Letter from Fr Henry Gill SJ to Father Provincial Thomas V Nolan SJ, 11 July 1916

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Letter from Fr Henry Gill SJ to Father Provincial Thomas V Nolan SJ, 11 July 1916

1 2d R I Rifles B.E.F. France 11/7/16 Dear Fr Provincial P.C. Just a line to say
I am still alive. We are, of course, as
always, in it. I have been wandering
about trenches and dug outs recently captured
from the Germans. I believe I may not say
how many casualties we had during the
attack, which is I suppose the first of a
series. Fr O'Sullivan, one of the Chaplains
of this Division was killed last week.
I was speaking to him a few hours before,
then we gave each other absolution. 2 He was a splendid young fellow and
will be hard to replace. This is about the
fifth attack I have been in and I feel I
know more than I want about shells of
all sizes and conditions. It is a horrible
and squalid business. Trenches full of mud
with bodies of dead Germans and British
lying unburied all along. Please God it will
end soon and that we may be able to
forget it all as quickly as possible. The
outstanding thing is real courage and
wonderful scruples of officers & men in the
midst of the awful wounds and death and
squalor all round. Possibly death has lost its
terror for me With kind regards
I remain dear Rev Father
Yours
H.W. Gill S.J.

This letter from Fr Henry Gill to Fr Thomas Nolan, details the opening days of the Somme offensive, the death of one of the chaplains of the division (Fr Donal O' Sullivan of Killarney, Kerry, who died 5 July 1916 at the age of twenty-six) and the horror of the war.The Irish Jesuit Chaplain, Fr Henry Gill SJ (1872-1945) was the son of H.J. Gill, head of the publishing firm, M. H. Gill & Son. He was educated at Clongowes Wood College and University College Dublin. He possessed an acumen for mathematics and science and studied in Louvain and under Professor J.J. Thompson, Cavendish Laboratories, Cambridge (1906 - 1908). Fr. Gill had a special interest in seismography: 'Experiments with Spinning Tops to illustrate earthquake reactions' was the title of a lecture given by Henry Gill at the Cavendish Laboratory, 16 June 1908. It is recorded that the hardship of four years as a chaplain in WWI, had a lasting effect on him. Fr. Henry Gill SJ gained the Military Cross and the Distinguished Service Order with the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles, 3rd Div., II. Brig., B.E.F., France. Fr. Thomas V Nolan (1867-1941) was the Provincial of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus (1912-1922) and was a member of the Distribution Committee which looked after the welfare and distribution of the the Belgian refugees who arrived in Ireland as a consequence of the First World War.

Henry V Gill
Thomas V Nolan
1916-07-11
World War I (1914-1918) World War I (1914-1918)

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How to cite

Letters 1916, published by the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities, Vienna, 2026 (https://letters1916static.github.io/letters1916-static/item__0621.html)