Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 11, Tuesday 11 November 2025

At my ordination as deacon in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on 25 June 2000 … priests remain deacons after ordination to the priesthood (Photograph: Valerie Jones)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints and Advent. This week began with the Third Sunday before Advent, which was also Remembrance Sunday (9 November 2025. The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Martin, Bishop of Tours, ca 397, and today is Armistice Day or Remembrance Day (11 November).

I have a meeting of the Town Council Working Group in Stony Stratford later this evening. But, before today begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

With Archbishop Walton Empey at my ordination as deacon in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on 25 June 2000 (Photograph: Valerie Jones)

Luke 17: 7-10 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said to his disciples,] ‘7 ‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, “Come here at once and take your place at the table”? 8 Would you not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink”? 9 Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!”’

‘Will you strive for justice and peace …, and respect the dignity of every human being’ … a reminder of the Baptismal Covenant and the charges to ordinands in the Episcopal Church during a protest in the US

Today’s reflections:

Slaves were expected to do their duties, and no master would absolve a slave of them. So how then could a slave eat before his master? The master stands for God and the slave for his people.

There are two Greek words for service in this short passage.

In verse 8, the word to serve, διακονέω (diakonéo), relates particularly to supplying food and drink. It means to be a servant, attendant, domestic, to serve, wait upon. It is the same term that gives us the word ‘deacon’ in the ministry of the Church.

In the New Testament, the service of this type of servant is different to the role of a steward or a slave. It means to minister to someone, to render service to them, to serve or minister to them; to wait at a table and to offer food and drink to the guests. It often had a special reference to women and the preparation of food. It relates to supplying food and the necessities of life.

The story is told about a young curate in his first year of ordained ministry, and who was attending a parish function for pensioners. When he was asked by the rector’s wife to go around the tables and top up the cups of tea, he protested, insinuating that this was not what he had been ordained for.

‘Oh,’ said the rector’s wife. ‘Did you not know it’s a deacon’s job to serve at tables?’

The second word, δοῦλος (doulos), in verses 7, 9 and 10, refers to a slave, someone who is in a servile condition. But this word also refers metaphorically to someone who gives himself or herself up to the will of another, those whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing the Kingdom.

The Greek word translated worthless (ἀχρεῖος, achreios, verse 10) means those to whom nothing is owed, or to whom no favour is due. So, God’s people should never presume that their obedience to God’s commands has earned them his favour.

Do those of us in ministry expect extra credit and rewards other than knowing that we have answered the call of God and the call of the Church?

Do we expect our faith to sow seeds for the faith and deeds of others that bears fruit for which we gain no praise or glory?

Are we engaged in lives of service?

Are we expecting to be servants and slaves in the ministry of the Church?

At the ordination of deacons, bishops recall that deacons ‘remind the whole Church that serving others is at the heart of all ministry.’

They go on to say: ‘Deacons have a special responsibility to ensure that those in need are cared for with compassion and humility. They are to strengthen the faithful, search out the careless [those with no-one to care for them] and the indifferent, and minister to the sick, the needy, the poor and those in trouble.’

Deacons are asked at ordination: ‘Will you be faithful in visiting the sick, in caring for the poor and needy, and in helping the oppressed? Will you promote unity, peace and love …?’

When I was ordained a priest, I was reminded that I still remain a deacon in the Church of God, a slave and a servant of God and of his Kingdom.

An image of Saint Martin of Tours at Carfax Tower, a reminder of Saint Martin’s Church in Oxford … his feastday is 11 November (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 11 November 2025):

The theme this week (9 to 15 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Hope for the Future’ (pp 54-55). This theme was introduced on Sunday with Reflections from Laura D’Henin-Ivers, Chief Executive Officer at Hope for the Future, to mark COP30 in Brazil this week.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 11 November 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord of justice, we lift up all those who speak truth to power at COP30 and beyond. Give courage to leaders and activists striving for policies that safeguard our planet. May their work reflect your righteousness and wisdom.

The Collect:

God all powerful,
who called Martin from the armies of this world
to be a faithful soldier of Christ:
give us grace to follow him
in his love and compassion for the needy,
and enable your Church to claim for all people
their inheritance as children of God;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

God, shepherd of your people,
whose servant Martin revealed the loving service of Christ
in his ministry as a pastor of your people:
by this eucharist in which we share
awaken within us the love of Christ
and keep us faithful to our Christian calling;
through him who laid down his life for us,
but is alive and reigns with you, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Anglican participants at the 2012 Edinburgh consultation on the diaconate (from left): Canon Patrick Comerford, Canon Frances Hiller, Revd Sarah Gillard-Faulkner, Bishop John Armes, Elspeth Davey, Church Relations Officer, Scottish Episcopal Church

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 9, Sunday 9 November 2025, III before Advent, Remembrance Sunday

‘Now there were seven brothers’ (Luke 20: 29) … the Seven Brothers Taverna at the Harbour in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints and Advent. In the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today is the Third Sunday before Advent and Remembrance Sunday.

Later this morning, I hope to sing with the choir at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, and in the afternoon I plan to attend the Remembrance Sunday commemorations at the War Memorial on Horsefair Green.

Meanwhile, before today begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

The war memorial in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Luke 20: 27-38 (NRSVA):

27 Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him 28 and asked him a question, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; 30 then the second 31 and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. 32 Finally the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.’

34 Jesus said to them, ‘Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; 35 but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36 Indeed they cannot die any more, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37 And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.’

‘Now there were seven brothers’ (Luke 20: 29) … the Seven Brothers Tavern at the Harbour in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections

When I was younger, much younger, I remember leafing through the pages of the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of Ireland during what I must have then thought were boring sermons.

Did you ever do that?

What did you come across?

Some things were undoubtedly more boring than any sermon, such as the list of sermons in the ‘Second Book of Homilies,’ listed in Article 35 of the 39 Articles.

But perhaps the most unusual thing I remember finding in the ‘old’ Book of Common Prayer was the ‘Table of Kindred and Affinity.’

It seeks to list ‘whosoever are related are forbidden by the Church … to marry together.’

The table – which is not there any more – ruled, for example, that a man may not marry his mother, his sister, his daughter, or numerous other relatives, and neither may a woman marry her uncle, nephew, grandparent or grandchild. That all makes common sense.

But it goes into obsessive detail with some surprising prohibitions. For example, a man may not marry his wife’s father’s mother or his daughter’s son’s wife.

