Gilbert Walter Lyttelton Talbot

[marina]

Sorry for interrupting, Andy, but I coudn't resist this one. It's AP Herbert again, in comic mode. I think this officer is the same one who gave instructions to our Shrewsbury schoolmaster on maps and compasses without having either of said items. Or perhaps it's Hugh Butterworth the day the sergeant told him to lead the way in spite of his protestations that he didn't know it 'because the men would tyhnk he knew it'.

(that wasHugh, wasn't it?)

"The Lost Leader".

AP Herbert

The men are marching like the best;

The waggons wind across the lea;

At ten to two we have a rest,

We have a rest at ten to three;

I ride ahead upon my gee

And try to look serene and gay;

The whole battalion follows me

And I believe I've lost the way.

Full many a high-class thoroughfare

My erring map does not disclose,

While roads that are not really there

The same elaborately shows;

And whether this is one of those

It needs a clever man to say;

I am not clever, I suppose.

And I believe I've lost the way.

The soldiers sing about their beer;

The wretched road goes on and on;

There ought to be a turning here,

But if there was, the thing has gone.

Like some depressed automaton

I ask at each estaminet;

They say, "Tout droit" and I say "Bon".

But I believe I've lost the way.

I dare not tell the trustful men;

They think me wonderful and wise;

But where will be the legend when

They get a shock of such a size?

And what about our brave Allies?

They wanted us to fight today;

We were to be a big surprise -

And I believe I've lost the way.

[stiletto_33853]

Marina,

You interrupt away.

Andy

[stiletto_33853]

I think as the years went on he had hopes of being able to go into business, in a way which involved looking after employees, and that this might have been compatible with getting into Parliament while still young.

Both he and Oliver Lyttelton had always contemplated going to the Bar, and Gilbert was eating his dinners during his time at Oxford. He greatly enjoyed acting as Marshal to Sir Walter Phillimore and to Sir Charles Darling, and entered keenly into various criminal cases, often going into Court.

I think the definite, and, until the War was over, the unquestioned rightness of his serving in the army produced a feeling of quiet and satisfaction which made his soldier's life very happy, though his ultimate choice of a profession was but postponed. The combination of having to earn his ow way in the world, and the intense desire to serve his country in the House of Commons and in working with kindred spirits for the betterment of England, was never long absent from his mind.

[joseph]

From a letter to The East Yorkshire Regimental Journal

1st Battalion EYR

In front of the trenches taken over by the Battalion early in the month, were a large number of unburied bodies of poor fellows who had fallen during the move backward of the British line on the 31st July (1915).

It was sheer madness to attempt to recover the bodies, or to attempt to give them decent burial on the spot, but a dash out and a hurried search of a body, here and there, for pay-book or identity disc was frequently made, and quite a number of the poor fellows' names were thus officially removed from those awful rolls of " missing " or " wounded and missing."

On the evening of the 8th (Aug 1915), Captain the Rev Neville Talbot, chaplain 3rd Rifle Brigade, appeared at the wood and held conversation with the Adjutant (Lieutenant Willis).

Captain Talbot's brother, Lieutenant Gilbert Talbot, of the 7th Battalion Rifle Brigade, had been killed during the retirement on the 31st July, and his body was still lying out in front. Captain Talbot was most anxious to recover the corpse, if it were at all possible.

Lieut. Willis at once went out to the front of the line held by our "A" company and, after a search amongst the many bodies lying around, located one which proved to be that of the deceased officer.

It will be appreciated this was no easy task when, in addition to the enemy's riflemen and shells, it is considered the length of time the remains of the poor fellows had been lying unburied and the ghastly sight of bodies which had been mutilated by shells fired at the spot during the days subsequent to the falling back of the line.

Returning to the cover of the trenches, Lieut. Willis asked for men to go and bring the body in. All the N.C.O.’s and men in the vicinity immediately volunteered to go, but this was both unnecessary and undesirable. Six of their number were chosen and they immediately proceeded over the parapet to accomplish what was required of them.

It was not the work of a moment, but regardless of personal safety they set about their task with a will which appeared to defy with success the Goddess of bad luck. Bullets flying round about and an awful stench pervading the atmosphere did not seem to affect them in the least, and eventually the party returned to cover carrying their sad burden on an old damaged stretcher.

The late Lieut Gilbert Talbot was laid to rest with solemn reverence in the presence of those who had so gallantly brought him back.

