Cardinal Bourne visits Irish troops at the front, 1917

Official photograph by J Warwick, 1917.

On 27 October 1917 Cardinal Francis Bourne, Catholic Archbishop of Westminster and Head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, visited the 16th (Irish) Division at Ervillers on the Western Front. Here he met the regimental chaplains outside a barn which had been converted into a Catholic Church. He then inspected and addressed the men of 48th Brigade.