The study traces the efforts of English Nonconformists to provide
chaplains for their adherents in the British Army. Unrecognised
by the War Office, and opposed by the Church of England, the
Wesleyan Methodists persisted in providing an unpaid civilian
ministry until, by stages, they secured partial recognition in
1862 and 1881. The respect earned by volunteer Wesleyan civilian
chaplains, who accompanied the troops on most colonial and
imperial expeditions in the last quarter of the century,
culminating in the Boer War, prompted the War Office in 1903 to
offer them a number of commissioned chaplaincies. The Wesleyans
declined the offer. Although they had earlier, and after
anguished debate, accepted State payment of chaplains, they were
not prepared to accept military control of them.
In the Great War, Wesleyan chaplains were nevertheless obliged to
accept temporary commissions. Congregationalists, Baptists,
Primitive and United Methodists, through a United Board, provided
another stream of chaplains. With the political help of Lloyd
George, both sets of Nonconformists secured equitable treatment
at the hands of the Church of England and, through an
Interdenominational Committee, gained positions of considerable
influence over chaplaincy policy. In the field, remarkably for
the age, they joined with Presbyterians and Roman Catholics in a
single chain of command. By 1918, over 500 Wesleyan and United
Board commissioned chaplains were engaged. After the war, as the price of retaining their newly won standing
and influence, both the Wesleyans and the United Board
denominations accepted permanent commissions for their chaplains
and their absorption within a unified Chaplains Department.
Acceptability was secured through willingness to compromise on
voluntaryism and conformity to the State.