Woodbine Willie's blue plaque, St Paul's Church, Worcester

            Probably best known as Woodbine Willie's Church, after the former priest to the church, the Reverend Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, a heavy smoker himself, apparently, who dispensed cigarettes of that brand to the injured and dying during the first world war, along with, or maybe instead of, spiritual comfort. A very brave man himself, he was awarded an MC for helping the wounded in 'no man's land'.

From his entry in Wikipedia it appears that Woodbine Willie, starting out as a straight patriot, grew sick of the carnage and turned into something of a firebrand after the war, although he was not politically aligned:-

'During the war he supported the British military effort with enthusiasm. Attached to a bayonet-training service, chaplain Kennedy toured with boxers and wrestlers to give morale-boosting speeches about the usefulness of the bayonet.

After the war, Studdert Kennedy was given charge of St Edmund, King and Martyr in Lombard Street, London. Having been converted to Christian socialism and pacifism during the war, he wrote Lies (1919), Democracy and the Dog-Collar (1921) (featuring such chapters as "The Church Is Not a Movement but a Mob", "Capitalism is Nothing But Greed, Grab, and Profit-Mongering" and "So-Called Religious Education Worse than Useless"), Food for the Fed Up (1921), The Wicket Gate (1923), and The Word and the Work (1925). He moved to work for the Industrial Christian Fellowship, for whom he went on speaking tours of|Britain.

His appointment as missioner for ICF released him from routine clerical duties to become an outspoken advocate for the working classes. One of his celebrated quotes was:

"If finding God in our churches leads to us losing Him in our factories, then better we tear down those churches for God must hate the sight of them."

It was on one of these tours that he was taken ill. He died in Liverpool in 1929, exhausted at the age of 45. His funeral took place Worcester, to which poor people flocked to pay their respects. The Dean of Westminster refused burial at Westminster Abbey because, he said, Studdert Kennedy was a "socialist", even though he had distrusted most politicians and had refused to join any political party.'

Taken on: January 17, 2018

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Sets appears in: • Worcester 17 January 2017 • Churches and graveyards

Groups appears in: • UK Flickr users • Worcestershire more » • Worcester • UK Photography Club • West Midlands • Church Photography • Birmingham Post and Mail • "U.K. Photo Gallery" ( All Welcome ) « less

Camera: Canon EOS 650D, f/1.8, 1/4000 sec, 50mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 650D
Aperture:	f/1.8
Exposure Time:	1/4000 sec
Focal Length:	50mm
ISO:	200
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Elements 10.0 Windows
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