Francis Lyon Cohen

Francis Lyon Cohen VD (14 November 1862 – 26 April 1934) was an English Orthodox rabbi, author and expert on Hebrew music, being the music editor of The Jewish Encyclopedia (1901–06). The Jewish Lads' Brigade was his brainchild. He was the first Jewish chaplain in the British Army, a position he held from 1892 to 1904 when he was succeeded by Rev Michael Adler. Cohen ended his career as Chief Minister of the Great Synagogue in Sydney, Australia.

Early years Cohen was born above the family shop on the High Street in Aldershot in Hampshire in 1862, the eldest son of Russian-born and naturalised-British subject Woolf Henry Cohen, marine store dealer, pawnbroker and later a tobacco manufacturer, and his Polish-born wife Harriett, née Phillips, the daughter of Aldershot businessman Moses Phillips, a watchmaker and jeweller. Cohen was educated at Jews' College and University College London, which he left without completing his degree. Cohen became minister of the congregation in South Hackney (1883-1885), then of that in Dublin (1885–86), and from 1886 officiated at the Borough New Synagogue, London. and with her had three children: Harold Reuben Cohen, Basil H Cohen and Dulcie M Cohen.

In 1886 he was appointed a tutor in Jews' College; in 1892 he became acting chaplain to the Jews in the British army; and in 1896 staff chaplain to the Jewish Lads' Brigade, the formation of which he was the first to advocate. He has also acted as editor to the choir committee of the United Synagogue. Cohen organized military services on Ḥanukkah at his own and other synagogues, and altogether did much to promote the patriotic and military ardour of English Jews. Under his own name and the nom de plume Asaph Klesmer he wrote articles in the Jewish press and for the commemorative volume of the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition (1887) and the Jewish Historical Society of England (1894).

Military chaplain (1892–1904)

Jews were only recognised in the British Army as a distinct religious group from 1889. The Visitation Committee of the United Synagogue were responsible for the religious welfare and spiritual needs of Jews in public bodies and it decided to include serving members of the British Forces in its remit and applied to the War Office for the appointment of a Jewish military chaplain. This request was granted in 1892 when Cohen, then the minister of the Borough Synagogue, became the first Jewish chaplain to the British Army; following this Lord Rothschild gave him a letter of introduction to General Sir Evelyn Wood, who was in charge of the Camp at Aldershot and who appointed Cohen as chaplain to Jewish troops at Aldershot.

Having been born and brought up in Aldershot at a time when the town was rapidly growing due to the arrival of the British Army Cohen was already very familiar with military life. At first the duties of the Jewish chaplain were part-time and in December 1893 Cohen initiated an annual Hanukkah military service, holding the first in his own Borough Synagogue; by the time of the Boer War these were attended by the Lord Mayor of London, the Aldermen of London and the Chief Rabbi. He also attended summer camps on Salisbury Plain where he conducted services for Jewish soldiers, later involving senior students of Jews’ College in helping to conduct these services, which were eventually transferred to Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. Cohen wrote a letter to The Jewish Chronicle publicising these services and asking Jewish servicemen and their relatives to contact him and declare their religion. At the same time, in an attempt to quell allegations that Jews were not patriotic, Cohen launched a campaign to encourage Jews to enlist in the army and navy, believing that only through joining the forces could the Jewish community prove its loyalty to Britain.

Eventually Cohen gained the necessary rabbinical qualifications and on settling in Sydney in 1905 with his family he was the first and, for most of his ministry, the only minister in Sydney with semikhah. The Jewish population of Sydney was about 4,000, with about 700 regularly attending the Great Synagogue. Cohen was opposed to Zionism and, despite the origins of his own parents, to Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe. and as "A tireless promoter of the model 'Anglo-Jewish gentleman', one proudly loyal to his ancestral religion yet fully and patriotically integrated into wider society..." His wife Rose, who had been very involved in the Jewish community in Sydney, died the same year. They were survived by a daughter, and by two sons who served overseas during the First World War with the Australian Imperial Force.