World War 1, Europe, RILEY, Chaplains, 1917

In 1894 Riley was appointed Bishop of Perth, then the largest Anglican diocese in the world, with an area of 1,000,000 square miles (2,600,000 km2) and a scattered population of about 100,000. He was consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury at Westminster Abbey on 18 October 1894. In 1916 Archbishop Riley was appointed Anglican chaplain general of the Australian Imperial Force, having been senior chaplain to the Western Australian Defence Force from 1895. He sought to expand the Anglican chaplaincy corps, but his plan for one chaplain to every troopship failed. Riley toured the UK, France & Egypt for 3½ months in late 1916 early 1917 enquiring into the administration of each theatre's Chaplain's Dept, returning to Australia in February 1917On the return voyage his troopship Ivernia was torpedoed amidships in the Mediterranean, resulting in 130 deaths. Riley lost everything but the clothes he wore ferrying a lifeboat of fifty survivors to a trawler. The tour resulted in the appointment of fifteen more chaplains. It also strengthened his view of conscription, which he supported publicly on the eve of the plebiscites in 1916 and 1917. After the war, though offered the presidency, he became patron of the State branch of the Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia. He frequently appeared with Lietenant General Talbot Hobbs and Rabbi Freedman, RSL State President, at the dedication of community memorials to the Australian imperial Force.