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No: 268
RECTOR'S WEEKLY NEWS
May 24th 1945

My dear Boys and Girls,
Now that, thank God, your homecoming appears to be well on the horizon, it is as well that I should have a little quite talk to you all. Few parishes have looked after their children better than Tarleton has looked after all those who had had to leave their homes at the call of King and Country. You will all agree to that. I want you to remember, when you get home, that while you have been away the Church of God, whose children you are, has never for one instant forgotten you. Every single day throughout the war prayers and intercessions have been offered up for your safety and your welfare. Not one single day has passed without this being done.
The Church has followed you throughout all your wanderings in distant parts and, through the News Letter, has kept you in touch with all that has been happening, week by week, in your home village, and also kept you in close touch with one another.
I am merely the servant of the Church, God's resident minister in this tiny corner of His vineyard. All that I have done, I have done merely as the servant of God, instructed through His Church, to look after all those committed to my care.
I have merely been doing my duty; that for which, over forty years, I was ordained. Your spiritual health and wealth and contentment are, of course, my first concern; but as long as body and soul are inextricably united, the concerns of the one are the concerns of the other. So closely interwoven are they while we still walk this earth that all that affects the one also equally affects the other. That is while the health, wealth, and the contentment of the body is the direct concern of the Church. And that is why, also, it is the direct concern of the ministers of God carefully to study the bodily welfare of those committed to his charge. Thus you will see that a parson must, if he is to do his duty, takes an interest in politics, Education, housing, wages, even amusements, are all the concern of the parson inasmuch as they affect the welfare of the soul of his parishioners.
This will be the longest letter I have, so far, ever written in the NL but I have wanted to write it for a long time, I have been fearfully frightened lest the thanks and the praise should be given to me and not to the Church whose servant I am. I may, perhaps, have a little praise for being a faithful servant, but that is all. The Church has followed you to distant parts, worried about you, prayed for you, looked after your interests at home. The Church will continue to care for you throughout your life. She will worry about getting for you health and wealth, good houses while you are still on earth; and she will certainly worry about getting for you health and wealth and good houses in the hereafter.
God forbid that I should steal my Master's praise, and the thanks that are due to Him, and Him alone. "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Thy Name be the praise."
My love for you is real, and personal, but I am quite aware that it is God who has given me that love.
So, don't say "all that the rector has done for us while we have been away," but rather, and more truthfully, "all that the Church has done for us while we have been away."
I cannot end this long letter without a word of thanks, once again, for the great Victory you have won for us, and to say that it is up to each one of us to think, and to think very, very carefully, about winning the Peace. And as real Peace belongs entirely to God, Who is the Prince of Peace, it will mean a lot of praying as well as a lot of thinking.
With my love, my prayers and my Blessing, ever your affectionate fellow-worker, L.N.FORSE.

Unto Thy Name
If there be good in that I wrought,
Thy hand compelled it, Master, Thine.
Where I have failed to meet Thy thought,
I know, through Thee, the blame is mine.

One instant's toil to Thee denied,
Stands all eternity's offence;
Of what I did, with Thee to guide,
To Thee, through Thee, be excellence.

One stone the more swings to her place
In that dread temple of Thy worth;
It is enough that through Thy grace
I saw nought common on Thy earth.

Life
I live for those who love me,
For those who know me true,
For the Heaven that bends above me,
And the good that I can do;
For the wrongs that need resistance,
For the cause that lacks assistance,
For the future in the distance,
And the good that I can do.

Bumper Victory Number
Everyone was delighted with our Bumper Victory Number executed in red, white and blue. It really was a fine production. Brown's Typewriting Service Ltd., Broughton Street Works, Burnley, Lancs., produced it for the rector. This firm has duplicated every copy of the NL since it was first issued, over 80,000 copies all told. They have invariably been well produced and last week the rector telephoned the Firm congratulating them upon the real excellence of the Victory Number.

