1914 voices from the New College Archives

On 11 November, there will be a short Act of Remembrance in New College, starting at 10.50am and gathering at the war memorial in the Assembly Hall. Come into New College Library this week, and you can see the voices of New College staff, students and alumni remembered in a display from the New College Archives.

NEW COLLEGE stained glass windowNew College War Memorial Album 1914-18. New College Library AA.1.14.1.

This is an official record of the New College students who fought in the First World War, including those who lost their lives.

New College Senate Minute Book, 1914-34 New College Library AA.1.1.4

This entry for 1914 records that, following appeals for chaplains to enter the Scottish Command, ten New College students have volunteered their service.

Faith on the frontier : a life of J.H. Oldham / K.W. Clements. New College Library BX6.8.O54 Cle.

Faith on the frontier : a life of J.H. Oldham / K.W. Clements. New College Library BX6.8.O54 Cle.

Oldham, J.H. Letter to John R Mott, 4 Dec 1914. Oldham Papers. New College Library MSS Old 1/9

Joseph H. Oldham (1874-1969) was a missionary and pioneer of ecumenism. A theology student at New College, Edinburgh, he went on to become the organising secretary for the 1910 World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, regarded by many as the starting point of the modern ecumenical movement. During the Second World War the meetings of his ‘Moot’ group initiated new thinking about Christian responsibility in modern society. This letter written in 1914 shows the tensions that the outbreak of war had created in the Church, both at home and overseas.

 Christine Love-Rodgers, Academic Support Librarian – Divinity

UK Press Online now on trial

Sunday ExpressUK Press Online is now available on trial to University of Edinburgh users, accessible on campus or off campus via VPN via the eresources trials webpage. The trial ends on 24 February.

The trial includes newspaper archives to the Daily Mirror (1903-1980); Daily Express (1900- current); Daily Express (1900- current); Daily Star Sunday (1863-1889); the Watchman (1835-1884); Daily Worker (1930-1945); World War Two (1933-1945), which comprises wartime editions of the Church Times, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Fascist Week, Action!, Blackshirt, Yorkshire Post and Daily Worker. This resource includes over 2 million pages of the 19th-20th Century newspaper, from 1835 to today.

The Rescue that never was – remembering Holocaust Memorial Day #HMD2013

Nazi massacres of the Jews & others : some practical proposals for immediate rescue made by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Rochester in speeches on March 23rd 1943 in the House of Lords /William Temple. London : Victor Gollancz, [1943] Z.h.30/24

Nazi massacres of the Jews & others : some practical proposals for immediate rescue made by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Rochester in speeches on March 23rd 1943 in the House of Lords /William Temple. London : Victor Gollancz, [1943] Z.h.30/24

Holocaust Memorial Day marks the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945, and remembers those who died in the Holocaust and under Nazi persecution, and during subsequent genocides, such as Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur.

New College Library holds this pamphlet, Nazi massacres of the Jews & others : some practical proposals for immediate rescue made by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Rochester in speeches on March 23rd 1943 in the House of Lords. The author, William Temple (1881-1944) was a bishop in the Church of England who served as Archbishop of York  Archbishop of Canterbury between 1942–44.

One of the founders of the Council of Christians and Jews in 1942,  Temple was at the forefront of the Church of England’s campaign to draw attention to the plight of the Jews in Europe and to demand that the British Government provide rescue and sanctuary for Jewish victims. His speech urges:

The Jews are being slaughtered at the rate of tens of thousands a day on many days … we cannot rest as long as there is any sense among us that we are not doing all that might be done.”

Sadly no changes to refugee policy were made by the British Government and after William Temple died in 1944, the impetus for rescuing the Jews did not continue.

This item is part of the Pamphlets Collection, and it was catalogued as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects at New College Library

Keeping the faith in wartime

A short New College  Act of Remembrance will take place on Friday 9th November at 1pm at the War Memorial in the corridor leading to the Assembly Hall.

Church of Scotland – Committee on Aids to Devotion. Special Services issued during the Great War 1914-1919. New College Library Pamphlets Collection X.X.h.1.1-14

This item from New College Library’s Pamphlets Collections was recently catalogued as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects. It is a collection of Church orders of services and guides for public prayer in a family or school setting. All the pamphlets date from the First World War Period, ending with a form of Divine service for Remembrance Day on the eleventh of November.The pamphlets and their binding are flimsy and utilitarian but their content bears witness to the cost of war for those at home as well as those out on the front.

Pamphlet X.X.h. 1/2 Form of prayer for schools in time of war, includes the text:

“Throw the shield of Thy protection over all who have gone forth to fight our battles by land or sea or air. We especially remember those near and dear to ourselves.”