I can still recall how my mind boggled at the thought of the need for such rules. What was life like back in the 16th century if the Church felt it needed to specify such prohibitions? And how many women had the opportunity even to contemplate marrying their deceased granddaughter’s husband?

At least six of the 25 relationships that are expressly prohibited from developing into marriage involve no genetic link at all. Yet the list did not prohibit marriages between first cousins. So some of the inconsistencies are striking, to say the least.

Some of the rules make sense: when extended families were the norm, and often lived under the same roof, these rules warned against exploitative relationships within family circles. They helped to prevent secret affairs that might have continued in the hope of their eventual ratification with marriage. And they clearly delineated family structures in ways that were important when it came to inheriting land and property and keeping them within the family.

But it could all have been, and was, dealt with anyway, through legislation and law.

What was something like that doing in a prayer book, in the Book of Common Prayer, in the first place?

I think it had less to do with morality and more to do with the Church needing to bolster long-held prejudices by cloaking them in statements that were good in part but in sum amounted to bad law and bad theology.

When the men who drew up this table in the Church, and the men who handed it down to Anglicans unquestioned for centuries, were getting their minds around some very peculiar relationships, did any one of them ever think about asking a woman, ‘What do you think about these obscure and arcane rules and regulations?’

Is the Church not doing the very same today, with the way it tries to rule about who can and who cannot get married in church today?

As the Church distances itself from marriages that are actually allowed in law today, who among senior decision-makers actually takes the time to ask the women and men who are refused Church marriages, ‘Would you like to be married in Church?’

For example, when Lyra McKee was murdered in Derry in 2019 Church leaders were right to rush to condemn her brutal murder. It was so fitting that she received a dignified funeral in a Church of Ireland cathedral, Saint Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, later that month. But had the bishops and priests who condemned her murder and were supportive of her funeral instead offered her the marriage she had looked forward to, they would have been severely disciplined by Church authorities.

And, as they were disciplined, I imagine, no-one would have asked Lyra McKee what she wanted, what she needed, what she had hoped for.

I think her plight would have been similar to the plight of the woman who is at the centre of the debate in this morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 20: 27-38).

Her plight was probably not plucked from thin air, not concocted in the narrow imaginations of the Sadducees, the prominent group of ruling priests in the Temple, who use her dilemma to try to paint Jesus into a corner.

They are not interested in her plight.

They are not interested in her dilemma.

They are not interested in the fact that a widow in that society who fails to remarry is left without financial means of support, is left in poverty, may even be forced into prostitution.

Who ever asked this woman what she would like?

Who ever asked her how she would like to end up in this life … never mind in the next life?

And just as they had no real interest in life after death for this widow, they had no interest in life before death for her.

If they had, they would have asked her how she felt not about eternal life but about her life in the here and now … how did she feel after the death of her husband and her husbands … how did she feel about being traded as a commodity to protect men’s property interests … how did they die … did they die in war …?

On Remembrance Sunday each year, I wonder how many men bothered to ask my grandmother how she felt when her husband, my grandfather, returned from Thessaloniki in the middle of World War I, suffering from malaria, malaria that would eventually take him to an early grave.

She was so distressed that the age she gave for him on his gravestone is 49 … not the age he was when he died in 1921 (which was 53), but the age he was in 1916, when he returned from the war in Greece.

Perhaps, in this very sad mistake, she was saying the war had killed her husband.

She lived as widow for another 27 years, bringing up six children, two stepchildren and the four children of her marriage. Who ever asked her what she felt about life-before-death, never mind life-after-death?

If we fail to listen to the plight of the victims of war, then war creeps up on us suddenly. And then we ask: ‘Why did no-one tell us.’

World War I was supposed to be the war to end all wars. That promise was betrayed, for my grandmother, for all the men who are named on the war memorials in our churches, for their widows, mothers, sisters, daughters, for all who loved them, for all who continue to love them and to cherish their memories.

Wars continue to be waged in Ukraine and Russia … in Israel, Gaza and Palestine … in Sudan … in central Africa …in the caves and mountains of Afghanistan.

And when the war widows and refugees arrive in Britain or Ireland, they must wonder, in some places, whether we truly believe that love is at the heart of the Christian way of life.

The Sadducees in this morning’s reading do not believe in the afterlife anyway, so any answer Jesus gives is going to be ridiculed.

This woman, unnamed, is made an object by the people who come to Jesus with their silly questions. But none among them is truly concerned about her plight.

Her only role is to meet the obscure obligations set out in the arcane interpretations of the marriage code that make her an object. She has no name, no home; her only function is to serve the needs of men, to continue the family name and line, so that the family lands and wealth are not estranged.

But instead of dealing with trifling arguments that do not matter, Jesus avoids the debate and tells us three very straight truths:

• God is alive and loving.

• We are God’s children.

• Love is at the heart of true relationships.

Of course, we do not yet live in the fullness of God’s kingdom. People still marry, people still vote and run in elections, people still invest and spend money. When we do those things, they have most value when they reflect the values of God’s kingdom.

When they do not reflect kingdom values, they become debased and lose value, significance and meaning. It is easy to understand that in terms of the political, social and economic difficulties we face. It is more difficult to say that in terms of relationships and marriages.

How we inhabit the political and economic structures of this age can become a sign of our dwelling in God’s kingdom … if we live with those structures so that we give priority, not to our own self-interest and gain, but to the concerns and needs of the poor, the outcast and the marginalised.

If we live our committed relationships in this life with integrity and honesty and self-sacrifice, they can become signs of how we live our risen lives in the age to come.

And in the great working out of God’s great eternal plans, these are the three eternal truths that matter most:

• God is alive and loving.

• We are God’s children.

• Love is at the heart of meaningful relationships, with God and with others.

‘Now there were seven brothers’ (Luke 20: 29) … the Seven Brothers Taverna at the Harbour in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 9 November 2025, III Sunday before Advent, Remembrance Sunday):

The theme this week (9 to 15 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Hope for the Future’ (pp 54-55). This theme is introduced today with Reflections from Laura D’Henin-Ivers, Chief Executive Officer at Hope for the Future:

Read and meditate on Psalm 24.

On 10 November, COP30 begins in Brazil, marking a crucial moment in our collective journey to care for God’s creation. Climate change threatens the most vulnerable, from communities facing rising seas to farmers enduring droughts. As Christians, we are called to pray and act, advocating for justice and sustainability.

Faith calls us to action – just as prophets spoke against injustice, so must we raise our voices for the earth. Stewardship is a sacred trust. Through advocacy, sustainable living, and hope, we embody our love for God and neighbour.

