Eric Cordingly, Harry Stogden and the Changi Cross

Two of the most moving examples of the ways in which the FEPOW experience affected the inner spiritual lives of the men who had to endure it are those of Army Chaplain Eric Cordingly, and Sgt. Harry Stogden.

Eric Cordingly was a rector from the Cotswolds when the Second World War broke out.  He volunteered as an army chaplain and experienced the Dunkirk retreat before finding himself in Singapore in February 1942, being captured by the Japanese.

Eric Cordingly inside Changi Chapel

Through three and a half years in captivity Eric continued his ministry, creating chapel wherever he was, including by the infamous Thai-Burma Railway. The first of these chapels was in the Changi Barracks and was christened `St George’ after the insignia of the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers of which he was a part.  The building had previously been a mosque used by the Indian army when they were stationed at Changi.  Men set to work creating the fixtures and fittings using what tools and materials they could find and created a beautiful space to worship.

The former mosque which became St George Chapel, drawn by POW Eric Stacy

One particularly charming story was told by Eric in Down to Bedrock:-

`…on a wet afternoon a little bearded Indian arrived on the pillion of a motorcycle.  He came straight to me where I was busy giving a talk in Church.  He introduced himself as the Moslem priest whose mosque we were now using.  He had coem for his prayer books, which fortunately I had saved and kept hidden in my cupboard.  He was overjoyed to receive them, and in `pidgin’ English we introduced each other as `padres’ of religion.  He rather surprised me with his broadminded remark that he was glad that I was using his building, and that it was being used for the worship of God.’

Eric also led the `Theological Faculty’ at the `University’ set up in the camp.  He oversaw the education of around thirty men, with no books or teaching aids to help him.  Regular services were held in the chapel, with a daily morning communion, evening prayers, choir practices and instruction for those wishing to be confirmed as Anglicans.  Communion took place using a concoction of raisins, water and sugar as the wine.

Eric wrote:-

I shall hope to be able to convince the reader of what is at present felt by us all, namely a growing religious life centred around our Church of St George.  No priest could wish for a happier “parish” or sphere of work…We seem somehow to ahve back to fundamentals and simple wholesome worship, and we all feel the need for a real religion and all this in spite of the unpleasantness of Captivity, lack of nourishing food, and the tropical heat.  My own life personally is richer by these experiences…Iam sure this experience is something I shall value forever.’

One of the items made for the chapel was a brass altar cross, the base being fashioned from a Howitzer shell case. Eric drew the design and the cross itself was made by Sgt Harry Stogden of the RAOC.  The cross went with Eric up the line to the Thai-Burma railway, back to Changi and eventually to Eric’s mantelpiece during his subsequent career which saw him rise to the position of Bishop of Thetford.  In 1992 Eric’s family returned to cross to Changi where today it adorns the chapel in the museum as a symbol of hope and reconciliation and to remind visitors of the strength of the human spirit when facing the most adverse conditions.

The Changi Cross – from Changi to Kanchanaburi to Changi to Gloucestershire to Norfolk and back to Changi!

Tragically the maker of the cross, Harry Stogden, died in 1945 whilst en route back to England.  However his son, Bernard, was able to attend the ceremony to place the cross on the altar at the museum’s chapel, bringing him closer to the father he never knew.

Staff Sergeant Harry Stogden

This story is moving in so many different ways – the tragedy of the lives lost unnecessarily due to starvation and preventable diseases, including that of Harry Stogden, the strength of character and moral purpose shown by Eric Cordingly and many others under the most unimaginable conditions, and the inspiration which both Eric, Harry and those mentioned in the books are able to carry on providing due to the generosity of their families in bringing their remarkable stories to a wider audience.

The last word is from Eric Cordingly, writing two decades after these experiences in Beyond Hatred (ed. Guthrie Moir, Lutterworth Press, 1967):-

`It was the most wonderful time of my life, in spite of the grim and hungry times. For once, and for three and a half years, the thin veneer of civilization, or reticence, had been stripped from men. We were all down to bedrock. One saw people as they really were…the truly remarkable thing was the way the human spirit rose to magnificent heights. After months of sheer degradation, gradually the spirit to care for one another revived, incredible kindness and self-sacrifice was in evidence’

The full story of Eric Cordingly and the Changi Cross is one of twenty case studies in my new book, Fight the Good Fight: Voices of Faith from the Second World War

 

Captain Edward William Walker, 7th Royal Welsh Fusiliers

I often say to Dawn on our travels, that if we find ten churches during the day, there will be two in which there will be something that takes one’s breath away.

On our tour of Shropshire during the New Year 2013/2014, I decided to turn off the A453 as I saw a sign saying `Knockin’. This was too good to resist so a random visit there was in order. Firstly we found the shop which, to, the surprise of neither of us, was called `The Knockin Shop.’ After paying our respects at the war memorial, we were delighted to find the church was open and even more awestruck by a memorial window therein.

