Budleigh Past and Present

‘It is usually very difficult to find much to say which will not offend the vigilant eye of the censor,’ wrote Kenneth John Best to his family in May 1915, while serving as an army chaplain during World War I. Even so, he managed to say much about the horrors of war.  In December 1914, while still safe in Egypt and yet to be posted to the front he had expressed his frustration with humanity in a letter to his father. ‘The question always occurs to me, why do men try to reach justice by the sword?’ he asked. ‘Brute force seems to have no connection that I can see with Justice. In this particular case, it may turn out all right – but I hope there will after this be some better means found for settling disputes.’  Later, from the bloodbath of Gallipoli, he wrote: ‘What a mad world this is! I suppose we shall soon come to our senses and settle the matter which might just as well have been settled without the carnage. How much wiser were the Israelites and Philistines when they set...