At the intersection: the conflicting position of the army chaplain in World War One

Their conflicting roles as officers and upholders of the faith made army chaplains particularly vulnerable. They are one of the most difficult but also most revealing groups to analyse within the army of World War One. By focusing on Anne Perry’s quintet on World War One, this article demonstrates that fiction has a special ability to illustrate the complexity and vulnerability of the army chaplain’s position as it reveals a multi-faceted and deeply felt reality which is both more personal and intense than that provided by documentary accounts insisting on factuality.