[13] As Bishop of Rochester, Harper presided over a diocese which by ‘its geographical position and its naval and military importance’, was at the forefront of the Great War.

[14] He blamed German philosophers and Prussian militarism for the War, and spoke of Britain’s determination to protect ‘the sanctity of treaties, the liberty of the smaller nations, and the cause of the weak, the downtrodden and the non-combatants’.

[16] Under Harmer’s leadership, the diocese encouraged voluntary recruitment to the forces, praised clergy, clergy families and ex-pupils of church schools for their commitment to the War, provided support including leisure facilities and billets for soldiers and sailors stationed in the area and for women working in munitions factories and gave care and comfort to casualties and their families.

[17] Writing in an unpublished autobiography [18] just before his death, Harmer recalled the casualties from the sinking of 3 ships from Chatham one day in September 1914 resulting in one street in Gillingham having 30 widows.

‘Indeed, difficult as it may be to credit, the firing was at certain times as audible as the thud of the football from the field opposite our house where the soldiers were at their games.’ During the War, Harmer ‘threw open his house with real enjoyment to every rank of soldier and sailor.’ [19] He was an active English and Australian Freemason, initiated in St Alban's Lodge in Adelaide, and later transferring his membership to England.