DONAGHCLONEY PARISH NEWSLETTER || NOVEMBER 2017
A VERY PRESENT HELP
“Defend Malta at all costs.” This was no easy order for any British
commanding officer in 1940, but for General William Dobbie,
(the new Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the island),
this was the severest challenge of his life.
Within weeks of his arrival, Hitler had taken much of Western Europe, and this little island in the Mediterranean Sea was to act as an unsinkable aircraft carrier. For from this little rock, the British had the potential to ruin the enemy’s supply route. So much so that in 1942, 3 immense air raids were carried out each day.
Churchill said of him, that he was “a Governor of outstanding character, who inspired all ranks and classes, military and civil, with his determination; a Cromwellian figure at the key point… fighting with his Bible in one hand and his sword in the other.”
Lt.Gen. Sir William Dobbie, GCMG, KCB, DSO, was born in India in 1879 into a loving Christian family, which was to have a great influence on his life. He had a conversion experience while at Charterhouse School. On the first Sunday in November 1893, when he was fourteen, he felt “that things were not right between God and him” and that he was unfit to stand in his sight.” He was later to write that “…Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this world for the express purpose of giving his life that he might bear, and pay the penalty of my sin so that I might go free. That night I accepted the Lord Jesus as my Saviour, my Companion, and my God - just by myself - there was no one else in the room. That was the turning point of my life. The past, bad though it was in God’s sight, was blotted out; Christ’s presence and help were promised for the present, and the future was assured. I thank God more than I can say for that wonderful event in November 1893.”
He first became a soldier in 1897, and 2 years later was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers. His first public duty was to be part of the guard at Queen Victoria’s funeral in 1901.
After the Boer War, and several military postings, he decided to take the entrance exam for the British Army’s Staff College at Camberley, with his graduation coinciding with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. He did not talk much about his work, only to say that he ended WWI. By that he meant that he was the officer on duty at British GHQ when news of the armistice was received.
Military historians today are astonished that during WWII that Mussolini and Hitler failed to invade Malta, instead of trying to bomb it into submission. Both of the dictators had pre-arranged plans but never implemented them. Dobbie put it down to God’s restraining hand.
In April 1942, while Dobbie was still Governor, King George VI awarded Malta the George Cross. This was the first of only two occasions in British history that an entire community has been honoured for valour, (the other being the Royal Ulster Constabulary).
As the 2,300th air raid hit Malta on 7th May 1942, Dobbie was taken on the flying boat that brought in the next Governor.
This wonderful ambassador for Christ, went to be with his Lord at the age of 85 on 3 October 1964. He summed up the testimony of his life in these words, “Vital and uninterrupted contact with our Heavenly Father, is the most wonderful thing in the world.”
I would like each one of our parishioners to ponder his words.
Here is a man whose faith preserved through war and danger; through fame and success; through bereavement and old age. That contact with God, rooted in Scripture, was never broken.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 8:38-39)
Yours in Christ,
Bryan