IN the latest of a series of articles on the Great War, historian Faith Renger takes a look at the role of the clergy, both at home and at the front.

THROUGHOUT the war Christian leaders were busy dealing with an unprecedented number of demands on their time, compassion and even courage.

Churchmen had to compose sermons against a backcloth of grief, bewilderment, depression and failing optimism as news reached Malvern families of yet more casualties and soldiers reported missing.

Some churchmen experienced a crisis of conscience. Rev Edward Poole from Holly Mount was a young man who felt strongly that he should be serving in the army.

After initially failing the medical examinations, he succeeded in being posted to a YMCA Hut outside Ypres in 1917.

He sent letters to his congregation, some of which were printed in the Malvern Gazette. Rev Poole described the hardships endured by the troops and how he was able to minister to the men, conduct services and liaise with local food supplies.

He described his new life: "The nights are thunderous with the guns and the very Hut rattles and rocks, but I am generally able to get a good sleep."

After four months, he returned to Holly Mount and his young family. Rev Poole felt the pull a year later and in October 1918 he became the civilian chaplain for the YMCA at Le Treport in north east France.

This was an important wartime medical centre with 10,000 beds catering for the wounded men sent back from the Front, some of them German prisoners. It was here that Rev Poole succumbed to pneumonic influenza and died just a few days before the end of the war.

The curate at All Saints church at the Wyche travelled a similar path. Rev Cathart Davies first served as a chaplain to the new recruits at Bovington Camp in Dorset.

His letters speak highly of the men who undertook their training so cheerfully. "There is a complete absence of class prejudice and aloofness. A man is judged by what he is and by his military usefulness," he wrote.

Rev Cathart Davies later served on the Front and once again described the great qualities of the ordinary soldier.

He wanted everyone at home to know that "it is possible for a man to use bad language and still be a true follower of our Lord".

The curate lived in the dug outs with the troops, prayed for the wounded, offered chocolates and cigarettes in rest time, and offered to write home to the men's families. It is clear that there were lots of 'Woodbine Willies' operating along the Front. In fact 30 chaplains were killed while on active service.

Rev Povey, the minister at Malvern Baptist Church, was much involved in providing physical and spiritual comforts for the thousands of recruits who camped either side of the railway line on what is now Peachfield Common.

3,000 young men from 13th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment and the 16th Battalion Warwickshire Regiment spent several months under canvas during 1915.

Daily drills, marches, trench digging and bayonet practices ensured the recruits were fit and healthy. Spare time was spent in the YMCA tent and in town where the people of Malvern sponsored and ran a number of soldiers' clubs.

One was based at the baptist church and here Rev Povey and his wife dedicated many hours to these men, arranging concerts and activities like billiards, as well as providing refreshments and even hot baths.

In three months 20,000 envelopes and 450 writing pads were issued to the soldiers to write to their loved ones. They were much appreciated and Rev Povey and his wife were warmly remembered in a recently published diary kept by a soldier who trained in Malvern.

Rev Linzee Giles was the vicar of Malvern Priory. He not only served a large parish but chaired or attended most of the town's essential committees overseeing the Belgian refugees, Red Cross activities, council meetings, food control measures and so on.

He led most of the major services for the town, including national days of prayer, funerals and commemorations. He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1917 but managed to return to his office before the end of the war.

Many local ministers received letters from former choir boys and parishioners serving on the Front, indicating just how important the spiritual link remained in the midst of battle.

Malvern Museum has produced a series of three booklets devoted to the Home Front in Malvern to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Great War. They are available at the museum and Just So in Barnards Green.