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SILVER COMMUNION SET USED BY REV LUMLEY GREEN
WILKINSON |
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This month’s object is a silver communion set used by
the Reverend Lumley Green-Wilkinson when he was chaplain
to the 41st Infantry Brigade in the 14th (Light)
Division during the Division’s occupation of the trench
line in the Ypres salient in mid-1915. The communion set
was subsequently used to administer communion to His
Majesty King George V during his convalescence from a
lung operation at Craigweil House, Aldwick, near Bognor,
Sussex, in 1929.
The chalice is inscribed on the base:
Ypres Salient 1915 France 1916: From this chalice the
Archbishop of Canterbury administered the Blessed
Sacrament to King George V after his illness Easter 1929
at Craigweil House Bognor
The rim of the chalice is engraved with the words:
To L.C.G-W [Lumley Green-Wilkinson] from C.G.S in memory
of two happy years Oct ’06 [1906] to Oct ’08 [1908].
Omar Ramsden et Alwyn Carr me fecerunt.
The identity of the donor of the chalice, ‘C.G.S.’, is
not known. The Latin words ‘Omar Ramsden et Alwyn Carr
me fecerunt’ indicate that the chalice was the work of
the silversmiths, Omar Ramsden (1873-1939) and Alwyn
Carr (1890-1940), who worked in partnership in London
between 1898 and 1918. From 1905 onwards they engraved
their work with these Latin words.
Background
From 1907 to 1908 the Reverend Lumley Green-Wilkinson
was chaplain to Dr. Cosmo Lang, the Bishop of Stepney
(1901-08). Lang was subsequently appointed Archbishop of
York before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury in 1928.
When Lang became Archbishop of Canterbury,
Green-Wilkinson became his occasional, private, unpaid
chaplain.
In 1928 King George V became ill and lung surgery was
carried out on 12 December. His recovery was slow, so
arrangements were made for him to convalesce at
Craigweil House, Aldwick, near Bognor, Sussex, courtesy
of the owner, Sir Arthur Du Cros, Bt.
Craigweil House Bognor |
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On 9 February 1929 the King travelled to Craigweil House
to join his wife, Her Majesty Queen Mary, who had
arrived before him. The King was joined in convalescence
by Dr. Lang who, during his early months as Archbishop
of Canterbury, was also unwell. On Sunday 31 March 1929, Easter Day, the Archbishop used
the portable communion set of his private, unpaid
chaplain, the Reverend Lumley Green-Wilkinson, to
administer communion to the King and Queen at Craigweil
House. The inscription on the base of the chalice
records the event, which is also mentioned in Cosmo
Lang’s entry in the Dictionary of National Biography.
By 15 May the King’s health had recovered sufficiently
for him to return to London. Soon afterwards His Majesty
granted the District Council use of the title ‘Regis’,
thus creating the name by which the town is now known,
‘Bognor Regis’. In 1939 Craigweil House was demolished.
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Either before or at the time of his death,
Green-Wilkinson’s portable communion set passed into the
ownership of his son, Oliver, who was Adjutant of the
2nd Battalion, The King’s Royal Rifle Corps at the
Battle of El Alamein in 1942 and was later awarded a
Military Cross for his actions in the Western Desert in
1942/3. He was ordained in 1946 and became the Bishop of
Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) in 1951 and, additionally,
the Archbishop of Central Africa in 1963. He was killed
in a car crash on 26 August 1970.
After Bishop Oliver’s death the communion set passed
into the ownership of his brother, Major John
Green-Wilkinson MBE MC, a former officer in The Rifle
Brigade (1941-47), who has kindly loaned it to the
Museum. John Green-Wilkinson was awarded a Military
Cross for his gallantry as a liaison officer during the
capture of Tripoli in January 1943. He later wrote a
book about his brother titled Bishop Oliver: Letters and
Reminiscences (Wilton 65, 1998). In 2007, aged 85, he
received a MBE for community service in Winchester.
41st Infantry Brigade
The 41st Infantry Brigade consisted of the 7th and 8th
Battalion, The King’s Royal Rifle Corps, and the 7th and
8th Battalion, The Rifle Brigade. The Brigade arrived in
France in May 1915 just as the Second Battle of Ypres
(22 April to 25 May 1915) was drawing to a close. The
Brigade immediately assumed responsibility for a part of
the trench line in the Ypres salient which in places was
no more than 15 feet from the German line.
On 30 July, 7 KRRC and 8 RB were in the front line at
Hooge when the Germans attacked with flame-throwers for
the first time during the war. All but a few of the
trenches occupied by 7 KRRC were overrun. A
counter-attack was ordered.
Nothing in First or Second Ypres was more resolute than
the counter-attack by [the battalions of the 41st
Infantry Brigade] … The ground over which they attacked
had not a vestige of cover; the three-quarters of an
hour’s preliminary bombardment had been devoid of
effect; no one, from the Divisional Commander downwards,
could have had any hope of success … but the new
battalions went forward as if they were determined to
show that when called upon they could give their lives
as freely as those whose blood had already soaked the
ground for which they were fighting.
7 KRRC and 7 RB lost just over 300 men each, 8 KRRC
close to 200 and 8 RB just under 500.
These were men to whom the Brigade’s chaplain, the
Reverend Lumley Green-Wilkinson, would have administered
communion from his portable communion set in the two
months before the Battle of Hooge. The survivors of the
battle would also have received communion from the same
chalice and plate during the remainder of his time with
the 41st Infantry Brigade in France in 1915-16.
It was at Hooge on 31 July that 2nd Lieutenant Sidney
Woodroffe, a platoon commander in A Company, 8 RB,
carried out the act of gallantry for which he was
subsequently awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. |
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