Book Description
The Canvas Chapel is not only Bryn Little's personal account of the Second World War - including the aftermath of Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain; the North African and Italian campaigns, and the immediate post-war period in Austria - but it also interprets these events and their effects in the light of his growing call to the Christian ministry.
Bryn Little, the manager of a tyre shop in Weymouth at the outbreak of war in 1939, joined the army in February 1940 intending to use his skills as a tyre specialist. The army had other ideas and he became a driver in the Royal Army Service Corps.
He soon learnt the hardships of army life, made life-long friendships and met humour as well as tragedy throughout the next five years. Through the horrors of front-line action - which brought him the immediate award of the Military Medal during the battle of Monte Cassino in Italy - Bryn felt the call to minister to the spiritual needs of those around him and to take up that calling professionally.
Pursuing that call meant academic study - often under enemy fire - and overcoming entrenched attitudes among church leaders. Nonetheless, Bryn's persistence paid off. He left the army in November 1945 to take up formal training for the Baptist ministry in Rawdon College, Leeds.
On one level, this book provides valuable and rare first-hand accounts of army life during the Second World War. On another level, it offers an insight into one man's Christian piligrimage through adversity that should both challenge and inspire.
From the Back Cover
The Canvas Chapel is not only Bryn Little's personal account of the Second World War - including the aftermath of Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain; the North African and Italian campaigns, and the immediate post-war period in Austria - but it also interprets these events and their effects in the light of his growing call to the Christian ministry.
Bryn Little, the manager of a tyre shop in Weymouth at the outbreak of war in 1939, joined the army in February 1940 intending to use his skills as a tyre specialist. The army had other ideas and he became a driver in the Royal Army Service Corps.
He soon learnt the hardships of army life, made life-long friendships and met humour as well as tragedy throughout the next five years. Through the horrors of front-line action - which brought him the immediate award of the Military Medal during the battle of Monte Cassino in Italy - Bryn felt the call to minister to the spiritual needs of those around him and to take up that calling professionally.
Pursuing that call meant academic study - often under enemy fire - and overcoming entrenched attitudes among church leaders. Nonetheless, Bryn's persistence paid off. He left the army in November 1945 to take up formal training for the Baptist ministry in Rawdon College, Leeds.
On one level, this book provides valuable and rare first-hand accounts of army life during the Second World War. On another level, it offers an insight into one man's Christian piligrimage through adversity that should both challenge and inspire.