The wartime 'mixed community': British religious responses to the service of military animals, 1914-39

Humans can forget that they inhabit what the philosopher Mary Midgley called ‘mixed communities’. Nonetheless, at times of crisis and during periods of shared suffering, such as wars, our community with non-human animals becomes difficult to ignore. At such times, people have pressed churches – institutions that have traditionally emphasized the distance between humans and non-humans – to give fuller recognition in prayer and worship to human-animal relationships. This article examines this phenomenon through a study of Britain in the First World War. During this conflict and afterwards, the religious public asked the Christian churches to recognize the service of military animals through prayers, memorials and ceremonies. The article argues, and explains why, Britain’s national churches struggled to accommodate requests to recognize the wartime mixed community. By exploring the churches’ awkward relationship with military animals, the article explains why prayers and rituals involving animals and animal themes have occurred at the margins of institutional religion.