mixed bunch and many were frankly worse than useless.
Padres
who got the least respect were the ones who preached patriotism behind the
lines and frightened the men going to the front. But some performed quiet
miracles on the front line, earning undying admiration.
Perhaps
the most astonishing of them all was a small, unassuming country vicar and
one-time headmaster from near Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria.
He
joined up as a relatively old man at 51.
He
was to become the most highly decorated non-combatant of the Great War, winning
to his considerable embarrassment the DSO, MC and VC.
His
name was Theodore Bayley Hardy.
Further
reading
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