A further instalment of St Michael’s and the Great War - 90 years on, compiled by Cathie James and recorded in the church magazine, 1915-1918 of St Michael & All Angels Church, Bedford Park.

Cathie wrote: “The St Michael’s magazines 1915 -1918 are a chronicle of lost youth, of decimated families, of self sacrifice, of optimism in the face of appalling news, and of ‘getting on’ with parish life when the world around was in chaos – all made very personal. Reviewing them has brought to life those names that are commemorated in many places in St Michael’s – and meaning to the words ‘We will remember them’”.

The incumbent throughout was the Reverend Jacob Cartmel Robinson who wrote most of the copy for the magazine. We do not have the magazine covering the outbreak of war in 1914 but in early 1915 the mood was upbeat and in February the vicar writes: “All this knitting which goes on everlastingly, what a sight it is! In the home, in the theatre, in the train, in the lift – there it is! You cannot get away from it …..‘Tommy’ at the front must feel a bit pleased, I fancy, when he thinks of all those women and girls mothering him.

“June 1915 – a word should be said for our choir … nearly all the adults are serving their country, either as soldiers, constables or on relief committees …and yet the music is very good, is it not? Bravo choir!

“July 1915 - among the wounded at the front, I see, are Oliver Thornhill, the son of our esteemed sidesman, now doing duty as a special constable, and Harry Lindsey, a server. Both are doing well, I believe. Bedford Park is having its due share of killed and wounded, but we are proud of our fighting men. God bless them!

“There are to be no parish treats this year in London. Well a day! What will the mothers and the children think? They will not like it, perhaps, but it is good for them, as for all of us, to know that great things are happening, involving the sacrifice of England’s best manhood, and that it is not well with a nation that can take its pleasure or do its business ‘as usual’ just now.

As the war progresses the mood darkens. The vicar and the family of his predecessor, Rev Alfred Wilson, were not immune to bad news from the front. In September 1915 young Cartmel Robinson is reported wounded in the Dardenelles – his wound was severe but he recovered. In the same edition we learn of the death in the field hospital at Armentieres of Second Lieutenant Lawrence Wilson: “Mrs Wilson and the family (Rev Wilson had died in 1909) have our sincerest sympathy. They have paid a heavy toll in the defence of their country this being the second son killed in battle (their son, Harold had been killed in 1900 at the battle of Spion Kop in the Boer War – the clock on the West wall of St Michael’s commemorates him).

“It is presumptuous to offer comfort under such circumstances, and yet it is something for them to know that he was very highly esteemed by those who knew him in life, and that the parish where he lived as a boy now honours him in death.”

The Wilsons were to pay an even higher price. In May 1918 the vicar reports that: “Mrs Wilson…has lost another son in the war – Edgar, the doctor – who was mortally wounded while attending a soldier on the field of battle. This makes the third boy who has given his life in the service of his country, while a fourth is in the fighting on the front. All this makes a heavy burden to which may be added the loss of her husband and partial blindness. Our united prayer is that God of his mercy may be kind to her and spare her further suffering.”

Lawrence and Edgar Wilson are commemorated on brass plaques in the south aisle of the church.