City of Benares

A painting by Walter Starmer in the lunette above St George's altar at St Jude’s, which represents the last few moments in the life Michael Rennie, the Vicar's son, who died of exhaustion after rescuing several evacuee children from the sinking City of Benares in 1940.

The SS City of Benares was a steam passenger ship. In 1940 it was being used as a refugee ship and was carrying 90 children from Great Britain to Canada as part of the wartime overseas evacuation. On the night of 17/18 September it was torpedoed by a German submarine and sunk in the early hours of 18 September 1940, with great loss of life. 83 of the children onboard were killed. The following is an article by one of those few children (now elderly adults) who survived.

I am one of the few children who survived the ordeal of the sinking of the City of Benares and have only just been told the story about the memorial in your church to Michael Rennie. I have also read the reports of his remarkable bravery trying to rescue many of the young children who were pitched into the sea when his lifeboat was launched into the rough seas and how he swam repeatedly to bring them back to the lifeboat before they were swept away but only for many to die later from exposure. He was a real hero.

There have been some very accurate and heart-searching books and articles written about the sinking of the City of Benares. In case some of your church members may wish to learn more about the tragedy I recommend they read the latest book called 'Miracles on the Water' by Tom Nagorski. The author visited and interviewed all of the remaining survivors and has produced this remarkable book, full of drama, but told with skill and compassion. There are full accounts of Michael Rennie.

After the War, when stories of some events were being investigated and being told for the first time, many of us surviving children of the Benares were brought together to tell our stories. It was these stories that now form to details of the books and even a documentary BBC film on the event. It also made us children realise how very lucky we are to have survived and had good lives since. We have always acknowledged this and in our research we discovered that a small church in Wembley was where so many of the children who did not survive came from. As a result of this it was agreed that we should hold our various Memorial Services at the Church of the Annunciation in South Kenton and where we all met up for a reunion. We held services for the 50th, 55th and 60th anniversaries but now our numbers are depleting due to age. There are now only very few of us left and we are now mostly over 80 but we all have a very strong bond and keep in touch with each other.
City Of Benares - Sequel

On 4 July 2009, a week or so after Mr Bech had telephoned me about the City of Benares, I was in the church doing the flowers and as the door was open, three visitors came in and started to walk around the church. When I went to talk to them I found to my delight and amazement, that one of the ladies, Christine Drury, was the niece of Michael Rennie’s fiancée, Miss Pamela Bankart. After Michael’s tragic death Miss Bankart joined the Friends Ambulance Unit in Calcutta and worked as a driver for the rest of the war. The Unit was formed by the Society of Friends and was manned by Friends, who are, of course, confirmed pacifists. The three ladies had heard about the memorial painting to Michael Rennie and the 83 children of the City of Benares and had come to look for it.

They were also amazed to hear about the recent contact with Mr Bech and City of Benares survivors and were equally impressed that the tragedy is remembered annually in St Jude’s.

Elinor Delaney

Michael Delaney recommends this social history of Britain between the two wars. It is a fascinating account of the changes in society at this time. The sinking of the City of Benares is mentioned in this book as a seminal event in the reformulation of the evacuation policy.We danced all night: a social history of Britain between the wars by Martin PughI was so interested to hear that each year St. Jude's also hold prayers for Michael Rennie and for all those who perished with him as a result of the sinking of the City of Benares. It was a major event of the War and probably one of the worse single disasters concerning children. It is nice to know that memorials, like your painting, will always be a reminder to future generations of the tragedy of War.
Derek Bech (Aged 9 years old in 1940)

Published in Autumn 2009 edition of The Spire.

Click on scan to enlarge:

Pages from the St Jude's Gazette October 1940 and November 1942

City of Benares

Visitors to the church today were American author Deborah Heiligman accompanied by her husband Jonathan.

Deborah is working on a children's book about the sinking of the City of Benares in 1940 and came to see the memorial to Michael Rennie, son of the vicar of St Jude's, who died after rescuing several children.

