by Jersey’s celebrated explorer Colonel John Blashford Snell CBE
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The chaplain with his son, John Blashford Snell (aged 9).
orn in St. Helier, my father, The Reverend Prebendary Leland Blashford Snell, enjoyed his time at Victoria College where he was a keen cricketer. Thereafter, he decided to take Holy Orders and after marrying my mother at the Town Church, sailed for New Zealand.
Ordained at Dunedin Cathedral, he also became a chaplain in the New Zealand Territorial Army. On return to Jersey in 1930, he became curate at the Town Church and my mother ran the Blue Cross Animal Shelter. They both loved animals, especially dogs and had a favourite Alsatian, Peggy, a strongly built sablecoated bitch, whose party trick was to pick me up by my nappies when, as a baby, I tipped myself out of the pram. She would then carry me, bawling my head off, into the house. In the Territorial Army, Father was nicknamed ‘Bish’ and in 1944, was senior chaplain with the 53rd Welsh Division in France. As the Allies pressed forward from the beaches of Normandy, a large part of the German Army became trapped in a ‘pocket’ at Falaise.
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With their backs to a river and orders from Hitler to hold on regardless, they were surrounded on three sides and systematically destroyed as the pocket closed in. The fighting was bitter and confused, opposing units became inextricably intermingled and casualties were heavy on both sides. One infantry company, having attacked the German defences, was itself pinned down between two minefields and unable to move. The men dug in and fought for their lives. By late afternoon on the second day of their struggle they had suffered many dead and wounded. As a chaplain, Bish decided to try to get through to them with an armoured ambulance carrier and some stretcher bearers to bring the wounded out. Mortar bombs were still falling as the carrier wound its way towards the isolated soldiers. However, they got through and the stretcher bearers collected the wounded, while Bish gave the last rites to those who would not make the hazardous journey back. Suddenly, there was a metallic bang and a plume of black smoke drifted up from the carrier. ‘He’s hit a mine,’ yelled the medic and, indeed, that was what had happened as the driver reversed to make the return trip.
British troops attacking a German occupied farm at Falaise.
The Chaplain’s dog