At Hope for the Future, we believe in collaboration with decisionmakers for bold climate action. Faith communities hold a unique role, as trusted institutions, vital parts of local and national societal fabric, and moral guides. When we speak up for climate justice, we amplify our message, making it harder for leaders to ignore. Rooted in shared values, faith-driven advocacy builds meaningful change.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 9 November 2025, III Sunday before Advent, Remembrance Sunday) invites us to pray by reflecting on these words: ‘For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth’ (Job 19: 25).

The prayer diary yesterday invited us to pray: Lord of Peace, we pray for your peace to fill the world, healing divisions and bringing unity. May Christians everywhere commit to being prayerful, reflecting your love and sharing your peace with others.

A wilted poppy in the mud in a field in Comberford, Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of peace,
whose Son Jesus Christ proclaimed the kingdom
and restored the broken to wholeness of life:
look with compassion on the anguish of the world,
and by your healing power
make whole both people and nations;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Additional Collect:

God, our refuge and strength,
bring near the day when wars shall cease
and poverty and pain shall end,
that earth may know the peace of heaven
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Peeparations in Stony Stratford and Old Stratford for Remembrance Sunday (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Desmond Verdon Murphy, police officer from Dublin murdered in Japanese massacre in Sarawak

Desmond Verdon Murphy (1894-1942) from Dublin … he was murdered in the Long Nawang Massacre, as one of the worst brutalities of the Japanese occupation of Borneo (Photograph courtesy Melissa Murphy)

Patrick Comerford

I was writing a few days ago (9 November 2024) about the Japanese Building in Kuching, the Japanese prisoner of war camp and cemetery at Batu Litang, and about the Japanese occupation of Sarawak from 1941 to 1945 during World War II.

One of the many horrific stories from that era is the story of the Long Nawang Massacre, which has been described as one of the worst brutalities of the Japanese occupation of Borneo.

One of the heroes in that event is Desmond Verdon Murphy (1894-1942), a senior police officer from Dublin with strong family roots in Limerick. The stories of his extraordinary career and his final days have been put together in recent years by his granddaughter Melissa Murphy. It is a story worth retelling on Remembrance Day

Although Sarawak was a British protectorate, it was a separate kingdom under the Brooke Rajahs. But Sarawak was unable to resist the Japanese invasion, and the capital Kuching fell undefended to the Japanese invaders on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1941.

On Christmas morning, 25 December, 1941, nine Japanese bombers attacked the inland town of Sibu, creating mayhem and panic among the residents. Soon, Japanese troops were marching off a large group of Europeans, many of them officers from the defeated Brooke administration.

The majority of the expatriates were interned, but a small group managed to escape Sibu hours before the Japanese advanced from Kuching. They included the British Resident, John Andrew McPherson, nine of his staff, his wife Clare who was eight months pregnant, Sally Bomphrey, her nine-month-old baby and five-year-old son, and two visitors.

They began the journey to Belaga on the upper Rajang on the night of 26 December 1941. From there, they planned to travel up the Balui River to the remote village of Long Nawang, a Dutch army post in the highlands, 300 miles inside Dutch-controlled Borneo, now known as Kalimantan.

Before leaving, McPherson radioed the British Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir Shenton Thomas (1879-1962), who was based in Singapore. Thomas advised McPherson, ‘Do whatever you think best’, and contacted the Dutch government, asking them to expect and assist the group.

The perilous post-Christmas trek took 28 days and ended on 22 January 1942

The perilous journey took 28 days, during which they crossed one river 36 times one morning, through ‘a raging mountain torrent sometimes knee deep, sometimes armpit deep and particularly powerful’.

Their ordeal ended on 22 January when they reached the military outpost they hoped would provide a safe hideaway. It was in a mountainous area in a pleasant, temperate climate, with sufficient provisions for a year. Some of the men considered returning to Sibu to be interned, but they changed their minds when they heard about the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942.

Local Dutch forces surrendered in March 1942. One group then headed back to Kuching, but were never heard of again. Another small group of five men left Long Nawang: three of them met a Dutch army launch that took them downstream to a secluded Dutch army airfield, and from there they were flown to Bandung in Central Java; two eventually reached Perth, Australia, while the third man is believed to have joined a merchant vessel in Java. The other two were captured by Japanese marines and interned in Java.

The remaining group stayed at Long Nawang, where they were joined in April by a Dutch army group of 40 men. A number of missionaries from the US and a priest, Father Joseph Feldbrugge, also sought refuge there in August. On 19 August, news arrived of a Japanese raiding party hacking its way through the jungle and getting closer to Long Nawang.

The commander of the post dismissed the news, thinking the approaching group was actually a retreating Dutch unit, and took no further action. His decision was fatal. Soon after, 70 Japanese soldiers reached Long Nawang and took control of the post. By midday, the surviving men had been executed.

A month later, the women were dragged to a nearby location and bayoneted to death, including Mrs McPherson and her infant child. Investigators later heard the children were made to climb nearby trees, then allowed to drop from exhaustion onto upturned bayonets.

The Long Nawang massacre has been described as one of the worst brutalities of the Japanese occupation of Borneo. But, despite post-war investigations, the Japanese officers who were responsible for this atrocity were never identified, nor was there any war trial.

The story has been put together by Melissa Murphy, whose grandfather, Desmond Verdon Murphy (1894-1942), was among those killed. For more than 60 years, the circumstances of his death remained a mystery. The last anyone had heard of him was when he was on duty in Sarawak with the Brooke police. His tragic story became known to his family only after Melissa started to investigate the disappearance of her grandfather.

North Strand Church, Dublin, where Desmond Murphy’s parents were married in 1893 and he was baptised in 1894 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Desmond Verdon Murphy was born in Dublin in 1894. His father, Major John Murphy (1866-1933), was born in Catherine Street, Limerick, on 10 November 1866, and was baptised in Saint John’s Church, Limerick. is mother, Frances Amelia Spearman (1866-1948), was born at 8 Guildford Place, off North Strand Road, Dublin, on 30 December 1866. They were married in North Strand Church, Dublin, on 22 June 1893, when they were then living at 154 North Strand Road, and the witnesses at the wedding were James Lewis and Dorinda Jones.

Frances and John Murphy were the parents of one son, Desmond Murphy, and three daughters, Moya, Nina and Erris. Desmond was born at 75 Clonliffe Road, Dublin, on 2 May 1894, when he was resigistered as Desmond Vernon Murphy, and baptised in North Strand Church, Dublin, on 10 June 1894, when he was resigistered as Desmond Verdon Murphy. Frances Murphy’s sister Mary had married Julian Verdon in 1880, and so Verdon rather than Vernon appears to be his correct middle name.