Learn more about the story:

City of Benares: the Children's Ship

75 years since sinking of ‘Children’s Ship’ City of Benares

St Jude's and the City of Benares

Remembering the City of Benares tragedy

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh 10 June 1921 - 9 April 2021

 

On Saturday 1^st December 1951 the Duke of Edinburgh visited Hampstead Garden Suburb to ‘inspect’ St Jude’s Church and open the Christmas Bazaar being held in the Free Church Hall in Northway.  A souvenir edition of the parish magazine reported the visit.

At 10.50am a large green saloon car drew up in front of the vicarage and the tall, slim driver was almost at the door before he was recognised and cheering broke out. Children waved Union Jacks excitedly. The day of the sixteenth royal visit to St Jude’s had dawned.

 

A few minutes earlier the Duke had stopped in Meadway to ask a constable the way to the vicarage. “St Jude’s is up there,” said the officer, “but you cannot go that way. We are waiting for the Duke.” Then he recognised the royal visitor and directed him to Central Square. The Duke drove on laughing.

 

After spending a short time with the vicar, the Reverend Maxwell Rennie, and his family in the vicarage, the Duke walked across to the church in the brilliant sunshine where he was welcomed by the churchwardens and introduced to Walter Starmer, the artist of the extensive mural scheme that fills the church. That work had largely been completed by the late 1920s, but Starmer had ‘returned’ (he was actually a regular worshipper at St Jude’s - though living in Edgware) to paint a memorial to the vicar’s son, Michael Rennie, who had lost his life rescuing children from the torpedoed evacuation ship City of Benares in 1940.

The Duke, then Prince Philippos of Greece, had shared a study with Michael at school at Gordonstoun.

 

In the Free Church Hall over 500 people greeted the Duke as he was piped onto the platform by the St Jude’s Sea Rangers. The vicar said it was an immense delight to welcome “the Empire’s greatest ambassador” especially so soon after his strenuous tour of Canada and America with Princess Elizabeth. “Many of us wondered if a document would arrive from Clarence House saying ‘It is all very well, but there is a limit’.”

 

Two of the St Jude’s children presented the Duke with presents for his own children: a model of an eastern catamaran (made by the vicar) for Prince Charles and a doll for Princess Anne.

 

The Duke said: “I am very bad at opening bazaars, and I always find there are many people, especially Members of Parliament, who always say the right thing at the right time.  However, I am taking a chance this time because, when I received this invitation from your vicar, I felt that opening the bazaar was the least I could do in memory of a very great friend of mine, Michael Rennie, who went to school with me and lost his life during the war.”

 

Dr Kurt Hahn, founder and headmaster of Gordonstoun School, had travelled from Scotland to be present at the bazaar, but a sudden emergency at his school necessitated his return. He sent, however, a generous donation to the bazaar and wrote to say that he intended to dedicate a study in the new wing to the memory of Michael Rennie.

 

After admiring the goods for sale and having a word with all the stallholders, the Duke passed through a guard of honour to his car and received a tumultuous farewell from the crowd outside.

 

The 80^th anniversary (postponed from last year) of the death of Michael Rennie and the loss of the City of Benares will be commemorated (close to what would have been the Duke’s 100 birthday) at Proms at St Jude’s.

 

The Reverend Alan Walker

 

City of Benares 17 September 1940

September 17 is the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the City of Benares and the death (in the morning of the next day) of Michael Rennie, son of the Vicar of St Jude's.

The Mersyside Maritime Museum currently has a wonderful online exhibition about the story and a blog entry recording the author's visit to St Jude's.

Guide to St Jude's

Photo by Henry Walker

Saint Jude-on-the-Hill (St Jude's) is the Parish Church of Hampstead Garden Suburb which was founded in 1907 by Henrietta Barnett to be a model community where all classes of people would live together in attractive surroundings and social harmony.

