Remembering Lord Guthrie

Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank / Charles Guthrie / 'Gold Stick' / Field Marshal Guthrie, with whatever title, the man has been a hidden part of the CMA from the very beginning.

On the evening of his funeral I am at last explaining it all in writing. When I first met Lord Guthrie, I was a scrawny, sleep-deprived Trooper of the Life Guards, turning out a horse for him in the early hours at Hyde Park Barracks. I really had no idea who he was. Just another very senior officer in need of a horse groomed, tacked up and led up to the mounting blocks. He was unfussy though, straightforward, and a decent horseman.

A few months later, I bumped into him at a Remembrance Day event at the Guards Chapel and we got chatting. He was interested to hear about life in the troops, about my hopes, my interest in getting away on operations, my young family at home. I asked about an unusual medal of his, plain bright yellow, and he said it was "for some fun times in the South Pacific".

Then, quite a bit later, we crossed paths at Westminster Cathedral and I plucked up the courage to ask if he was Catholic. He said that he was. We chatted some more, and I recounted an experience I'd had in Phase 1 where I'd asked the padre if I could get to Confession and Mass, maybe just once, during the training. This well-meaning but rather superior Baptist had responded "Don't worry, you don't need these things. You see, your sins are already forgiven." and encouraged me to be content with his services on camp. Lord Guthrie and I agreed that the padre would never have taken such liberties if I'd been wearing a kippah or a turban!

Fast forward: Afghan dries up, HCR stop deploying, I grow restless and dissatisfied with ceremonial duties and the likelihood of a career of exercises ahead, and manage to pass AOSB and get to Sandhurst. Good. New opportunities, including setting up - please God - some sort of society to help Catholics to practice their faith in HM Forces. To help soldiers in the position I'd been in, and to help more widely too.

Someone better-connected than I was managed to get me Lord Guthrie's postal address, so I wrote, and he responded, and we agreed the first of several meetings.

At his place in London, very close to Westminster Cathedral, he listened patiently to this gauche and energetic Second Lieutenant, and my idealistic plans for an association of Catholics for the Armed Forces. I was still half a Trooper, freshly minted as a 2Lt, one of the crowest officers in the British Army, and he'd done troop and squadron command in 22 SAS, and gone on to command the Welsh Guards, 4 Bde, 2 Div, British Army, and HM Armed Forces, becoming our only Field Marshal at that time.

But he listened carefully, he agreed on the requirement and the intent, and he gave good counsel.

His advice has guided me ever since, and it has kept the CMA true:

• Focus above all on the soldiers. Officers can usually get themselves away to Mass and the Sacraments, but soldiers often cannot.

• Do not get drawn into Church politics, or Army politics, just play it all straight and keep your integrity as a group.

• Make it truly worthy. If you're going to do this, do it well, don't compromise on the spiritual foundations.

At a subsequent meeting, I asked if he would consider becoming a President or a Patron of our little group. He agreed to, saying "I definitely wouldn't rule it out!" and saying to offer him the role as soon as we are approved by the Bishop.

So, we gathered some other Catholics, and we planned and executed, and built on the principles, and within a year of our last discussion we formally established in April 2018 as the Military Association of Our Lady of Victories.

Unfortunately, the Bishopric was vacant, and it would take us until 2020 before we were approved, by which time Lord Guthrie had retired from the House of Lords and begun (justifiably!) to wind down his extracurricular duties to settle into full retirement. The Trustees wrote to him in gratitude for his excellent counsel, and gifted him one of our earliest CMA rosaries, but decided it would be unfair to ask him to become President. This decision was vindicated when he lost his wife and his brother in 2022. We had a Mass offered for each of them. As we now have one said for him.

Simply, the man was a legend, and his good counsel (and, we assume, at least a prayer or two) have set us on the path to where we are now: 400+ members spanning SF, subs, space and everyone in between, a healthy drumbeat of activities and devotions through the year, and above all a community of solidarity and prayer. For this, I thank him.

We pray for the repose of his soul.

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“Obviously, the Church does an awful lot of good, looking after the poor and the sick,” said Lord Guthrie, “But that wasn’t the reason. It was more of the spiritual side which drew me to the Church, and l look upon the work that people do as rather an extra, really." “You can’t become a Catholic because there are a lot of poor people sleeping outside Westminster Cathedral. You’ve got to have a better reason than that.”