The inscription underneath reads:

To the Glory of GOD and in memory of EDWARD WILLIAM WALKER, D.S.O., Capt in 1/7 Royal Welsh Fusiliers, son of WILLIAM GREAVES WALKER, Rector of the Parish, who fell in action at KHUWEILFEH in the HOLY LAND on Nov 6th 1917, aged 25

The second thing that struck me after the commanding nature of the memorial was that a Captain in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers was being commemorated with an image of St. George of England, complete with the red cross and having slayed the dragon. Presumably in this case the dragon is meant to represent the enemy, rather than Wales!

A little bit more research revealed the following information:-

He was the son of Rev William Greaves Walker of Knockin, Shropshire and Sarah Caroline Walker. His mother was a native of Shropshire, but his father had been born in Pitsmoor, Sheffield. He appeared to have had a relatively comfortable upbringing, being taught by a Governess according to the 1901 census,

Walker had been gazetted into a commission on the 8th August 1914, just a month after the beginning of the war. He had served with the 53rd Division at Gallipoli in 1915 and survived that disaster.

In March 1917 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for bravery. His citation read:

During the action near Gaza on the 26th March, 1917, he showed conspicuous gallantry and exceptional capability in handling his men. On this day he led his Company forward and, with the help of an officer and men of another battalion, captured an important point and held it, in the face of sharp counter attacks, until the remainder of the enemy position was won.

He lies buried in Beersheba War Cemetery, in an area mentioned frequently in the Bible, in connection with Abraham and Isaac in Genesis, and as the place where the Prophet Elijah took refuge when fleeing from Queen Jezebel.

He fell in the Third Battle of Gaza, also known as the Battle of Beersheba. The website firstworldwar.com gives a brief account of the battle which shows that Walker was killed in the final action:-

With Edmund Allenby’s appointment to command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in the wake of two failed attacks at Gaza in March and April 1917 – replacing Sir Archibald Murray who was recalled to London – he was tasked by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George with the capture of Jerusalem by Christmas 1917.

In the light of the British army’s two recent failures it appeared a tall order in spite of clear British numerical supremacy in the area. Allenby nevertheless delivered Jerusalem to London handily in time for Christmas with over two weeks to spare.

In order to ensure the fall of Jerusalem however Allenby needed first to break the Turkish line atGaza-Beersheba overseen by recently arrived German commander Erich von Falkenhayn, the former army Chief of Staff.

Allenby opened preparations by first relocating his GHQ from a first-class Cairo hotel to the front line; a symbolic act designed to boost the flagging morale of the British troops. Next he amassed reinforcements of men, artillery, gas shells and tanks, adamant that he would not proceed until certain of victory. Seven infantry divisions plus a Light Horse unit (nicknamed the Desert Mounted Corps and consisting of both horses and camels) were assembled, a total of 88,000 men.

Ranged against him were the Turkish Seventh and Eighth Armies, totalling just 35,000 men stretched out along a 40km line. A key component of Allenby’s plan was the securing of Beersheba’s water supplies at an early stage during the planned attack – its wells.

Both earlier attacks at Gaza had to some extent foundered on account of water shortages – an ever-present concern in desert warfare – and Allenby understood that establishing command of water supplies would be a key factor in his wider plan of capturing Jerusalem.

Thus the Third Battle of Gaza – also referred to as the Battle of Beersheba – was initiated early on the morning of 31 October 1917. Not for Allenby a frontal attack, as at the Second Battle of Gaza. Instead he resolved to take the Turkish forces by surprise in the relatively lightly defended area of Beersheba (a plan initially proposed by General Chetwode), deploying 40,000 troops in the area.

He nevertheless ensured a hefty British presence directly in front of Gaza. Three divisions, aided by a heavy artillery presence of 218 guns, bombarded the garrison for six days before the attack began in order to fool the Turks into believing that a full frontal attack was imminent.
Allenby’s ploy, which demanded the utmost secrecy in planning, succeeded in its entirety. British RFC aircraft – of newly deployed Bristol fighters – ensured British air superiority, crucial in preventing German aircraft from detecting British troop movements.

Allenby deployed infantry forces to take Beersheba from the front while despatching his Light Horse unit far to the east. Following an all-day battle an Australian Light Horse unit finally penetrated the Turkish defences and secured control over the town’s wells before the Turks could execute a prepared plan to contaminate them.
The Turkish Seventh Army meanwhile retired to the stronghold of Tel es Sheria commanded by German commander Kress von Kressenstein’s Eighth Army. Panicked there by another diversionary attack to the east by a 70-strong camel company, the Turkish defenders began to scatter believing it to be a large-scale flank attack, thus leaving the flank of Seventh Army exposed.

Promptly exploiting this Allenby struck north at Tel es Sheria at dawn on 6 November splitting Seventh and Eighth Armies. Allenby hoped to trap Kressenstein’s Eighth Army at Gaza but the Turks retreated in some haste further up the coast, Gaza being abandoned on 6-7 November. Meanwhile Eighth Army established itself in Jerusalem preparatory to a stand against the British.
Having concluded the successful capture of Gaza Allenby next turned his attention to the fall of Jerusalem, which he succeeded in securing the following month.