The church was built to the designs of Edwin Landseer Lutyens (1869-1944), the greatest English architect of the first part of the twentieth century. It is a hybrid. Simon Jenkins calls it "the confident application of Queen Anne Revival to traditional church form". Building began in 1909, but the west end was not completed until 1935. The church was consecrated on 7th May 1911. Externally it is 200 feet long and the spire rises 178 feet above the ground.

Inside, the church is 122 feet from the west door to the chancel steps, and forty feet to the highest part of the roof. The ceiling is barrel-vaulted and domed. There are three vaults between the west end and the crossing; a saucer dome over the crossing; one further vault over the crossing and a saucer dome over the sanctuary. The east end finishes in an apse completed in 1923.

The murals and paintings are by Walter Starmer (1877-1962). He began with the Lady Chapel in 1920 and finished with the apse in 1929. Some commentators have suggested that Lutyens would have preferred the church to have remained undecorated and that the paintings spoil the purity of the interior of the church. A recent study, however, concludes that although the architect might not have admired Starmer's style, Lutyens had no objection in principle to the use of frescoes in Saint Jude's, and it is known that he inspected and praised much of the work.

The west window (dedicated 1937) is to the design of Starmer and depicts Saint Jude holding the cross in his right hand and this church in his left. Below is his symbol, the ship; above, Christ in glory, surrounded by the traditional symbols of the four evangelists.

On the north side of the west door is a memorial to the horses killed in the First World War. Made in 1970 by Rosemary Proctor (died 1995), it replaces the original bronze model of a horse by Lutyens's father, and its replacement, which were stolen. Near it is a memorial to Basil Bourchier, the first vicar, and, on the south pillar, a commemoration of the completion of the west end.

The ceiling panels over the centre aisle depict: the wise men and the shepherds; Christ feeding the multitude and stilling the storm; Christ healing the blind and lepers; the crucifixion (dome); and the entry into Jerusalem with Christ carrying the cross (chancel).

The memorials on the north wall are to John Raphael, a popular sportsman killed in the First World War; to Father Maxwell Rennie, a bust by his daughter Rosemary Proctor; and, in the lunette above St George's altar, a painting by Starmer represents the last few moments in the life Michael Rennie, the Vicar's son, who died of exhaustion after rescuing several evacuee children after their ship, the City of Benares, had been torpedoed on its way to Canada in 1940.

The murals here and in the south aisle represent the teaching of Jesus in the parables of the kingdom. The Stations of the Cross, also by Starmer, begin here and continue into the south aisle.

The fine iron screens that flank the sanctuary are much older than the church and bear the name Matthias Heit and the date 1710. The sanctuary floor is patterned in brick and marble. The high altar includes two stones from Canada: a smaller dark one from the former French royal chapel of Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia (where the first European settlement north of Florida was established in 1605, and where the first regular Church of England services were held in Canada in 1710), and a larger and lighter coloured one from the altar steps of Montreal Cathedral. The foundation stone on the north side of the chancel was laid on St Mark's Day 1910 and is by Eric Gill. The pulpit was also a gift from Canada.

Over the south door (into the car park) is a commemoration of the unveiling of the murals by the Prince of Wales in 1924, and, over the door, a figure of Christ by Rosemary Proctor in memory of her brother. Nearby, on the south wall, is a memorial to Edward VII.

To the left of the chancel is the Lady Chapel, the oldest part of the church, completed and opened for worship in 1910. On the pillar at the right of the entrance is a key to the pictures in the chapel (of noted Christian women). Over the arch is a memorial to the unveiling of the frescoes. In the sanctuary is a wooden statue of Our Lady, a reproduction of the early sixteenth century Mourning Virgin or 'Nuremberg Madonna' which would originally have been part of a crucifixion scene. Its curious proportions suggest that it was meant for a very high position and to be seen from far below. In the central panel of the altar is a modern reproduction of the Madonna and Child by Bernini. The Blessed Sacrament is reserved in the tabernacle behind the altar.

