The Padre

Percy Maddox was a Vancouver librarian.

War letters and diaries have a perennial interest, and there seems to be no end to them. The present work is a memorial volume to the Presbyterian minister David Parsons Rowland, who was born in Ireland in 1908, came to Canada in early adulthood, went to war, and then returned to his congregation in Toronto, dying in 1965.

The Padre, by Barry D. Rowland, son of the minister, is an attractive volume, with two photograph sections at the end and also a bibliography. It is comprised chiefly of excerpts from letters and/or diaries of the chaplain as he went to the war, first crossing to England and then going to Italy and Holland. Unfortunately, we are not given an explanation of the organization of the book, but we can detect when certain portions were written by “the padre” and when they were written by others.

Rowland went overseas as chaplain to the Irish Regiment of Canada and had the opportunity of revisiting Ireland while he was there. His experiences as related in the dated excerpts are extremely interesting and his style of writing is quite lively, although sometimes his spelling seems a bit off. His writing is cheerful and exhilarating. In fact, the entire tone of the book is inspirational.

After Rowland’s diaries and letters come anonymous testimonials to him, from soldiers and others, followed by a brief history of the Irish Regiment of Canada, which came into existence in 1915.

The Padre is a stimulating and enjoyable book, with many bits of information.