At the time, John Murphy was a colour sergeant and staff clerk in the army at the Royal Military Hospital in Kilmainham. By 1899, the Murphy family was living in Clontarf. John was promoted from the ranks to an assistant commissary and honorary lieutenant in the Army Ordnance Department in 1906. His records from World War I have not survived, but he retired as a major in 1920 and died in Bath in 1933; Frances Murphy died in 1948.

Major John Murphy (1866-1933) was born in Catherine Street, Limerick (Photograph courtesy Melissa Murphy)

Desmond Murphy was educated at Hutton Grammar School, Preston, and then studied electrical engineering. He joined the army at the outbreak of World War I in 1914, and was commissioned in December. He was sent to France with the Scottish Rifles in 1916, but was later sent home from due to sickness.

Family sources say that after World War I, Desmond Murphy joined the police in South Africa and then Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), although this has not been confirmed.

Murphy arrived in Sarawak in the mid-1920s, and joined the Brooke constabulary. He was promoted first to Superintendent of Police (1929), and then to Commissioner and Superintendent of Prisons (1933), before becoming Superintendent of Police at Sibu.

The Central Police Station, Kuching, built in 1931 … Desmond Verdon Murphy was Superintendent of Police, Commissioner and Superintendent of Prisons and then Superintendent of Police (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Local people recognised Murphy as a Tuan or respected person, and he married a local woman, Siti Sulastry binti Sulaiman, who was born in Java. They were the parents of three sons: two son died as infants, but the middle child, Michael Murphy, who was born in 1937, survived and was Melissa Murphy’s father.

When World War II broke out, Desmond and Siti were advised to blend in with the local people. But his family never hear again from Desmond, and he was officially listed as ‘missing in action’ after World War II. As an impoverished war widow, Siti raised her young son Michael in their humble stilted wooden home in Kampung Jawa, now Jalan P Ramlee, in Kuching, probably unaware that her mother-in-law, Frances Murphy, was still living until 1948.

Melissa Murphy had pieced together a few details of his final days. With the help of Roger Nixon, a London-based researcher, she located the death entry for Desmond Murphy in a Colonial Office register and found his other files.

The Colonial Office records showed Desmond Murphy was killed by the Japanese in September 1942 in Long Nawang. Sadly, the news came too late for his widow Siti, who died in 2001 without knowing what happened to her husband.

Their research also showed that all the casualties were originally buried at Long Nawang in two mass graves. They were reburied in 1950 on Tarakan Island in east Borneo in a cemetery called ‘Field of Honour’. That cemetery later fell into disuse and they were reinterred yet again in 1967 when they were moved to Kembang Kuning War Cemetery in Surabaya, Java.

Michael Murphy had long dreamt of visiting his father’s grave in Surabaya, but died in February 2012. Since then, his daughter Melissa has made extraordinary efforts to erect the Long Nawang Memorial at the Batu Litang Teachers’ Training College in Kuching. It was finally unveiled two years ago, on 21 July 2022.

Melissa Murphy laying a wreath at the Long Nawang Memorial at Batu Litang in Kuching (Photograph courtesy Melissa Murphy)

Daily prayer in the Kingdom Season: 10, Sunday 10 November 2024, Remembrance Sunday, Third Sunday before Advent

Wilting poppies in Comberford, between Lichfield and Tamworth in Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints and Advent. In the Church Calendar today is both the Third Sunday before Advent and Remembrance Sunday.

Later this morning, I hope to be at the Cathedral Eucharist in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching, at 8:30, when the Precentor, Canon Roannie Cannidy is presiding, and the preacher is Bishop Bolly Lapok, retired Bishop of Kuching and former Archbishop of South-East Asia. But, before today begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

Poppies in a small garden in Beacon Street, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 1: 14-20 (NRSVA):

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’

16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake – for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

Poppies by the side of the road in Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s reflection:

The fear of the potential consequences of Trump’s election victory have not abated in the past few days. I truly fear for world peace and stability, about global change and about the course of world democracy over the next few years. I can only imagine an upsurge in violence, racism and antisemitism in the years to come, and worry that political violence is going to become increasingly acceptable in many places.

So, I am finding comfort this morning in the words of the Collects and the Post-Communion Prayer, as they ask God to ‘govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,’ seek God’s ‘just and gentle rule’, ask God to ‘look with compassion on the anguish of the world’ and to ‘bring near the day when wars shall cease and poverty and pain shall end’.

In this morning’s Gospel reading, the proclamation of the kingdom of God and the good news are linked to the call of the first disciples, Peter, Andrew, James and John.

The disciples are called but not compelled to follow Jesus. On this Remembrance Sunday, I remind myself that those who fought and died in wars included both conscripts and volunteers. In hindsight, we often say they saw their war as the war to end all wars. But many had no choice, whether they were conscripts or volunteers. Many signed up because of the social pressures they faced, others hoped that by enlisting their wives and families would be looked after. Some in Ireland believed enlisting during World War I would advance the cause of Home Rule.

During a recent visit to Dublin, I picked up a copy of Bryan Cooper’s The Tenth (Irish) Division in Gallipoli in ‘The Last Bookshop’ on Camden Street. Cooper, who was a minor poet and an admirer of WB Yeats, was posted to Gallipoli and then to Thessaloniki.

Cooper’s book includes the poem ‘The Irish in Gallipoli’ by Francis Ledwidge and recalls many of the experiences my grandfather, Stephen Edward Comerford (1867-1921), must have shared in Gallipoli, the Balkans and then in Thessaloniki with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

Both Francis Ledwidge and my grandfather fought at Gallipoli, were later in Thessaloniki, and found themselves back in Dublin in the aftermath of the Easter Rising in 1916.

Cooper’s book reminds me too that had my grandfather not been stricken with malaria in Thessaloniki, he might have been sent back to the front, and like Ledwidge been killed on the western front or in the trenches in France or Belgium. Instead, my grandfather remained invalided in Dublin, my father was born in 1918, and so I am alive today.

Francis Ledwidge was born near Slane, Co Meath, in 1887. Family poverty forced him to leave school at 13. He became an active trade unionist, and began writing poetry in the Drogheda Independent. Lord Dunsany became his patron, he was admired by many leading figures in the literary revival, and was soon recognised as an important poet and writer.

Ledwidge was an early member of the Irish Volunteers in 1913. When the Volunteers split at the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, he was initially sceptical of John Redmond’s support for the war. But in October 1914 he joined the 5th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 10th (Irish) Division.

