Some Wesleyan Methodist Ministers who served in the Armed Forces during WW1

Cecil George Dunkerley (1895-1966)

During the First World War he was a prisoner in Germany for two and a half years.  He began his preaching ministry in the prison camp, but his experiences there impaired his health for the rest of his life.  Following his release he was an invalid for a year.

Photo here

Frank Fairfax (1887-1964)

One of the first ministers to join up, in 1914 he became a private in the infantry with the Bradford Pals, afterwards serving as a chaplain in France, and later as a chaplain to British prisoners of war in Switzerland.

Charles Edward Gentle (1886-1961)

Born in the Isle of Wight, in 1914, when stationed at Daventry, he enlisted in the Princess Beatrice Isle of Wight Rifles.  A year later, on active service in India, he was asked to serve as a Chaplain to the armed forces, which he did until demobilization in 1920.

Hubert Vavasor Griffiths (1885-1965)

Having worked among servicemen in the Severn Valley Mission, at the outbreak of war in 1914 he volunteered for chaplaincy work.  He served in France and Italy. He was mentioned in dispatches three times, and received the Military Cross in 1917 for service in the field.  At the end of the war he was one of five Wesleyan ministers to receive a permanent commission.

Albert Swales Hullah (1885-1966)

He became a minister in the Irish Conference in 1911. Soon after the outbreak of the First World War he became a Chaplain in the Army. He was a contemporary of ‘Woodbine Willie’ in front line service in France, and was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous courage in March 1918.  During the Second World War he volunteered for further chaplaincy service, although he was over age, and was a prisoner of war in German hands from May 1941 to September 1944, exercising a powerful ministry in the prison camp.

Arthur Sanderson (1887-1964)

From 1911 to 1932 he served in the Lucknow and Benares District of India, and during the First World War went with a contingent of Indian soldiers to France. They spoke mainly Hindi, and he was asked by the YMCA to act as their liaison officer and friend, as he understood their language and way of life.

Ernest Frederick Pugh Scholes (1868-1966)

In 1895 he went as a minister to China, where he spent most of his ministry. From 1917-18 he served with the Chinese Labour Corps in France.

Victor Donald Siddons (1892-1967)

He left ministerial training college at Headingley in 1915 to join the Yeomanry.  He then entered the Royal Flying Corps and was stationed with Lawrence of Arabia, for whom he was pilot, being twice awarded the DFC.

Frederick Watkin Vaughan (1881-1965)

At the outbreak of war in 1914 he enlisted as a private soldier in the armed forces. He was promoted to the rank of Captain and was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in action on the Western Front.

Comments about this page

  • Victor Donald SIDDONS was in fact only awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on one occasion, London Gazette 1/1/1919, page 96. He was awarded an MBE during WW2, as a Army Chaplain.

    By Nick Carter (09/03/2021)
  • The IWM Lives Remembered website commemorates Rev Thomas Jasper Shovel who is listed in the Index of Methodist Ministers

    By Tim Banks (18/04/2017)
  • To this list of Wesleyan Methodist Chaplains can be added Rev Clifford Hugh Reed MC who is commemorated in the IWM Lives of the First World War Remembered https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/3682646

    By Tim Banks (12/04/2017)
  • Rev Reginald Ughtred Lockwood can found on IWM Lives of World War 1 Remembered https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/5466391 and on the CWGC Casualty Details http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1465859/LOCKWOOD,%20REGINALD%20UGHTRED

    By Tim Banks (12/04/2017)
  • See also this page about Archibald Harold Walter Harrison (1882-1946);

    http://www.mywesleyanmethodists.org.uk/page/rev_dr_archibald_walter_harrison_mc

    By Pamela Atkins (15/10/2014)
  • How wonderful to read about these remarkable ministers! Arthur Swales Hullah was most highly regarded by my parents, and he conducted their wedding at Queen’s Road Methodist Church, Watford in 1938.  I remember meeting him when he came back to Watford for a Church Anniversary, and had tea at our home, and I (as a small boy of about 8) being in awe of ‘Mr Hullah’.

    I have in my possession a copy of ‘The Presence’ by A S Hullah, M.C., the text of a broadcast from BBC London (2LO), Sunday 5 February 1928, published by The Epworth Press. This was passed to me by another Queen’s Road member who greatly valued A S Hullah’s ministry.

    If you have any further information about Mr Hullah, I would be so pleased to learn of it.

    By Harvey Richardson (25/04/2014)

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