ABSTRACT
IN T H E L I G H T of Chapter 1 it should already be apparent that the religious cultures of the churchgoer and the non-churchgoer were overlapping rather than distinct realms. While private prayer and a love of hymnody were common to both, voluntary services and the sacraments could attract many soldiers who would have normally avoided them in civilian life. In any case, the British army ensured that most soldiers were turned (however reluctantly) into regular churchgoers by dint of King’s Regulations. If the influence of the churches was upheld by military law and custom (and also by the army’s more recent realisation of the importance of religion for good morale) then the religious dynamics of the British army were also profoundly affected from 1914 to 1918 and from 1939 to 1945 by the enlarged constituency of devout soldiers which the two World Wars produced. Although hardly recognised, in both World Wars the British army was subject to a huge injection of churchgoing civilians and was host to significant religious revivals. It is the purpose of this chapter to explore the origins and wider significance of these phenomena.