He later said: ‘I joined the British army because England stood between Ireland and an enemy common to our civilisation, and I would not have had it said that she defended us while we did nothing at home but pass resolutions.’

Ledwidge became a lance-corporal, landed at Gallipoli in July 1915, and took part in the allied attack on Suvla Bay in August. The allied forces were attacked by the Turks, the 5th Battalion were trapped not far from the beach, and a stalemate ensued.

Ledwidge and the 10th (Irish) Division were withdrawn from Gallipoli in October 1915, and then found himself in Serbia during a harsh winter. They came under heavy attack from a larger Bulgarian force on 9 December and suffered 1,500 casualties. Ledwidge survived, but damaged his back during the retreat to Thessaloniki, and was sent to hospital first in Cairo and then in Manchester. At the same time, my grandfather was sent back to Dublin and never returned to war.

Ledwidge returned to the front in France late in 1916. He fought at the Battle of Arras in 1917, and was then sent north to Belgium in preparation for the Third Battle of Ypres. He was stationed near the village of Boezinghe on 31 July when he a long-range German shell exploded next to him. Ledwidge was killed instantly alongside five other soldiers in his regiment. The battalion’s Jesuit chaplain, Father Francis Charles Devas (1875-1951), had given Holy Communion to Ledwidge that morning. He wrote in his diary, ‘Ledwidge killed, blown to bits’.

Ledwidge was buried close to where he died at Carrefour de Rose, and was eventually reinterred at the Artillery Wood Military Cemetery.

‘The Irish in Gallipoli’ by Francis Ledwidge

Where Aegean cliffs with bristling menace front
The treacherous splendour of that isley sea,
Lighted by Troy’s last shadow; where the first
Hero kept watch and the last Mystery
Shook with dark thunder. Hark! The battle brunt!
A nation speaks, old Silences are burst.

’Tis not for lust of glory, no new throne
This thunder and this lightning of our power
Wakens up frantic echoes, not for these
Our Cross with England’s mingle, to be blown
At Mammon’s threshold. We but war when war
Serves Liberty and Keeps a world at peace.

Who said that such an emprise could be vain?
Were they not one with Christ, who fought and died?
Let Ireland weep: but not for sorrow, weep
That by her sons a land is sanctified,
For Christ arisen, and angels once again
Come back, like exile birds, and watch their sleep.

Poppies in the War Memorial Park at Islandbridge in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 10 November 2024 (Remembrance Sunday, Third Sunday before Advent):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘A Look at Education in the Church of the Province of Myanmar’. This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update by Nadia Sanchez, Regional Programme Coordinator, USPG:

Despite being rich in resources, Myanmar remains designated as one of the least developed countries in the world. Access to education was severely affected by Covid-19 and the civil disobedience movement which led to teachers and medical professionals leaving their jobs. This in turn has led to much of the population being left without adequate public services.

The Church of Province of Myanmar’s Provincial Education Development Initiative is a holistically developed integrated education programme. It aims to facilitate school-aged children to receive continuous education by upskilling teachers and providing access to materials, uniforms, teaching aids, classroom facilities and safe boarding houses. It will also provide theological education activities for students so they can learn how to effectively take care of the Church and be promoted for leadership in the diocese. Finally, it will seek to improve health awareness through training on things such as Covid-19 and personal hygiene so that communities can look after themselves better and share knowledge with their peers.

This programme will strengthen and improve secular education, theological education and health education for an estimated 3,000 people across the nine dioceses of the Church of the Province of Myanmar.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 10 November 2024, Remembrance Sunday, Third Sunday before Advent) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:

Peaceful God,
Teach us to forsake division and violence.
Let us serve each other in peace,
And live side by side in harmony.

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

God of peace,
whose Son Jesus Christ proclaimed the kingdom
and restored the broken to wholeness of life:
look with compassion on the anguish of the world,
and by your healing power
make whole both people and nations;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Additional Collect:

God, our refuge and strength,
bring near the day when wars shall cease
and poverty and pain shall end,
that earth may know the peace of heaven
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Poppies by the side of the road in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Poppies on my grandfather’s grave in Saint Catherine’s Churchyard, Portrane, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayers in the Kingdom Season with USPG: (8) 12 November 2023

Poppies tied around a tree in the churchyard at Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

In this time between All Saints’ Day and Advent Sunday, we are in the Kingdom Season in the Calendar of the Church of England. Today is the Third Sunday before Advent (12 November 2023) and Remembrance Sunday.

Later this morning I hope to be present at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles, Stony Stratford, and I plan to attend the Remembrance Service on Horsefair Green this afternoon.

Before today begins, I am taking some time for prayer and reflection early this morning.

This morning, my reflections are following this pattern:

1, A reflection on Remembrance Sunday;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The War Memorial in the churchyard at Saint Michael’s Church on Greenhill in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Remembrance Sunday:

Instead of reflecting on any one particular church this morning, I have decided to post a collection of images – war memorials, monuments and churchyards – that I have seen in Berkhamsted, Lichfield, Oxford, Stony Stratford and Wolverhampton during my ‘church crawling’ in recent weeks.

Saint Michael’s Churchyard on Greenhill in Lichfield extends for nine acres and is older than the Church. It is said locally that the churchyard was one of the five ancient burial sites in England that were consecrated by Saint Augustine – the other four were in Glastonbury, Canterbury, Lindisfarne and York.

Other legends claim Saint Chad may have used the churchyard as a retreat for himself.

Trumpeter John Brown from the Charge of the Light Brigade is buried in the churchyard. Another grave has the bodies of the last three men who were hanged in Lichfield; they were hanged in 1810 for forgery.

The church and churchyard also have literary associations with the families of Samuel Johnson and Philip Larkin.

A trail around Saint Michael’s churchyard follows the theme ‘A churchyard journey – praying for a needy world.’

The prayer topics at the stations include, for example, ‘Governments, councils and leaders’ (Station 10). Station 2, at the War Memorial in the churchyard, takes the theme ‘Wars and Conflicts.’

The reflection at Station 2 reads:

‘Looking straight ahead we see the War Memorial that commemorates those from the parish who died in the first and second world wars. Around the churchyard we see many individual Commonwealth war graves. We pray here for the peace of the world, and for those made homeless.

‘They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Micah 4: 3)

‘Loving Father, Prince of Peace, we pray for all those involved in conflicts around the world – in Ukraine, Yemen, Sudan and elsewhere. We pray for politicians and leaders, that they may seek a just peace; for those who mourn the death of loved ones; for those struggling with injuries; and for those who have been made refugees. May we be generous to help with their healing and to welcome those who need sanctuary. Amen.’

