A chaplain at Gallipoli : the Great War diaries of Kenneth Best

Format:

Book

Title:

A chaplain at Gallipoli : the Great War diaries of Kenneth Best

Other title(s):

War diaries

Author:

Best, Kenneth, 1887-1981.

ISBN:

9780857202253

Publication Information:

London ; New York : Simon & Schuster, 2011.

Physical Description:

293 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm

Series title(s):

War diaries collection from the Imperial War Museum.

General Note:

Published in association with the Imperial War Museum.

Contents:

Maps -- Foreword: Chaplain Best's journals and letters / Michael Hickey -- Preface / Andrew Graham -- Biographical ote on Kenneth Best -- Kenneth Best in Cairo and Gallipoli, 1914-1915 / Anne Brooks -- Crisis in Egypt and the threat to the Suez Canal -- Westerners, Easterners, and the Dardanelles -- List of abbreviations -- Chronological Diaries and Letters, September 1914 - October 1915 --

Evacuation -- British army chaplains in the Great War -- Epilogue: The 1967 pilgrimage to Gallipoli and the Reverend J.K. Best, MC [i.e. military cross] / Christopher Fagan.

Summary:

In early May 1915, Padre Kenneth Best sailed with the 42nd East Lancashire Division to Gallipoli to join the Allied land invasion of Turkey. Many chaplains were not permitted to go near the front line but Best insisted on accompanying his troops. Thrust abruptly into the maelstrom, he fulfilled his pastoral role of building up morale, tending the wounded and burying the dead. As the toll of casualties rose ever higher, he became increasingly critical of the British high command, few of whom shared his insight into the horrific realities of trench warfare. Kenneth Best witnessed at first hand the gallantry and indomitable spirit of the Allied troops, which shine through the pages of his extraordinary diaries. Their heroism is perhaps the one redeeming feature of this disastrous campaign, which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Above all, Kenneth Best's candid and compelling diaries show how the tragedy of Gallipoli did not lie in its conception but in its execution.

Personal Subject:

Best, Kenneth, 1887-1981-Diaries.

Best, Kenneth, 1887-1981

Subject(s):

World War, 1914-1918 -- Chaplains -- Diaries.

World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, British.

World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula.

Geographic Term:

Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula

Genre:

diaries.

Diaries

Personal narratives -- British

Added Author:

Roynon, Gavin.

Added Corporate Author:

Imperial War Museum (Great Britain)

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Amity Public Library	940.426 BEST	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Many chaplains were not permitted to go near the Front in the First World War - others insisted on doing so, like Kenneth Best in the Gallipoli Campaign. Best had no military training before the war but he felt that he could only fulfil his pastoral role by getting close to the front line and working with the troops under fire.

Best was attached to the 42nd East Lancastrians - the first Territorial Army Division to serve overseas in the conflict, so arguably the least experienced in the ways of war. In his diary we follow his progress through his initial training in Egypt and on to his arrival in Gallipoli in May 1915.

Gallipoli has become notorious, even by the standards of the First World War. After a naval campaign to open up a supply route to Russia through Turkey failed, some 480,000 Allied troops were drawn into a land invasion in which hundreds of thousands were injured or killed. In his diary, Best records his efforts to encourage frightened men before they go over the top, to comfort the wounded and, when the fighting stops, to bury the dead. His empathy for the troops is matched by a forthright disgust for their leaders, few of whom share his insight into the horrific realities of trench warfare.