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Shirley, Ralph - The Angel Warriors at Mons 06 – The evidence of Rev. Alexander A. Boddy
Identifier
027102
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
THE ANGEL WARRIORS AT MONS [continued]
Another contribution to the evidence on the subject of the apparitions at the front has been sent me by the Rev. Alexander A. Boddy Vicar of All Saints, Monkwearmouth.[ From an address at an open-air meeting reported in the Sunderland Echo of August 16].
Mr. Boddy was for two months at the front with the troops in France, and in the course of his work was the recipient of some interesting communications. Among other stories he gives that of a soldier of the third Canadians who stated that after the second battle of Ypres, when their battalion was retiring through their communication trenches towards their rest camp, they were obliged to halt where a West Riding regiment was stationed.
During the halt one of the men of this regiment was narrating to those around him a strange experience of his own. He had seen, he said, what appeared at first to be a ball of fire. Afterwards it took the form of an angel with outstretched wings standing between the British front line and that of the enemy.
Mr. Boddy also mentions a story told to the sister of a gentleman who had given up his house as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers. One of the wounded soldiers told the lady that at a critical moment an angel with outspread wings like a luminous cloud stood between the advancing Germans and themselves. This figure appeared to render it impossible for the Germans to advance and annihilate them. The lady in question was subsequently speaking of this incident in the presence of some officers and expressed her own incredulity. One of the officers, a colonel, looked up at this, and observed —
" Young lady, the thing happened. You need not be incredulous. I saw it myself."