Israel, Gaza and the West Bank could have been added appropriately in recent weeks.

World War I may have been labelled ‘the war to end all wars.’ But over 100 years later, we realise what a rash claim that turned out to be.

We need constant reminders of the causes, consequences and terrors of war and war crimes if we are ever going to eliminate war.

The War Memorial at Saint Peter’s Church, Wolverhampton, was erected in 1920 and was Grade II listed in 1992 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Matthew 25: 1-13 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] ‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” 7 Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” 9 But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” 10 And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. 11 Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” 12 But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” 13 Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.’

The War Memorial in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 12 November 2023):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), draws on ‘A Prayer for Remembrance Sunday and International Day of Tolerance’. This theme is introduced today:

God of peace and gentleness
we remember with deep sorrow
the fault, fear, and failure
that repeatedly leads to the forming of enemies,
the escalation of hatred
and to war.

We repent of our complicity in cycles of violence
for colluding with anger
or defaulting to patterns of hostility
As we remember those who have
suffered because of our forgetfulness
or our inhumanity one to another,
that we may also disarm our desire to overpower, capture or vanquish.
Help us to resist peacefully every form of violence
so that we can follow you
in ways of gentleness and justice,
continually resolving to form life-giving relationships,
strengthened by the forgiveness of Jesus
the fearlessness of the Spirit
the transforming love of the Creator.
Amen Adapted from prayers from The Methodist Church

The USPG Prayer Diary today (12 November 2023, Remembrance Sunday) invites us to pray in these words:

Peaceful God,
Teach us to forsake division and violence.
Let us serve each other in peace,
And live side by side in harmony.

The War Memorial in Saint Barnabas Church, Jericho, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of peace,
whose Son Jesus Christ proclaimed the kingdom
and restored the broken to wholeness of life:
look with compassion on the anguish of the world,
and by your healing power
make whole both people and nations;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Additional Collect:

God, our refuge and strength,
bring near the day when wars shall cease
and poverty and pain shall end,
that earth may know the peace of heaven
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The War Memorial in the Chapel of Keble College, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The War Memorial in Saint Aloysius Roman Catholic Church, Woodstock Road, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Battle of Britain and remembering the role of Harry Comerford on Armistice Day

The Battle of Britain Monument on the Victoria Embankment, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday commemorations and services are taking place across the land today (11 November) and tomorrow (12 November), at war memorials and in churches and cathedrals.

Apart from competing attention for news coverage with today’s large Palestinian protest in London, many news outlets focussed inrecent days on the Battle of Britain, in which 1542 British pilots were killed, 422 were wounded and 23,002 civilians were killed.

BBC television news earlier this week interviewed the last surviving Battle of Britain veteran, Group Captain John Hemingway, who lives in Dublin and who is now 104.

He joined the RAF as a teenager before World War II. When he was 21 he was a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain, a three-month period when air force personnel defended the skies against a large-scale assault by the German air force, the Luftwaffe.

He was shot down four times during the war – twice in the space of eight days, during the Battle of Britain. The last incident was in 1945 when he was flying a Spitfire behind enemy lines in Italy. ‘I don't think we ever assumed greatness of any form,’ he told the BBC this week. ‘We were just fighting a war which we were trained to fight.’

Flight Lieutenant Harry Alfred George Comerford (1905-1956) is one of the RAF fighter pilots named on the Battle of Britain Monument on the Victoria Embankment, London

The Battle of Britain was fought entirely in the air and was a dramatic turning point in the war. Churchill said of the pilots: ‘Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.’

Flight-Lieutenant Harry Alfred George Comerford (1905-1956) is one of the RAF fighter pilots named on the Battle of Britain Monument on the Victoria Embankment, on the north bank of the Thames, about 200 metres from Westminster Bridge, and almost directly opposite the Millennium Wheel.

Not all fighter operations during the Battle of Britain involved dogfights with the Germans. Many involved long routine patrols along Britain’s shores, without so much as a sighting of a German aircraft. Yet the story of how Harry Comerford became an RAF officer and how he eventually came to be named on the Battle of Britain Monument is another story in the Comerford family history.

Harry Alfred George Comerford was born on 13 August 1905, the eldest son of Harry William John Comerford (1874-1955), a popular music hall and variety comedian and actor whose stage name was Harry Ford.

Harry Comerford or Harry Ford married Rosina Sarah Sipple (1881-1958) in 1903. Rosina’s sister Aggie married Harry’s brother, Albert (Bert) Albert George Comerford (1879-1973), known on stage as Bert Brantford. Together, these Comerford brothers and Sipple sisters almost created a theatrical and movie dynasty at the beginning of the 20th century.

Rosina and Aggie Sipple were descended from some of the most interesting Sephardi Jewish families in Europe. Many of their immediate ancestors were married in the Bevis Marks Synagogue in London, and they could trace their ancestry directly to leading Sephardi families who lived in Amsterdam, Livorno, Venice and Seville, including Spanish Marrano families who had been forced to convert to Christianity in Seville during the Inquisition but had maintained their Jewish faith and practices in their private family and domestic life.

Harry Ford was at the peak of his career while the likes of Dan Leno, Marie Lloyd and George Robey dominated bill-topping positions at the Tivoli, Oxford, and the Pavilion, London. At the London Pavilion in particular, he was a recognised favourite for many years. He frequently did top bills throughout London, as well as in the major provincial cities. The Variety Theatre once described him as a true star of the Metropolis.

Harry Comerford (Harry Ford) died in Birmingham on 31 March 1955, aged 80. Harry and Rosina Sipple were the parents of two daughters and three sons:

1, Rose Comerford, born in 1904.
2, (Flight-Lieutenant) Harry Alfred George Comerford (1905-1956), who is named on the Battle of Britain Monument in London.
3, Georgina Comerford (1909-2001). She was born on 4 August 1909, and died in April 1996 in Lincolnshire.
4, Leonard Jack Comerford (1914-1993). He was born on 16 February 1914 in Wandsworth. He was a driver in the Royal Army Service Corps during World War II and was a prisoner of war in Germany. He died in January 1993 in Boston, Lincolnshire.
5, John Comerford (1920-1996), who was born in Surrey in 1920 and died in April 1996 in Leicester.

Harry William John Comerford (1874-1955) was a popular music hall and variety comedian and actor under the stage name of Harry Ford

The eldest son in this family, Harry Alfred George Comerford, was born on 15 August 1905 in Wandsworth. He joined the RAF on a short service commission in January 1927, and was posted to 2 Flying Training School Digby in Lincolnshire for flying training.

