Frank Henri Christol

Frank Henri Christol

Rev. Frank Henri Christol
File:Christol, Frank Henri.jpg
Born	1884
Died	1979
Residence	Eglise Protestante Francaise de Londres, 8 and 9 Soho Square, W1
Occupation	church
Society Membership membership ordinary fellow elected_AI 1932.01.26

Notes

House Notes

1931.12.15 proposed by L.W.G. Malcolm, seconded by E.W. Smith

Notes From Elsewhere

Frank Henri Christol , born on July 21 , 1884 in Hermon , South Africa , died on November 30 , 1979 in Paris , is a French Protestant pastor and military chaplain .
Frank Christol spent two years at the front during the First World War . He is a pastor at Vabre ( Tarn ), then at the Zambezi for three years and in Cameroon for twelve years. From 1928 to 1952 he was the pastor of the French Protestant Church in London .
On June 7, 1940, the government of the Third Republic appointed him Protestant chaplain of French soldiers in England [ ref. desired] . He works with the surviving soldiers of Dunkirk and those who come back from Narvik . From the time of the armistice , Christol and the consistory of his Church rallied to the continuation of the military struggle around Charles de Gaulle . The Free French Forces (FFL) offer Christol's first service offering. A Roman Catholic chaplain even claims that there are no Protestants in the FFL. The pastor returned to the charge and met the general for the first time on December 27, 1940. De Gaulle appointed him chaplain-captain in the FFL on May 5, 1941 1 .

Maurice Schumann asks Frank Christol to make a first radio intervention on October 21, 1940. During the war, several programs The Protestant Chaplain of the Free French Forces addresses his co-religionists are broadcast. (During one of them, the presenter announces distractedly "Pastor Christol speaks to you" , which causes an investigation of the Germans with the members of his family remained in France 2 .)

Frank Christol created the Resist badge for French Protestants in London and FFL. This insignia mixes on a French flag background the Tower of Constance and the Huguenot cross at the cross of Lorraine .

During the war, the French Protestant Church in London transformed its monthly publication, Le Lien , into a publication for Protestants engaged in the FFL. The badge created by the pastor is used in the header. A subtitle Protestant organ of fighting France and the motto of Theodore de Beze , More to hit me we have fun, so many more hammers we use , are added. Frank Christol recounts his activities and those of other Protestants in London, spreads sermons and urges members of FFL 4 . In The Link are published in particular the theses of Pomeyrol , a poem by Theodore Monod and preaching by André Philip and Roland de Pury 5 .

The pastor takes part in exchanges with English Protestant churches and their members. In the summer of 1941, an Anglo-French Christian Christian Fellowship was established at the temple of the French Protestant Church in Soho Square, London, and includes British, French, Belgian and Swiss members. This association remains active until the 1970s 6 . In 1942 Frank Christol was invited to address the Scottish Reformers at the Edinburgh Church of Scotland General Assembly 7 .

In summer 1943 is founded the French Protestant Committee, also based in the temple of Soho Square and whose idea Christol had the idea several months before "to take care of the help to bring to the churches of France at the time of the liberation of the territory 8 . He is vice-president while André Philip and André Jaulmes are respectively president and treasurer. Among the members are Professor Edmond Vermeil and several officers, including Commander Jacques-Henri Schloesing 9 .

His son Jean-Claude, sergeant-maquisard of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI), was killed June 18, 1944 in the Yonne

Publications

External Publications

1935: In the shadow of an ox car: some childhood memories .
1946: As in the days of our fathers (as publisher, collection of Protestant memories of free France).
1977: Some memories of war, 1939-1946 .

Related Material Details

Other Material

Smithsonian: photos