HOME FRONT NEWS
Harry Price was married on Thursday in the Methodist Chapel, Tarleton, to Margaret Tindsley, daughter of Mrs.Albert Tindsley, Blackgate Lane. Wedding Breakfast in the Chapel schoolroom, (supplied by Garlicks). Honeymoon at Edinburgh.
Nick Dewhurst arrived home from p-o-w camp in Germany on Thursday. He looks well.
Leonard Ditchfield, Walmer Bridge, Jimmy Hunter, Walmer Bridge, Fred Parr, Bretherton, all POWs home from captivity.
George Strickland, Longton, was killed in Longton by a motor lorry while he was driving some cows off the road into a field.
Hugh Bamford, Walmer Bridge, was knocked off his motor bike on Wednesday last, by a passing lorry. He is now in Preston Infirmary.
Mrs. Billy Garlick (HB) nee Hilda Johnson, has presented her husband with a daughter.
Mrs. Dr.Croft took £100 to Manchester as the Tarleton Red Cross contribution, and presented it to Viscountess Falmouth for the Red Cross Funds. Preston headed the list with a contribution of £1,750.
The Welcome Home Committee held a big Whist Drive in the Schools on Saturday night. At `half time` the result of the great Draw was announced. The first prize, a bicycle, went to Ormskirk. The Draw itself made £185.
Next week the Committee are holding a huge open-air Fancy Dress Ball in the schoolyard which will be floodlit for the occasion. More about this in our next issue.

ON LEAVE
David Rimmer, Eric Bell, Arthur Barron, George Barker, Bob Johnson, John Rimmer, Bill Ball (Newarth Lane, HB), Sandy Laing, Eric Booth, Margaret Moss (Mere Brow), Barbara Coupe, Dick Blundell.
Banns called out in Church for the first time on Sunday of James Howard, Barron's Farm, and his second cousin, Marjorie Howard.
The infant child of Mr. And Mrs. Wilcock, Hazeldene, Hesketh Lane, was christened on Sunday last with the names William Nicholas. Dr. Ashton, Croston, Mr. William Morris, Turnpike, and Mrs. John Caunce, wife of Commander Caunce, were Godparents.
It poured down with rain all day on Whitsunday, so the usual Sunday School procession round the parish was cancelled, but Rufford Band played for the hymns etc. in Church in the afternoon.
Mrs. Leonora Howard, Fermor Road, died on Thursday and was buried at Tarleton Churchyard on Monday. She was 73 years of age.
James Martland, Rufford, son of William Martland, Haulage Contractor, p-o-w since Dunkirk, is home again safe and sound.
Robert Ashcroft, son of William Ashcroft, Newsagent, Rufford, was a p-o-w for exactly three weeks when he was released by our own troops.
After a month's leave (out of the hat) Harley McKean has returned to his Unit in MEF.
Fourteen members (boys and girls), of the newly formed Young People's Fellowship, connected with the Parish Church, cycled round the Trough of Bowland on Whit Monday.
The RTO at Preston called the rector out twice on Whit Monday/Tuesday night, once at 11pm. and again at 2.45 am. On the first journey he took a Cpl. Dewhurst to his home at Thrupp's Lane, Longton. He was home on compassionate leave, having lost his father. The second call was to bring home Nicholas Taylor, Gorse Lane, from BLA. Having used up all his petrol the rector rang up Will Morrison at the garage to ask for more, and Will volunteered to go himself. In the end he picked up a Leyland lad, a Mawdesley lad and Nick Taylor and ran them all home.
As it appears that no Tarleton lad will actually get into Berlin, the rector has written to Field Marshal Montgomery asking him to suggest some other purpose for which the Berlin Medal should be given.