When he qualified, Harry joined 16 Squadron at Old Sarum on 19 December 1927, equipped with Bristol Fighters. Within a year, he was posted to 28 Squadron at Ambala, India, near the border with Punjab, on 20 October 1928, and he served on the North-West Frontier in 1930-1931.

While Harry was in India, he married Georgiana Alicia Betty Davidson (1903-2001) on 5 November 1931 in Ambala, Bengal. She was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, on 11 November 1903.

Some months later, Harry moved to 31 Squadron at Quetta – now in Pakistan – on 18 March 1932 and he became adjutant.

Harry returned to Britain on leave on 20 December 1932, returned to India, and was then posted back to Britain on 22 November 1933. He joined 40 Squadron at Abingdon on 15 March 1934, and when he completed his term of service, he went on to the Reserve of RAF Officers on 7 October 1934.

The name of Flight Lieutenant HAG Comerford on the Battle of Britain Monument on the Victoria Embankment, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

With the outbreak of World War II, the RAF recalled Harry on 13 January 1940 and posted to 7 Flying Training School, Peterborough, as a flying instructor and ‘C’ Flight Commander.

Harry was remanded for Court Martial on 5 July 1940 on a charge of becoming unfit for duty due to excessive consumption of alcohol. He was tried by General Court Martial on 24 July 1940 and acquitted.

Harry was then posted from 7 FTS to 6 EFTS Sywell and from there that he joined 312 Squadron at Speke on 1 October 1940 as ‘B’ Flight Commander.

Not all fighter operations during the Battle of Britain involved dogfights with the Germans. Many involved long routine patrols along Britain’s shores, without so much as a sighting of an enemy aircraft. After chaotic air battles over France, these patrols may have seemed mundane. But they were not without their own dangers as Harry and a flight of Hurricanes from Squadron 312 found as they were patrolling the coast of Lancashire that October.

Harry flew operational sorties on the 11, 12 and 13 October 1940. On 13 October 1940, Blenheims K7135 and L6637 of 29 Squadron were aloft from Tern Hill when they were attacked in error by Squadron-Leader J Ambrus, Flight-Lieutenant Comerford and Sergeant J Stehlik over the Point of Ayr, south-west of Liverpool.

Despite firing the colours of the day, L6637 was shot down with the loss of Sergeant RE Stevens, Sergeant OK Sly and AC2 A Jackson. K7135 with Flight Office JD Humphreys, Sergeant EH Bee and AC1 JF Fizell was able to break off and return to base.

On Tuesday 15 October 1940, 550 German fighters and bombers attacked London, the Thames Estuary and Kent in five waves. That night saw an even heavier assault on London as some 300 bombers, in the light of a full moon, gave Londoners a foretaste of the Blitz to come.

But for now, this intense activity was focused to the south. Early that evening, two flights of hurricanes, Red and Yellow sections of No 312 Squadron, took off from Speke at 17:30 for a dusk patrol over the Lancaster area, with instructions to return at 18:25. Red section landed as instructed, but there was no sign of Yellow section, consisting of Squadron Leader Jan K Ambrus flying No V6846, Pilot Officer T Vybiral flying No V6811 and Flight Lieutenant HAG Comerford in Hurricane No V6542.

It appears that Yellow section was lost over the sea in deteriorating weather conditions and the failing light, after Ambrus, who knew his position, followed Comerford, whom he believed had sighted a German aircraft.

Although the flight was fortunate in regaining the coast and found themselves once again over land on the Barrow peninsula, their fuel situation was critical and both Comerford and Vybiral were soon forced to abandon their aircraft.

Comerford ran out of fuel and bailed out at 19:00, landing near Dalton-in-Furness with slight injuries, having struck his head on the tail of his aircraft as he left it. His aircraft dived vertically into farmland at Gleaston, narrowly missing a cottage by only 20 yards. Comerford was subsequently rendered non-effective for a while due to his injuries.

At about the same time, Vybiral also ran out of fuel and bailed out, leaving his aircraft to crash into farm land near Dalton-in-Furness. He landed close to Whinfield Farm Lindal, where he was mistaken for a German airman, due to his accent, by the farmer’s wife. He could not convince her otherwise, and she locked him into a barn until his identity was confirmed.

The flight had been observed by a number of people in the Dalton-in-Furness area who recalled seeing the aircraft flying overhead and then observed two of them fly into the ground. But, to their relief, most soon saw the two parachutes blossom in the sky.

A local police officer saw one of the pilots on his parachute, and commandeered a Ribble bus to take him to the spot where the pilot landed. When he arrived at the farm, the policeman found himself rescuing the unfortunate airman from the barn.

Ambrus continued flying until his fuel ran out and then carried out a well-executed wheels up forced landing on farmland south of Over Kellet, near Carnforth at 20:00, leaving a furrow across the field. He was not injured, and the aircraft was not too badly damaged and was subsequently repaired.

The official inquiry into the incident later concluded that the flight should have kept sight of land and landed 20 minutes before blackout as instructed. No further action was taken against the pilots and this was the Squadron’s last accident of the Battle of Britain period.

Comerford’s aircraft, serial No V6542 had dived vertically into farmland and was completely destroyed. However, the crash site was located in 1977 by the Warplane Wreck Investigation Group from Merseyside. They carried out a full excavation and recovered the propeller hub and a few other fragments that were donated to a museum in New Brighton.

Harry was posted non-effective sick on 20 October and declared fit for light duty only on 26 October. He did not fly again operationally. He was posted away to the Air Ministry on 13 November 1940, for attachment to Vickers at Weybridge. He was awarded the AFC on 30 September 1941 and left the RAF when he resigned his commission on 19 April 1943.

After World War II, Harry and Georgiana Comerford were living in Sutton and Cheam in Surrey, in 1945, and in Basingstoke, Hampshire, in 1948. He died in Leicester in September 1956; she later lived in Cambridge (1960) and died in Chiltern, Buckinghamshire, in May 2001.

The decorations and medals awarded to Flight Lieutenant HAG Comerford

Praying in Ordinary Time with USPG : Sunday 13 November 2022

The window by Charles Eamer Kempe at the west end of Saint Mary and Saint Giles, Stony Stratford, depicting three archangels: Saint Gabriel above, and Saint Michael and Saint Raphael below (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

This is Remembrance weekend: today (13 November 2022) is the Second Sunday before Advent and Remembrance Sunday. Later today I hope to be present at the Parish Eucharist in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles, Stony Stratford, and to attend the Remembrance Sunday service at the War Memorial on Horsefair Green.

