From the archive: Quiet heroes
Janet Scott continues her series on the Friend and the first world war and tells a dramatic story of shipwreck and survival
The story of the shipwreck of Rendel Harris in the autumn of 1916 was recorded in the Friend at the time and quoted in this series before Christmas (25 November 2016). On his way home Rendel Harris was, unfortunately, shipwrecked again. It was a terrible twist of fate. The Friend carried reports of the incident and the story gradually unfolded in its pages during late April and May 1917. The accounts are brought together here. In the issue of 20 April, the Friend reported:
The pathetic ending of the life of Dr. J. H. [James Hope] Moulton, as a result of the torpedoing of his vessel on the way home from India, is a source of grief to many both within and outside the Wesleyan Methodist Church, of which he was a shining ornament. Friends who attended the Llandudno Conference in September, 1914, will recollect his earnest address on the Sunday evening on “The Meaning of the Cross” and his genial presence at all times. And those who were present at the Peace meeting at Manchester Yearly Meeting (1912) will remember how nearly the Greenwood Professor of Hellenistic Greek and Indo-European Philology, Manchester University, approximated to the Quaker position.
Bishop Weldon, the dean of Manchester and a long-standing friend, wrote in the same issue:
…among English theologians he was one whose literary distinction had been honoured by the universities of Germany. His name and Professor Deismann’s have long been united by a community of interest and research. But on the morrow of his death it may be permitted to dwell especially upon the devout, equitable, Christian temper which won him almost as many friends without as within his own Church, so richly adorned by his scholarship and his character… German savagery during the war has exacted a heavy toll of victims, but there can be few or none whom the world of scholarship could so ill afford to lose as Dr. Moulton. He leaves a memory unsullied and unstained, a type of the Christian character when it attains perhaps the level of highest excellence, by the union of profound learning with Christian piety.
Rendel Harris wrote james hope moulton’s brother about the last days of his friend:
It fell to the lot of Rendel Harris to convey the sorrowful intelligence to Dr. Moulton’s brother, the message being sent from Corsica. It will be remembered that last autumn our Friend set sail for India, where he hoped to join Dr Moulton; but being torpedoed en route, he remained in Egypt till his friend returned, when he joined the ship, only to be torpedoed a second time. Dr. Moulton succumbed to exposure three days after the shipwreck: he was in his 54th year. The latest news of Dr. Rendel Harris is that he is now in Ajaccio, where the Friends’ War Victims’ Relief workers are looking after him. He was reported to be making as rapid and satisfactory a recovery from the effects of his trying experience as could be expected.
In the issue of 27 April the story was continued:
Since our last issue further particulars have been published of the circumstances under which Dr. Rendel Harris reached Corsica after his ship had been torpedoed, while his friend Dr. Moulton succumbed to the exposure. There were, it appears, six boats in which passengers and crew were got away after the ship had been torpedoed at midnight. Five of the boats reached a port without grave difficulty. Dr. Harris and Dr. Moulton were in the sixth boat, which, becoming separated from the rest, was driven out of its course by bad weather. It was over four days before it made land on the Corsican coast, by which time about half the occupants of the boat, including Dr. Moulton, had died. It is remarkable and cause for much thankfulness that after such prolonged exposure in the midst of such suffering our Friend is among the survivors. As reported last week, he is making good progress to restored health.
A graphic account
The Friend, in the issue of 4 May, described some of the dreadful effects of war and told a story of a helping hand extended:
The graphic account given by Miss M. D. Smith of the Serbian Relief Committee, of the arrival in Corsica of the surviving occupants of the sixth torpedoed ship, and quoted in the Manchester Guardian, conveys intelligence of much interest to Friends. Writing from Ajaccio, she said: “That day had been entertaining the boys from our Serbian school at Bocagnano for their prize-giving. As the carriages drove up with the people, the boys lined up and gravely saluted. They all looked as if they had been ill for months”
“One of the women was a stewardess, the other a medical doctor’s wife. A gentleman, a solicitor, had been torpedoed three times. This time he rowed in an open boat for ninety hours. He cannot sleep, not under morphia. Five of the crew are in our hospital here, and all passengers and crew bear the stamp of a nervous strain impossible to comprehend. They were all put to bed, where they still are, except Dr. Harris. That wonderful being – man or something more – got up to visit and console the others, all about half his age.
Rendel Harris wrote to James Hope Moulton’s brother to recount the last days of his friend:
Physically, be it remembered, Dr. Moulton was far from well, yet, “He played a hero’s part in the boat. He toiled at the oar till sickness overcame him, he assisted to bale out the boat and to bury (is that the right word?) the bodies of those who fell. He said words of prayer over poor Indian sailors, and never, never complained or lost heart for a moment, through the whole of the three days and more of his patience, though the waters were often breaking over him and the water must have been up to his middle.
On 18 May the Friend had some uplifting and consoling news to report:
Friends will rejoice to know that Dr. Rendel Harris arrived safely home in Selly Oak, Birmingham, in fairly normal health, last week.
Friends may not be surprised to learn that Rendel Harris took advantage of being in Corsica to visit Friends’ work there! In the 25 May issue he wrote:
No words can express the kindness which I met with in Ajaccio from members of the Friends’ War Victims’ Relief Committee engaged in Serbian relief, and members of the Serbian Committee. I was piloted home by three Scottish nurses from the Scottish Women’s Hospital in Ajaccio, who had been caring for a number of my companions in shipwreck. They took splendid care of me, and made a long and tedious journey as bright and easy as it was possible to be. I visited two of the Serbian colonies in the Corsican mountains, and was delighted to see what was being accomplished by John Harvey and his friends, both for the Serbian boys and girls in the schools, and for the older people in weaving and other occupations of interest. I know something about what the rebuilding of shattered society means from old-time experience, so that I can say with confidence that the work done in the Serbian colonies is some of the best we have ever put our hands to.
Rendel Harris died in 1941 at the age of eighty-nine.
And in other news…
Meeting for Sufferings appointed William Fletcher Nicholson as recording clerk to replace Isaac Sharp when he retired in July. He was first assistant master of Ackworth School, and clerk of Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting.
E. E. Taylor said that W. F. Nicholson was a man with a real concern for the work of the Society. His only regret in the matter was the loss to Yorkshire.
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