Élie Gounelle, protestant chaplain of the Great War ; Élie Gounelle, aumônier protestant de la Grande Guerre

This research paper focuses on Pastor Élie Joël Gounelle and his involvement as a military chaplain in the French army during the First World War. After the death of his son Henri at the front in the summer of 1915, Élie Gounelle, aged 50, decided to join the army as a military chaplain. Assigned to the 29th ID, Chaplain Gounelle followed the troops in the campaign on the North-East front of France. Initially a volunteer chaplain, he was quickly appointed to his position. He spent three years in contact with the soldiers of his division, visiting them constantly, inviting them to the services and conferences he organised and, in the worst cases, presiding over their funerals. As a member of the 29th ID, Gounelle officiated in various sectors such as Verdun and Dunkirk. In the absence of archives of the military chaplaincy of the Great War, this research work is based on the traces left by Élie Gounelle himself. His daily diary, his correspondence and the press articles he published make it possible to retrace 'his' war. The aim of this research work is to try to understand the place and role of a military chaplain in the French army of the First World War. Through the words of the pastor, it is a question here of looking at a representative of a religious minority in an army that had become that of a secular country a few years before the start of the conflict. In an attempt to answer these questions, this research paper is divided into two parts. The first chapter traces the pastor's career before the war, and attempts to expose his environment once he reaches the front. The second part is the transcription of the daily diary kept in the Archives Départementales de l'Hérault, written in the pastor's handwriting during his three years as a chaplain. ; Ce mémoire de recherche est centré sur le pasteur Élie Joël Gounelle et son engagement en tant qu’aumônier militaire au sein des armées françaises pendant la Première Guerre mondiale. Après la mort de son fils Henri au front durant l’été 1915, Élie Gounelle, âgé de ...