Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-7tdvq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-08T05:07:59.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - The Final Year: 1949–50

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2021

Get access

Summary

When, in May 1949 a retired former Gunner, Major General Sidney Charles Manley Archibald, took up the post of Religious Advisor and Head of the Religious Affairs Branch, he knew that the employment would last at most a year. Indeed, previous indications given by the Head of the Military Government had caused some people to conclude that it would only last a few months, a casualty of the cost cutting taking place throughout the organisation as it approached the end of its existence. Archibald was, though, to serve the full year. The Branch was barely reduced in size during his time in office and continued to function until the end of May 1950 when the zonal administration came to an end. General Archibald had been a career soldier. As he explained in a letter to Bishop Bell, when taking up the post, it had been his custom to send a regular digest of his activities to his superiors. The result of that practice was that a record of the main activities of the Branch, during its final year, can be found in the Bell Papers at Lambeth. In addition, Archibald also wrote a memoir of his service career which contained information on his time in Germany, both as Head of the Council of British Societies for Relief Abroad and then subsequently as Director of the Religious Affairs Branch of the Control Commission. These two documents have given an important insight into the Branch during its final months.

Archibald had had dealings with the Branch during his previous posting as Head of the British Relief Agencies. He recorded that the thought of taking over as the Director of Religious Affairs was ‘somewhat alarming’. He was interviewed by a senior member of staff at the Foreign Office, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and by General Sir Brian Robertson from Commission headquarters. This reflected what he felt was the experience he had of working for two masters, the Control Commission and the Church, and most notably for ‘Dr Bell, then bishop of Chichester and the Archbishop of Canterbury's representative’. It is of interest that he commented in his memoir, written in 1958, that, ‘I have never liked the Germans…and the more that I saw of them the less I liked them.

Type
Chapter
Information
Britain and the German Churches, 1945–1950
The Role of the Religious Affairs Branch in the British Zone
, pp. 227 - 254
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×