St John's Chapel, to the right of the sanctuary, was a gift of the Harmsworth family in 1923. The murals draw on the Gospel of John and the book of Revelation. The memorial window to Sir John Harmsworth is by Robert Anning Bell, one of the most distinguished artists of his day. It has been described as one of the most charming of his designs, and makes use of features from seventeenth century English Baroque sepulchral monuments.

The green and white marble altar is by Lutyens. In the central panel is a picture by Maurice Greiffenhagen (a friend and colleague of Anning Bell at the Glasgow School of Art, and a fellow Royal Academician) of St John holding a chalice from which is emerging a serpent. This refers to the legend in which the priest of the temple of Diana gave St John poison to drink as a test of faith. Two men had already died of the poison, but St John survived, and restored the other two to life as well. The vestries lie behind the altar of St John.

The 'Father Willis' organ comes from St Jude's church in Whitechapel where Canon Samuel Barnett, husband of Henrietta Barnett, the founder of Hampstead Garden Suburb, was vicar. It stood for ten years at the west end and was moved, after restoration, to its present position in the chancel in 1934. The organ was rededicated in October 2002 following extensive rebuilding and renovation works, including the commissioning of a new console.

‘I went to church with my parents, who had taken to frequenting Saint Jude’s, Hampstead Garden Suburb, a fine Lutyens edifice then in the charge of a highly flamboyant clergyman named Basil Bourchier . . . Personal devotees flocked to him from all parts of London. His sermons were dramatic, topical, irrational and quite without theological content. . . . Despite all Mr Bourchier’s extravagant display I had some glimpse of higher mysteries."

(Evelyn Waugh, A Little Learning, 1964)

"a building of true originality" and a "key work" of its period

(Roslin Mair, Key Dates in Art History, 1979)

Lutyens' "ecclesiastical masterpiece" and "one of the best twentieth-century church exteriors in England"

(Simon Jenkins, The Companion Guide to Outer London, 1981).

St Jude's is one of [Lutyens'] most successful buildings. It exhibits all his best qualities and even turns that 'naughtiness' or wilful originality which often mars his late buildings into a decided advantage"

(Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: London 4: North, 1998).

"a magnificent Edwardian period piece. . . The tunnel like domed interior contains a wonderful collection of gay furnishings, the wilful naughtiness of which was quite in keeping with the emancipated outlook of the people who lived in the hand-made red brick houses designed by Raymond Unwin, Baillie Scott, . . . and Crickmer - all of whom were then regarded as the last word of fashion. Gorgeous is the best word to use for the painted ornaments and decorations. . . ."

Peter Anson (Fashions in Church Furnishings, 1960)

"[It] broke new ground . . . the repudiation of Gothic is total; there is not a pointed arch in the building. . . . The central tower [rises] above the crossing to be surmounted by a Byzantine spire - majestic, imperious, Elgarian. . . . The interior is quieter but no less impressive. Again the overall style is Byzantine, but it is a modern, western interpretation of Byzantium"

(John Leonard, London's Parish Churches, 1997).

March 2010

Other pictures by Karri Devereux

The War Horse Memorial

St Jude’s has what may have been the first of very few war memorials to horses.

According to the Parish Paper the idea for the memorial seems to have come from the first vicar, the Reverend Basil Bourchier who, as a forces chaplain in the Great War, had seen their suffering.

In 1926 he was offered a bronze of a war-horse moulded by Charles Lutyens (the late father of Sir Edwin Lutyens, the architect of the church) which had been exhibited at the Royal Academy. Largely, it seems, through contributions from the congregation the bronze was purchased and an accompanying plaque and wooden plinth commissioned. The memorial was unveiled on Easter Sunday (April 4) 1926 by Miss Frances Jeffcock during 'Festal Mattins' at 1130am and dedicated by the vicar. (Parish Papers 737, 739, 740).