Sgt. Sheppard, L/Cpl. Barnes, Ptes. Throp, Davis, Brennan and Slack, the six who had bean selected from the many volunteers in this episode are to be congratulated on the successful issue of their praiseworthy efforts.

Sergt Sheppard has received the following letter from the Bishop of Winchester, the father of the late Lieut. Gilbert Talbot:—

Farnham Castle,

Surrey,

Aug. 20, 1915

Sergeant Sheppard,

Mrs Talbot and I have heard from our son, Neville Talbot, what you and your comrades did for him in helping him to recover and bury the body of his brother, our dear youngest son Lieutenant Gilbert Talbot. We know that this was done at some risk and at considerable labour, at a time when you were all pretty well done up. We are deeply grateful to you for what you did. May the Lord, who knows all and sees all, reward you for it! For myself, I wish to express particular thanks for the relief and peace which the news of the quiet burial brought to his mother. We should be most grateful if you can express this to the others.

We hardly know how to give you any sign of the sincerity of our feelings, but we have had a little box of "Woodbine" cigarettes addressed to each man, which we hope may reach you safely, and give some pleasure in this most weary and anxious time.

It has been a deep pleasure to me to know how much he cared for the spiritual welfare of his men. I found in his pocket book a list, most neatly written, of those of the platoon who had fallen in battle, evidently, I think, intended as a reminder to pray for them.

If, when we have passed to "the other side,'' we see how God, through this terrible war, has stirred men to be more true, and faithful, and believing, we shall understand, as we cannot do now, how it has been for good,

Yours very truly,

Edw: WISTON.

A much loved young man.

Regards Charles

[stiletto_33853]

Joseph,

Thanks for those snippets, they are included in the book as it reaches the War and the 30/7/15.

Andy

[stiletto_33853]

Gilbert's great love of his home has been mentioned more than once. One feature of this was his delight in long talks with his father - for whom he had an extreme veneration - lasting, it must be said, into uncouth hours of the morning.

His visits to his sister May at Repton and Harrow were, too, great pleasures to him. Her small boys he thought "adorable," and he had endless fun with them at Harrow and Farnham. May writes:

I delighted in his visits here. He used to arrive (preceeded often by a telephone message) full to the hilt of plans and wishes, and more than prepared to make of "The Headmasters" that pied-a-terre for London which we accused him of making it. We used to chaff him about this, as the latchkey was pressed into his hand, and we knew that he would arrive home in the early hours after the Play, and go off to London next morning after a late breakfast.

He always arrived brimful of affection and chaff - a real interest in one's life - and he was very appreciative of the like in return.

I have a vivid recollection of the dinner I had with him and two friends, in the garden of 8, Long Wall Street, on the last Saturday evening of his last Term at Oxford. He was so eagerly pleased at the dinner - which was "just so" - being laid out in that fascinating little garden; he was so eagerly happy at being host - so good a master of the ceremonies. He did not let me go without getting some music out of me, and so rounding off the evening - to fill the situation out of its limit was what he was out for, always.

[stiletto_33853]

For Loinel Ford he had the greatest admiration for his work as Headmaster, entering with quick intuition into his problems and methods. Lionel writes of him:

.......His conversational powers were extraordinarily brilliant. No one could describe a scene more picturesquely - not a point omitted or forgotten, not a touch of the humrous side of things missed. He loved to state a case step by step, almost as a leading counsel might develop his brief in an action at law, and I used to wonder at the mental processes by which he reached such easy mastery of the facts and such lucid marshalling of them in an impromtu speech. He was quick to counter interruptions with telling repartee; would flare up suddenly if contradicted too flatly, but never failed to appreciate friendly chaff.

We saw glimpses of him at Harrow during the year of his service training. He never pretended that he liked soldiering, or that he did not long for the war to end before his time came to be called to the front. But when it was clear he must go, there was no sort of repining or turning back, though he realized quite plainly the whole of the risk involved, and occasionally talked about it quite without reserve. I think what he dreaded was not death so much as a mutilated life; that would have been very hard for him to face, with his full bloodied activity and his intense joie-de-vivre. I sometimes said to him that I thought his life's motto had always been "Let me taste the whole of it," and he did not disagree. He has tasted the whole now, and not flinched from the last measure of devotion, which I am sure he had faced out in advance. I remember well one evening in my study at Harrow, when the conversation had drifted rather near the thought of that possibility, how suddenly he started out of his armchair and for a minute or two paced the room in silence, with a look in his face that the deep waters "had gone over his soul." We spoke no more till the tide was past, and then only on trivialities, but I never felt quite so near to him in tenderness and sympathy as in those moments, when I knew he was facing his Gethsemane, and I just dumbly writing by his side.

