On a Sunday morning in June 1944 the Guards Chapel was hit by a flying bomb during Matins. The whole building was destroyed, except the apse, and 121 people died.
Yesterday morning I went to Holy Communion there and, if a bomb had fallen, about half that number of us would have been killed. London is supposed to have the highest proportion of church goers in the country but the Guards Chapel was not very well attended, even on Easter Sunday. On Easter Day in 1983 I was in Boston, Massachusetts, and tried to attend an Anglican service. The church was completely full and I had to abandon my plan. I wonder if that central Boston church was as packed yesterday? I imagine so.
The Guards Chapel was rebuilt and opened in 1963. I first went there in 1968 for the marriage of my brother and sister-in-law. I remember being surprised by the modern architecture which at the time grated. Nearly fifty years later I have come to admire it. It claims to be the only military chapel in London, something I dispute as the Royal Hospital in Chelsea can legitimately be described as a military chapel and there may be others. However, it can lay claim to be the only chapel in London with an armoured car parked outside.
The Band of the Grenadier Guards played yesterday. Their outgoing Voluntary was, appropriately, First Guards by Arthur Bliss. The music for the communion service was Louis Vierne’s, Messe Solennelle. I suspect, unless you play the organ, you will not have heard of him. He was born in France, in1870, with such bad cataracts that he was almost completely blind. From an early age his musical ability was obvious, however, his life held other vicissitudes besides his blindness: he lost a brother and a son in the First World War, his wife left him and he broke a leg in a street accident that nearly led to his leg being amputated (a disaster for an organist). Nevertheless he was appointed principal organist at Notre-Dame de Paris, composed works for the organ and had pupils, many of whom went on to be well known, although the only one I’ve heard of is Marcel Dupré. He died while giving a recital on the organ at Notre-Dame in 1937.
Now, “stand by your beds!”