Captain Talbert Stevenson MC & Bar

[Tom A McCluskey]

Steve,

Could you possibly determine the exact dates for Captain Stevenson being gazetted for the Military Cross twice? I was hoping to send off a small eulogy to the Virtual Memorial at Ypres/Ieper.

I owe you a couple of beers now

Aye

Tom McC

[Stebie9173]

MC Announcement

LG 1-1-1917

Lt. (temp. Capt.) Talbert Stevenson, R. Highrs.

http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/archiveVi...;selHonourType=

MC Bar announcement

LG 26-11-1917

Lt. (A./Capt.) Talbert Stevenson, M.C., R. Highrs.

(M.C. gazetted 1st January, 1917.)

http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/archiveVi...;selHonourType=

MC Bar Citation

LG 6-4-1918

Awarded a Bar to the Military Cross.

Lt. (A./Capt.) Talbert Stevenson, M.C., R. Highrs.

For conspicuous gall anttry and devotion to duty. He grot the battalion into its assembly position with great skill. On the morning after the attack he made a very valuable reconnaissance, obtaining urgent information under heavy machine gun and rifle fire. His gallantry and courage were most marked.

http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/archiveVi...;selHonourType=

Sec. Lt. to 4th Black Watch:

4th (City of Dundee) Battalion, The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders); the undermentioned Second Lieutenants are absorbed into the establishment. Dated 25th July, 1915:

Talbert Stevenson.

John L. Pullar.

http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/archiveVi...;selHonourType=

Temp. Lieutenant:

LG 4-11-1915

The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders).

Second Lieutenant Talbert Stevenson to be temporary Lieutenant. Dated 8th October,1915.

Serjeant John Cooper Wilson to be Second Lieutenant. Dated 20th October,1915.

http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/archiveVi...;selHonourType=

Temp. Captain:

LG 1-2-1916

The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders).

The undermentioned Lieutenants to be temporary Captains:

Talbert Stevenson. Dated 26th October,1915.

Alexander Watt. Dated 18th December,1915.

George R. Donald. Dated 21st December,1915.

Second Lieutenant Robert C. Cunningham to be temporary Captain. Dated 26th October, 1915.

http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/archiveVi...;selHonourType=

Steve.

[Tom A McCluskey]

Steve,

As ever, a prompt and excellent reply.

Many Thanks!

[Guest Andrew Kirkpatrick]

Dear Mr McCluskey,

I am a relative of Talbert Stevenson (born 3rd May 1895) and was interested to note this posting. I have now registered with the Forum in order to thank you for keeping Talbert's memory alive. I visited his grave last month with my family and noted that the Passchendaele Museum was conducting a research project on all those who fell in the battle.The archivist there was kind enough to give me a copy of your e-mail to him of the 18 August.

Talbert was my grandmother's first cousin. She visited him in hospital after he was wounded in 1916. Talbert could talk of little else but his desire to rejoin his unit as soon as possible.

I have a number of family photographs of him and plan to lodge copies of these with the museum. Talbert was the son of Francis and Margaret Stevenson.(nee Kidd) The family were Stevensons the Dyers with branches throughout Scotland. Francis was a staunch liberal and chairman of the constituency party when Winston Churchill was MP for Dundee.

Talbert's uncle, Dr Alexander Kidd also fought in WWI, served in France with the 3rd Highland Filed ambulance but later commanded the 33rd Stationary Hospital and 36th General Hospital in Serbia. He retreated with the Serbian army over the mountains in the winter of 1915, was honoured by both the Greek and Serbian governments, received the OBE and mentioned five times in despatches.

Talbert's sister, Margaret Philip (nee Stevenson), having lost her brother in WW1, then lost a son in WW11. Talbert Stevenson Philip served in the Royal Artillery and was killed in Normandy in 1944.

Talbert attended Dundee High School, Oundle and what is now Manchester University. He was studying Applied Chemistry there when he answered the call to arms. His name is on the War Memorial at both Manchester Technical College (later UMIST) and at Manchester University. A former vice chancellor of UMIST researched the lives of all the former UMIST students who fell in the Great War and has kindly provided us with full details from the War Diaries at Kew.

Talbert commanded B company, 4th Battalion, the Black Watch. On 1 November, the Battalion was in the Polderhoek section and sustained heavy casulaties from shelling. After withdrawing and resting, the battalion moved to Veirstaat, before relieving the 15 Royal warwickshires at Tor Top Tunnels. The battalion then relieved the 1/6 Cheshire Regiment and moved to the front line on 13 November.

At approximately 12,30 on 14 November, the enemy disabled a Lewis machine gun post, rounded the front line held by C company and thereby exposed B company.

Sadly the war diaries record that Capt and Adj T Stevenson MC and 2nd Lt J Smith were killed by snipers.

I knew some time ago that Talbert's body had been recovered but sadly due to the fighting that Lt Smith body had not. His name is on the Tyne Cot memorial.

However I have now located in my grandmother's papers an original copy of the Court Journal for 30 November 1917. It has a lengthy obituary and sets out with a few inaccuracies, Talbert's military career. It also records letters received from the commanding officer, from the regimental doctor and the regimental chaplain

The chaplain wrote:-

'I have just come from his funeral and perhaps that may serve as the excuse for writing to you at a time when letters may only serve to increase your grief. I am glad to say that we managed to get your boy's body down from the line. It wasn't an easy task, and it is a proof of his popularity with the men of the battalion that was no lack of volunteers to up and bring his body down. He was buried in a British Military cemetery in the village, close to where a brother officer was buried a fortnight ago. There was a large turnout at the funeral : the brigadier was there and representatives from the other battalions in the brigade. The body was carried to the grave by four of the oldest officers. Our pipers played 'Flowers of the Forest' over the grave. The battalion could have suffered no greater loss.'

The family owe such a debt of gratitude to his colleagues for retieving his body after the line had been overrun.

I have kindly been sent iformation from the archivist at Oundle school and I have now photographs of him at Oundle in 1911 and 1912. He served with the OTC there and won the Class firing Cup for shooting. He also appears to have excelled in French, winning a school prize and taking part in two French play productions.

A distant cousin has recently deposited a heavy gilt painting of Talbert with the Black Watch Museum at Dalhousie Castle. There is also a painting in the McManus Gallery in Dundee, featuring the 4th Battalion after the Battle of Neuve Cahppelle. Talbert is the second figure from the left on this.

I am hoping to record all the material that I have and deposit a copy with the Passchendaele Museum. It may be that the Black Watch museum and Talbert's schools and university would also appreciate copies.

If you feel that I should be depositing copies with other institutions, please let me know.

I am unfortunately not a military historian and probably would not know a trench map if I saw one. Would you be able to help me in locating a map showing where the 4th battalion was in the Polderhoek sector on 14 November 1917.

Once again , many thanks for being an advocate for Talbert's memory.

Kind Regards.

Andrew Kirkpatrick.

[Tom A McCluskey]

Andrew,

You have made my day, this is great news . I am interested in researching your relative Talbert, for an ongoing project of mine... it has taken 2 years so far. Wauchope has Talbert wounded at least twice, but from other sources, I reckon he was wounded at least four times.

I know he was a brave and respected officer in the 4th & 4/5th Battalions, The Black Watch, this is well recorded. I have sent some information to the virtual memorial in Belgium, as they had requested information on him. In the limited resources that I have available I have tried to do my best, and I'm really pleased that there was something in the archive for you to see of your relative. In time, I hope to have the men of Dundee and Angus covered in the virtual memorials at Ypres and the Somme.

My detailed research has not got me to 1917 yet, as I am still covering the 4/5th BW at the 39 Division attack at St Pierre Divion (13 November 1916). Once I have detailed maps, I will get back to you.

Again, great news!

Yours Aye

Tom McC

[Tom A McCluskey]

Andrew,

If you feel that I should be depositing copies with other institutions, please let me know.

Other places that may benefit from a copy:

1. Dundee Archives, round the back of the Caird Hall.

2. Possibly the Dundee University Archives.

The painting of the 4th Black Watch after Neuve Chapelle, I have not seen for a few years. The McManus Galleries and Museum (the old Albert Institute) has been closed to the public for a couple of years, at least until the Spring of 2008, but I do believe that fortnightly they conduct tours of the collections facility (Ward Road). There is a small print of the painting in the Great War room at Balhousie Castle - but it is never as good as the real one. I think at one time there was also a great painting of a carrying party of the 4/5th Black Watch during the winter of 1916 in the same gallery, so I am looking forward to it re-opening.

Another terrible affect of the war that you mentioned in your last post was about losing sons in the second world war. G McL Sceales and T D Murray both commanded the 4/5 Black Watch and Sceales lost his son during the war (Argylls) and T D Murray lost both his boys. A tragedy that the generation that fought the last war had to watch their sons go through it all again during the Second World War.

Aye

Tom McC

[Guest Patricia Andrew]

I'm adding information about Talbert Stevenson some 7 years after the previous correspondence, having just upgraded to a new laptop which enables me to access everything easily, and having learnt rather more about e-things generally!

You may already know the reference, but information just in case it's new. In my book, A Chasm in Time: Scottish War Art and Artists in the Twentieth Century (pub. by Birlinn, Edinburgh, in November 2014), I've included an image of the posthumous portrait of Talbert Stevenson by van Anrooy, which hangs in The Black Watch Museum. I've also mentioned that he features in Joseph Gray's After Neuve Chapelle.

You might also like to know that my book includes a note thanking 'Mike Taylor and members of the Great War Forum' for assistance in elucidating a technical feature of another (unrelated) painting.

I've given a number of lectures on war art over the past year, at museums and galleries (People's Palace in Galsgow, and a series at the National Gallery of Scotland) and various societies and groups. I'm still at it, in fact tomorrow (30th August) I'm speaking about the 'how, why and what' of writing the book at the Edinburgh International Book Festival - https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/patricia-r-andrew

and next week talking about 'Scottish War Art and Artists of the First World War' at the Rozelle House gallery in Ayr. More after that too.

It's all thrown up a great deal of new information, and I'm publishing papers which expand on some passages in the book. In the Journal of the Scottish Society for Art History last year --'Scottish War Art and Artists of the Twentieth Century: Why So Neglected?'. And in the same Journal this year (due out November) an article that includes Talbert Stevenson again: ' "A Living Presentment": The Artistic Challenge of Posthumous Portraiture'

Patricia Andrew

[clk]

Talbert was awarded his Bar as a consequence of his actions "E. of Ypres 26-9-17 - 27-9-17" See p207 of 320 of WO 389/5

Regards

Chris