Welcome to new Padre for 1 Rifles

Captain Jonathan Hyde spent 30 years in the police force

Jonathan Hyde has had a varied career.

After thirty years in the Metropolitan Police Force he became a minister in the United Reform Church.

While serving as a minister Jonathan discovered that there was a shortage of Padres in the army so joined the Territorial Army.

Within a week of finishing his training with the TA Jonathan volunteered to go to Iraq which he found to be one of the most exhilarating times of his life.

"I found it a tremendous privilege to be with the soldiers, I think it is probably the most worthwhile time I've had in my life", he said.

Jonathan has recently been appointed as the Padre to 1st Battalion The Rifles, based in the Forest of Dean - a job that is varied. But Jonathan is clear what his responsibilities are:

"I see my job, first and foremost, as looking after the soldiers. It could be talking to them about problems they may have in their relationships, with child issues, and then you can also have the more serious ones that involve illness and death. It is literally being with them on the journey".

"One of the things that has had a big influence on them is the support they have had from members of the pblic" Captain Jonathan Hyde

But how do the troops respond to Jonathan the Padre?

"It is very much down to how you ingratiate yourself with them, if you can try and make yourself approachable, feeling free and confident to talk you can get a great deal out of it. It is about being with them the whole time."

At some time in the future Jonathan along with the rest of the Battalion will undertake an operational tour in Afghanistan, but will relationships change when they are on the battlefield together? Jonathan thinks not:

"It will be carrying on the same sort of work of counselling and pastoral care, you can just sit down with the troops with a cup of tea and talk about things which can put things in a different perspective."

With Remembrance Day approaching Captain Jonathan Hyde will be sharing those precious moments of remembering for the first time with 1st Battalion The Rifles, the troops he is called to share with and care for.