Charles Harold Mawson (1898-1917), known as “Charlie”, was the eldest son of the evangelist, author and editor of Scripture Truth, John Thomas Mawson (1871-1943). His younger sister, later Mrs Alice Chambers (1900-1995), was well-known as a speaker at Christian women’s meetings and author of several books.
These extracts from his diary and letters clearly show he shared his father’s evangelistic fervour and the family talent for writing. But God had other plans for him. Less than a year after being called up to active service in the Household Battalion of the British Army during the First World War, he was killed by shell fire at the 1st battle of Passchendaele. He was 19 years old.
“I bless God for this splendid young life, filled and used, first in peace, then in the fiery crucible of soldier-life, not by any vague ‘new thought’, nor worship of mere manhood, but by the old and unchangeable Gospel of the Grace of God in Christ” — Handley Moule (May, 1918)
Today, in more peaceful times, his writing still challenges the sincerity of our Christian faith.
