As the country commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme we are enabled to read a believer’s diary
William Ransley left the Army in April 1889.
He then joined the Army Scripture Readers’ Society, and soon after he was appointed as Army Scripture Reader (ASR).
Shortly after the outbreak of World War I the Army Scripture Readers’ Society obtained permission from the War Office to send Readers to the front to do spiritual work among the troops. ASR Ransley worked tirelessly among the various hospitals in Wimereux throughout the war. He was posted to Number 5 Convalescent Camp and Number 8 Stationary Hospital. This is where he would see the slaughter of the Somme through the eyes and stories of the endless stream of injured soldiers from both sides. The battle took place between July and November 1916.
What follows is part of ASR Ransley’s war diaries.
July 1916
Large convoys of wounded arrive daily, and are evacuated the same day. All speak of ‘heavy casualties’.
A wounded man told me: ‘Our Divisional Commander told us, before the attack, that this time we could expect to carry the enemy’s position without suffering many casualties. But as we walked (we were ordered to walk) forward to the attack in the open, we were mowed down by their Machine guns until our advance was completely stopped and before reaching our objective.’
I visited 50-odd wounded German Prisoners, and gave each a German New Testament.
Wounded arriving and leaving all day. The whole of the Staff worn out with the work of it all. About 200 wounded German Prisoners arrived in a deplorable condition – dirty, smelling, and most of them with very bad wounds of every description: bayonet, bomb, shrapnel, shell and bullet wounds. Sixteen of them had limbs amputated in the evening. Many had frightfully disfigured faces.
All the wounded very uncomfortable owing to the intense heat, and the Nurses and Orderlies very fagged, but working heroically – they are simply magnificent!
August 1916
A badly wounded Australian said: ‘When my Battalion went into the trenches for the first time, the Saxons shouted, “Go back to Australia, we only fight England.” We shouted, “We’ve come a long way to fight you, and you have got to have it.” Then they began to shout abuse at us, shouting: “You are a lot of curs, sons of convicts and sheep-stealers, and we’ll wipe you out.” Well, with their Machine guns they certainly played old Harry with us the first time we attacked them, and they kept it up to the last moment before our close approach to them with our bayonets threatened danger; then, they all threw up their hands and cried “Mercy Kamerade!” but we showed no mercy. If they had played the game and kept up the fight when we reached them, we would have shown mercy; but they will only fight while they feel safe behind Machine guns.’
A Nurse asked me to try to get a short message from a badly wounded man who was dying to put in a letter to his wife, which she also suggested I should write. I had talked with the man several times before he became so ill. I endeavoured to get the desired message. A good deal that he had said was incoherent, but in some of his broken sentences I made him out to say: ‘Tell her my message was peace’ … ‘Only by God’s help can I get better’ … ‘She is the best in the world’ … ‘I have a dear little girl’ … ‘Two dear boys’ … ‘This is a strange war’ … ‘Jesus is a good Friend.’ He made a sign to me to give him a piece of paper and pencil. I gave it [to] him (the Nurse was now by his side), and he tried to make a capital E; this he made backwards, and then dozed off. The Nurse laid him back from his sitting position, and we left him, the Nurse promising to arrange for the Matron to write to his wife. He died a few hours later.
I spoke to an elderly Scotchman, accidentally wounded, seriously, by the explosion of a bomb. He lost his left eye, and was wounded in one lung, right arm and wrist. He was very bright and cheerful. He told me he had been trained for the Mission Field, but had never taken up the work. He asked me for a copy of St John’s Gospel, which I was able to give him. Then he told me in the presence of several Up-patients in the ward the following: ‘My favourite text has always been Psalm 34:6 –“This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his trouble.” I have proved the truth of those words in my present trouble more than ever before. And I advise you lads to make it your motto.’ It was a splendid testimony.
September 1916
A badly wounded lad, aged 19, asked me: ‘Do you believe that a soldier goes to Heaven by virtue of his dying on the battlefield? Men often argue about it in the trenches; some profess to believe it, and others do not. I have heard Chaplains preach it. I for one cannot believe that if a man has not lived a holy life, his dying on the battle-field will save him, and though I am not able to explain exactly why I think so, I feel satisfied in my own mind that it cannot be so, and for this reason: when I lay wounded on “No man’s land”, as young as I am, horrible things in my past life came up before my mind, which made me feel afraid, and I prayed to God for forgiveness.
‘For 36 hours I laid there in terror as the shells and star-shells burst over me, and I prayed as hard as I could to Jesus Christ. I thought of those arguments I have told you about, but I did not feel I could trust [that] the blood, which was slowly trickling from my wound, could atone for my past sins. Although I volunteered for the War, I don’t mind telling you that I did not want to die in “No man’s land”, but wanted to live and go home and see my mother again. And in spite of that awful time in “No man’s land”, here I am, and I own that I owe it to God’s goodness. And when God has heard and answered prayer, it is up to a chap to thank Him, and though I have not been religious before, I am going to try to serve Him for bringing me safely out of that Hell.’ I regard this as a remarkable statement from one so young.
I assured him that he was right, and quoted several texts in support of what I said to him. As he belonged to the C. of E. I not only quoted Acts 4:12; John 14:6; but also the opening words of the Prayer of Consecration in the Communion Service: ‘Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, who of thy tender mercy didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon a cross for our redemption; who made there (by his one oblation of himself once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world.’
What the lad said he had heard Chaplains preach, I also heard preached by a C. of E. Chaplain in the English Church at Wimereux. I made a note of his words at the time, which were as follows: ‘We may be sure that every one who has laid down his life at the Front for his Country, did so willingly and definitely as a sacrifice to God and we may believe that their sacrifice is accepted by God for righteousness. Indeed, God needed their help in this way.’ Then followed an inconsistent and illogical argument in support of his plea for our prayers for these very men who had fallen in battle – men, he had just before assured us, who had had their sacrifice accounted to them for righteousness, and this, too, from a Minister who, I suppose, had used the words in the Prayer of Consecration thousands of times!
