Seventy-five years ago, in November 1945, the nation gathered in Remembrance for the first time since the end of the Second World War and on the first occasion that the dead of two world wars were remembered in peacetime. This year’s Remembrance Sunday on 8 November will be unlike any other since that time but that does not mean that the sacrifice of those who gave their lives in the World Wars of the twentieth century will be forgotten. We will remember them.
In advance of this year’s Remembrance Sunday and marking three quarters of a century since the end of World War II, Fr Nicholas Hird and Dr James Hagerty prepared a short history of the Diocese of Leeds in the years 1939-45 and the impact of the war on the local Church. It serves as a salutary reminder of the hardships and anxieties experienced by a previous generation as we face the challenges of the present.
You can read or download a copy of Fr Hird and Dr Hagerty’s study here.
Also James Hagerty recently published No Ordinary Shepherds – Catholic Chaplains to the British Forces in the Second World War
Over 900 chaplains served all branches of the armed forces throughout the war. Relying on evidence that includes hitherto unseen personal records and papers, James Hagerty tells the many and varied stories of unarmed priests who willingly went into battle alongside the men and women they had volunteered to serve. This book follows Dr Hagerty’s ground-breaking history of Catholic chaplains in the First World War, Priests in Uniform, described by The Tablet as ‘a comprehensive and compelling portrait’.
Published by Gracewing http://www.gracewing.co.uk/
ISBN 978 0 85244 955 4