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS
Flt. Sgt. David Hanson writes "We have been taking petrol to the front line aerodromes and bringing back p-o-ws. We landed on the Hanover aerodrome the day after our Forces had captured it, and it is this which the Flt.Lt. has mentioned on the claim Form. This last week, including VE Day we have been all over the western world, Brussels, Copenhagen, Oslo, Eindhoven etc. Will you put in the NL that if any lad wants a ride home from Brussels he must go to airfield B58 which is 3 miles from Brussels, and look for a Stirling aircraft with the letter Y painted on the side and TARLETON written over the door. I, or any member of my crew, will do anything for them."
ERM Dick Burns airmails from his Ship "Thanks for the NLs; in one of them I see that Dick Gabbott says I must look out for him. Well you will be pleased to hear that we have already met, and I am seeing him ashore again on Saturday. I was most annoyed to think that he had been here a year and I umpteen months, in the harbour, and never met. Give my kind regards to my brothers and brothers-in-law."
Pte. Lewis Clark writes from India Command "You don't know how good it is to read about the experiences of the lads from Tarleton. I have been out here two years now and, in my first few months, found myself one of Wingates Chindits. We were flown into Burma by glider, and then wore the tops off most of the hills. I served five months in action, and then another five months in hospital and convalescent, and finished up trying my hand at Paratroops, all of which is just marker for the day when I can get home and meet all the lads again."
L/Sgt. Dick Townsley airmails from CMF "The last time I wrote to you was when I was in hospital at Assisi trying to dispose of a piece of steel in my foot. During my stay in Perugio, at a Convalescent Depot, for seven weeks, I saw quite a lot of Ronnie Melling. At present I am on leave in Rome. I got here this morning at 7 o'clock. I went to a Thanksgiving Service this morning in the camp. I don't think I ever heard a congregation sing with so much `gusto` as did the men in that camp, both black and white. My regards to Billy Benjamin and Harry Harrison, my brothers-in-law, and the Rowland Bros., especially Hugh, in India."
AB Ken Dandy airmails from his Ship at Trieste "We have been moving about quite a lot lately, and fast. Too fast for supplies to keep up with us, so we ran out of food except for cheese and biscuits. We have been working day and night. VE Day was quite like any other day here; we celebrated by firing all the guns and flares. Except for that there was no change - sorry, my mistake, we got two tots of rum instead of the usual one, which we call `splicing the main brace`. We even ran out of rum and had to `cadge` that off a Destroyer."
Gunner Harry Harrison writes from BLA "I am wondering if I am the first Tarletonian to write to you from the Channel Islands. We received a great welcome from the islanders, and were greeted by cheering crowds who shouted "Thank God you've come," and "Well done, Tommy". It was very inspiring to see their faces beam with joy and happiness. I was fortunate in being able to attend Church on Sunday, and it was a Service I shall never forget, for if ever a congregation sang and prayed from the bottom of their hearts it was the Islanders. My best wishes to my brothers-in-law Dick and Billy."
Trooper Ted Barnish writes from CMF "Last night came the great news that the war had finished in Germany, but over here anyone would have thought that the war had started again. Guns of every description were firing, and it was hardly safe to walk about. Our Regiment had the honour of being amongst the first troops in Venice which, by the way, is a very fine place - one in a million."
Pte. William Barker writes from BLA "You mention the Berlin Medal in the NL. Although I am well east of the Rhine, I am certain that I shall not win it, but I would like to see our Infantry men get it for they are the boys who have had all the work to do. I am no longer in the 51st Highland Division; I had the bad luck to be parted just before D-Day. If I had been with them now I would say that the Medal was as good as mine."
Dvr. Billy Whittle writes from BLA "It won't be long now before you and I have that little chat. Our Corporal has been on some business to Belgium and arrived back tonight with a brand new wireless, and it does sound grand. I am afraid I was disappointed with the release group sheet. Instead of a number there was a large question mark against my name. My best wishes to all the lads and lasses with my usual special regards to Bobby Edmondson and Frank Taylor."
Gunner Arthur Harrison writes from BLA "I was thinking how nice it would be, when we all get home, for the lads who have been through the thick of the fighting to hold a Service; to read the lessons and to say the prayers. It would be a real Victory Service. I saw that article in the Daily Mirror about your Berlin Medal. It was very good. It won't be long now before you are sending your last News Letter."
Dvr, Dick Taylor (Mere Brow) writes from BLA "Well, we have had the great day at last, and had it not been for the little yellow men in the East things would have looked very bright indeed. I am lucky to be stationed in Holland at the moment. On VE Day I passed through three countries, so I was able to study the reactions of the people. In Germany some seemed quite pleased, others indifferent; but in Belgium and Holland there was not two ways about it, everybody was in high spirits. There was a lad from Bretherton in the same billet as myself last week, so we were able to have a bit of a talk about our home district."
LAC Harold Pilkington writes from SEAC "I have arrived in India safe and sound. I shall appreciate the NL and Parish Magazine even more now that I am not in England. I was only here 8 hours when I met Hughie Melling. I shouted to him in the Cookhouse, and was he pleased to see me!! Even though we only met a month ago in England. He leaves me today. I enclose my photo as I think I am one of the backward ones in the Lady Chapel. Excuse writing, as I am doing it on my knee."

Common Origins
Major Downs prided himself on his easy manner of paying compliments to the ladies. Calling upon a fair widow one day, he exclaimed:
"Begad, Mrs. Smart, where do you keep your complexion?"
"Oh!" retorted the lady, "where you lost yours, Major, in a bottle."

Home Guard Skit
A sergeant in the Home Guard, being doubtful whether he had distributed rifles to all the men, called out "All you who are without arms hold up your hands."

No offence meant.
A certain man from Tarleton, passing through a neighbouring parish in which the Church clock is usually out of order, said to a lady from this parish who he knew well:
"What's the matter with your clock, Arabella?"
"I was just asking myself what's the matter with yours, George" sweetly replied the lady.