A.M.D.G./ IN GRATEFUL AND REVERENT/ MEMORY OF THE EMPIRE'S/ HORSES (SOME 375,000) WHO FELL IN/ THE GREAT WAR (1914-1918)/ MOST OBEDIENTLY, AND OFTEN/ MOST PAINFULLY, THEY DIED/ "FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH/ NOT ONE OF THEM IS/ FORGOTTEN BEORE GOD"/ EASTER 1926.

Unfortunately the bronze itself was later stolen and so what we have today (on the wall by the main west door) is the original plaque and a new (1970) bronze relief of a war horse by Rosemary Proctor, daughter of William Maxwell Rennie, the third vicar.

This old photograph shows the original horse on its plinth (designed by Edwin Lutyens) with the plaque attached. The memorial is standing to the left of the St George's altar on the north transept wall. The icon, now at the entrance to the Lady Chapel, is on the left, with the candle stand, now at the back of the church, beneath it. The painting behind the altar has not been identified. The presence of the painting commemorating Michael Rennie in the City of Benares lifeboat helps date the photograph probably to the early 1950s.

Click here for related posts.

The St George's Altar

The St George's altar in the south east aisle.

The Parish Paper of January 2nd 1925 (No 674) briefly mentions a "new Chapel of St George". That of April 30th 1926 (No 743) records "the Festival of St George of England was fittingly observed by a High Service celebrated in the dear little chapel at the West end".

Barbara Britton in her Brief Guide to St Jude's (October 1979) records that the St George's altar stood originally at the 'south east end' of the church until the building of the apse in 1923. This probably means at what is now the entrance to the St John Chapel (opened in 1923) with the east end of the south aisle forming a 'chapel'. The choir vestry at this time was at the west end.

The 'north transept' was occupied from 1923 by the organ (brought from St Jude's, Whitechapel) in a gallery specially designed by Lutyens. The position proved unsatisfactory and it changed places with the St George's altar in 1931.

This old photograph shows the present (but clearly a different) St George's altar on the north transept wall. The original horse memorial stands to the left. There is no sign of the statue of St George. The presence of the painting commemorating Michael Rennie in the City of Benares lifeboat helps date the photograph to after 1942.

50 Years Ago

Half a century ago on 7 May 1961 we celebrated the Golden Jubilee of the Consecration of the Church.. The president and preacher was the Rt Revd Gerald Ellison. Bishop of Chester and later Bishop of London. The Bishop dedicated a bust of the late Revd William Maxwell Rennie (Vicar of St Jude's 1936 - 1954) by his daughter Rosemary, wife of the Charles Proctor the organist. The bust is positioned to the right of the St George's altar beneath the memorial to her brother Michael Rennie who died after rescuing children from the evacuation ship City of Benares which had been sunk as a result of enemy action. The memorial was painted by the church artist Walter Starmer who was present in the congregation on what was probably his last visit to the church.

Mrs Rosemary Proctor with the Bishop and the Vicar

the Revd William Masters.

Click on pictures to enlarge

Ash Wednesday

The Vicar in bleached linen vestments after the morning Ash Wednesday service.

The vestments were given to the church by Fr. John Bunker.

John grew up in Neasden, decided against being evacuated on the City of Benares, and was a server at St Jude's in the early 1950s. He was ordained in 1957 and became curate in charge of St Hilda's, Marden (in Newcastle Diocese) in 1961 when the present vicar of St Jude's was in the Sunday School. Fr John is now retired and lives in Halifax where the vicar visited him in July last year. He has made several gifts to St Jude's.

The main Ash Wednesday service took place at Golders Green Parish Church in the evening.

Michael Rennie Memorial

Jennifer Robertson, Assistant Curator at the Merseyside Maritime Museum, visiting the church today to view the Michael Rennie Memorial in preparation for an online exhibition marking the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the City of Benares later this year. 

City of Benares Memorial Service