Join Durham’s Oriental Museum for an evening talk by Canon Professor Michael Snape FBA (Durham University), ‘The “Glorious Glosters”: Christianity, Chaplaincy and Captivity in Cold War Korea’
The Korean War (1950-53) is widely billed as a forgotten conflict, and yet it was the scene of the fiercest fighting experienced by the British Army since the Second World War. It also saw the biggest surrender of British troops in the post-war period, with hundreds of soldiers of the First Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment (or ‘Glosters’) captured by the Chinese at the Battle of the Imjin River in April 1951.
Though overlooked by religious historians of the Cold War, the fate of the ‘Glosters’ in Communist captivity, and the reception they received on their return, was emblematic of the resilience of British Christianity in the early years of the Cold War. Released after the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, an international showcase for Christian Britain, the ‘Glosters’ were hailed for their staunch refusal to succumb to atheistic Communist indoctrination. Their example stood in contrast to many American POWs (prompting something of a moral panic in the Pentagon) and their Church of England padre, Sam Davies, an alumnus of St Chad’s in Durham, was acclaimed for his role in providing religious leadership in captivity.
Seventy years after the end of the conflict in Korea, this lecture examines the role of the ‘Glosters’ in redeeming a costly and stalemated war on the other side of the world.
This event is part of a project generously supported by the National Museum of Korea.
Image reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees of the Royal Army Chaplains’ Museum, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham.