A VETERAN broadcaster is to help launch a book commemorating the life of an Army chaplain severely wounded during the First World War.

BBC News editor Hugh Pym will be guest at the Newcastle launch of The Half-Shilling Curate. A Personal Account of War and Faith 1914-18, chronicling the life of Durham Light Infantry chaplain The Reverend Herbert Butler Cowl.

The book, released on October 27, has been written by his granddaughter, Sarah Reay, from Northumberland.

The Methodist minister volunteered at Christmas 1914 and was assigned to the DLI in France, where he was wounded by shrapnel in the trenches in November 1915.

Mrs Reay said: “He ventured to the killing fields of the Western Front armed only with his faith.

‘His service was cut short when he was severely wounded during a heavy bombardment at the front line”.

On his way home, the hospital ship Anglia hit a German mine in the English Channel and sank in 15 minutes with the loss of 130 lives. During the evacuation, the injured padre gave his lifebelt to a more seriously wounded man and was later awarded the Military Cross.

He survived the war and eventually died in 1971.

As a self-taught historian, Mrs Reay used personal family papers to painstakingly research her grandfather’s role in the Great War, taking to the skies in a Tiger Moth and visiting Western Front battlefields.

She said: “A spiritual man to the end of his life, this story of one man’s faith during war has a universal message, which is as relevant today as it was back then.

“I am immensely proud of my grandfather’s story, and to have been able to pay tribute to him in my book.”