But, before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

Throughout this week, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, One of the readings for the morning;

2, A reflection on the stained glass windows in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

Six apostles, James, Peter, John, Thomas, Andrew and Saint James the Less, seen from inside (above) and outside (below) the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Luke 21: 5-19 (NRSVA):

5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6 ‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’

7 They asked him, ‘Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?’ 8 And he said, ‘Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and, “The time is near!” Do not go after them.

9 ‘When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.’ 10 Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

12 ‘But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13 This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; 15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17 You will be hated by all because of my name. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your souls.’

Philip, Paul, Bartholomew; Jude, Simon and Matthew seen from inside (above) and outside (below) the church (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Stained-glass windows in Stony Stratford, 1:

It is just six weeks to Christmas. Throughout this week, I am reflecting each morning on the stained glass windows in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles, Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire.

The 12 windows in Saint Mary and Saint Giles include a two-light window at the west end by Charles Eamer Kempe, depicting three archangels; a set of three windows in the south gallery, among them important work by John Groome Howe of the Hardman studios; two separate windows in the south gallery that appear to include fragments from an earlier window; and six windows – three below the gallery on the south wall and three below the gallery on the north wall – by NHJ Westlake of Lavers & Westlake.

The window at the west end of the church is a two-light depicting three archangels: Saint Gabriel above, and Saint Michael and Saint Raphael below. This window, dated 1903, is by Charles Eamer Kempe (1837-1907).

CE Kempe’s studios produced over 4,000 windows and designed altars and altar frontals, furniture and furnishings, lichgates and memorials that helped to define a later 19th-century Anglican style.

At Pembroke College, Oxford, Kempe was influenced by the Anglo-Catholic Tractarian revival and considered a vocation to the priesthood. Inspired by William Morris’s work, he went to study architecture with the Gothic Revival architect George Frederick Bodley (1827-1907) at a time when Bodley was working on All Saints’ Church, Cambridge. There he learned from both Bodley and William Morris, and Bodley and Kempe became lifelong friends and collaborators.

Kempe’s work was strongly influenced by the Gothic Revival and the Pre-Raphaelite movement. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and designs for altars and altar frontals, furniture and furnishings, lichgates and memorials that helped to define a later 19th century Anglican style.

The English cathedrals with his work include Lichfield, as well as Chester, Gloucester, Hereford, Wells, Winchester and York. I have also written about his windows in the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield and Christ Church, Leomansley, Lichfield.

The Cambridge Church Historian Owen Chadwick has said Kempe’s work represents ‘the Victorian zenith’ of church decoration and stained glass windows. Kempe was seen by his contemporaries as a Tractarian, but primarily he saw his task ‘to beautify the place in which to celebrate the glory of God.’ His window in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford offers an interesting illustration of this principle.

The first three sets of three-light windows in the south gallery in Saint Mary and Saint Giles include a window by John Groome Howe of James Powell and Sons (1877).

This first window is dedicated to: Josiah Michael and Ann Smith and shows six scenes with themese of the Resurrection or being raised to new life: top, 1, the raising of Jairus’s daughterr (Matthew 9: 18-26; Mark 5: 21-43; Luke 8: 40-56); 2, Christ with two disciples on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24: 13-35); 3, the raising of the Widow of Nain’s son (see Luke 7: 11-17); below, 1, the raising of Lazarus (John 11:1 -44); 2, the Supper at Emmaus (Luke 24: 13-35); 3, hthe healing of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law (Matthew 8: 14-15, Mark 1: 29-31, Luke 4: 38-39).

The firm of James Powell and Sons, also known as Whitefriars Glass, were London-based glassmakers, leadlighters and stained glass window manufacturers. As Whitefriars Glass, the company dated from the 17th century, and it became well known as a result of the 19th-century Gothic Revival and the demand for stained glass windows.

During the latter part of the 19th century, the firm had close working links with leading architects and designers including TG Jackson, Edward Burne-Jones, William De Morgan and James Doyle, and produced the glass that Philip Webb used in his designs for William Morris. Nathanael Powell’s eldest surviving son, Harry, was an admirer of John Ruskin.

The next two windows in the south gallery are three-light windows depicting 12 apostles, each with six illustrations. Their date and the artist are unknown.

The first depicts: top, Saint James, Saint Peter, Saint John; below, Saint Thomas, Saint Andrew, Saint James the Less. The second depicts (top) Saint Philip, Saint Paul, Saint Bartholomew; and (below) Saint Jude, Saint Simon, Saint Matthew.

A fourth and fifth window in the south gallery show the Risen Christ and the Crucifixion.

The window by John Groome Howe of James Powell and Sons with six Gospel scenes seen from inside (above) and outside (below) the church (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The Collect:

Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son was revealed
to destroy the works of the devil
and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life:
grant that we, having this hope,
may purify ourselves even as he is pure;
that when he shall appear in power and great glory
we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom;
where he is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Gracious Lord,
in this holy sacrament
you give substance to our hope:
bring us at the last
to that fullness of life for which we long;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Additional Collect

Heavenly Lord,
you long for the world’s salvation:
stir us from apathy,
restrain us from excess
and revive in us new hope
that all creation will one day be healed
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is ‘Living Together in Peace.’ This theme is introduced this morning:

‘PROCMURA stands for the Programme for Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa. USPG has provided an annual grant to PROCMURA since it started back in 1959, helping the organisation to build relationships between people of different faiths across Africa.

‘Despite the challenges of working in a context where the Covid-19 pandemic is not yet truly over, PROCMURA has been able to carry on with its work over the past year. 2021 saw the organisation launch a Master of Arts programme in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations with the Protestant University of Central Africa in Cameroon to enable the development and training of clergy from Benin, Togo, Cameroon, Guinea, Senegal and Burkina Faso.

‘PROCMURA also teaches young people the importance of religious tolerance. The organisation organised a Youth Symposium on Religious Tolerance, Radicalisation and Violent Extremism in East Africa which brought together 100 Christian and Muslim university students from 22 universities across Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, South Sudan and Tanzania. The success of this event led to the creation of interfaith clubs within many of these universities.

‘On a local level, PROCMURA continues to host interfaith meetings and guide communities in how to live together in peace with people of different faiths.’

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:

Peaceful God,
teach us to forsake division and violence.
Let us serve each other in peace,
and live side by side in harmony.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, on the corner of Church Street and High Street, Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org