BMS/CWK/95/13/13/1

Letter to C.W. Kaye from Charles F. Farrer, written from Eaton Mansions, Sloane Square

28 Dec 1917

From: 1917 To: 1917

'I still labour at the Admiralty - but often it is as ploughing the sand.' 'The labour position is most serious. The trade union leaders have lost control and hot heads have taken the lead.' 'The men have many grievances - if only they could be postponed until the war is over - on a just settlement of these things hangs the future of England.' Was evicted the previous year from a flat he had just furnished - battling for a settlement for the fixtures. Got Brookes into a cadet battalion at Christ's College, Cambridge. He has done the three month course and awaiting a commission. My brother's death was a great grief to me., but we had known it was inevitable. Has almost dropped out of Bedford circles. The whole place has changed, passing rapidly into a manufacturing town. Helps the Apostles of St.Paul & St. Martin with celebrations, but no longer preaches. 'It has taken time for me to realise how much the end of my school ministry meant to me - something snapped with it. I feel so out of sympathy and touch with the clerical body - they have in the main shown such ... ineffectiveness through the war.' The 'dear old chapel' is now used as a concert hall and a lecture room 'and no manner of decorum shown'. The organ 'got so knocked about that I had to remove it and sold it for a song to Wellingborough.' Refers to Zeppelin raid on Bedford. Give news of mutual friends.

2 sheets

item

Farrar, Charles F.,
Kaye, C.W.

general correspondence, World War One, trade unions, Cambridge Christ's College, preaching, school organs, Zeppelins