[stiletto_33853]

From Lady Gwendolen Cecil

The Lodge House, Hatfield.

.........I am thinking of the dear boy during the time (autumn of '11) that he spent here during the time you were in America - especially a long talk walking up and down in the garden, while he spoke of his ideals of manly purity and knightliness - so fierce in his scorn of the low standards that he had met with - so anxious to assert the higher and do battle for the right: so young - and so superior in his youth to one's own cold, middle-aged acquiescence in what was....... He sought for some high service and he has been called to the highest......

____________________________________________________________________

I have found Gilbert's letters several times a sort of questioning with himself on the great subject subject of self-sacrifice, and the offering of even life for one greatly loved. I think the following extracts have a pecuiar significance in the light of what was to come.

[stiletto_33853]

To a Friend

Farnham. July 12, '12

I spent last Sunday here, alone with Mother and a very attractive cousin, Bertram Talbot, whom I'm fonder of, I think, than any of my relations.

........I've always wondered whether I could give up my life for somebody else's. I suppose if one really acted ideally one ought always to let others be saved before oneself. Whether one would do it or not is another matter, as on the "Titanic." But I don't think that is the real test. The real test would be in some sudden moment of danger or crisis when there was no time to think, and what one did would be by instinct only. I mean if one saw a blow about to fall on someone which would kill them, whether one would save them by putting one's own body in the way. At such a moment I think only real love would make one do it - the instinct of perfect love in which one's own individual self is eclipsed by the person loved. I can easily imagine the situation in which it would be no effort to me to throw away my own life. I've always felt the Browning touched an extraordinarily true note when he makes Pompilia say in "The Ring and the Book," as she lies dying:

O lover of my life, my soldier saint,

Who put his breast between the spears and me.

She couldn't pay a higher tribute to the depth and purity of his love. Al, this idea has always seemed to me the very quintessence of romance. It's this that provides the intense romance in the life of Christ, and in a lesser degree makes a "A Tale of Two Cities" such a great book. There seems to me to have never been said anything more poignantly human than "Greater love hath no man than this," etc.

[stiletto_33853]

Of Gilbert's inner life, and the religion which stood him in good stead, I should like to say a little. As a child and boy he was delightful to teach from the Bible. His great love of beauty from early childhood made him delight in the services at St. John the Divine, Kennington. He often went there on Sunday mornings with his siter May, and he was very fond of Canon Brooke and of his sister, who kindly let him pretty often study the pictures of Tissot's New Testament, to his extreme delight. After the break at Southwark Cathedral he lost his early delight in Church services, except at St. Paul's and Winchester Chapel, but he always remained a frequent communicant, holding almost passionately the conviction that the realization of the Person of Our Lord is the rock on which Christianity rests and that union with His self-dedication was the spring alike of worship and of duty. This conviction was to go with him to his death, and there be sealed.

This it was which most powerfully affected him when he saw the Passion Play at Ammergau in 1910, and also which drew him so closely into the Mission at Oxford under Bishop Gore in 1914.

[marina]

Gethsemane. Good word for what lies ahead. he is a romantic idealist, isn't he?

Marina

[stiletto_33853]

The Bishop writes (4 August 1915) from Cuddesdon:

.....I am so thankful that I was allowed to see something of his resolute religion at the time of the Mission.

He delighted in fine and honest preaching, in particular I remeber his apprciation of Father Stanton, and always his father. His was, if it is possible to say so, a simple faith, curiously untouched in the deepest part by his Oxford reading, and by ferments of modern thought. He was moreover a great reader of very modern books.

And it was all deepened by all that last ten months of his life brought him, of experience and resposibility, and the shadow of danger and death over him and his friends. Six weeks before he fell he wrote from the front to a friend:

British Expeditionary Force

June '15.

I want you to have religion as a real thing in life. Sometimes I think you don't get the chance of knowing what it is. Try hard to get it into your life as the background of everything, and the great resort in trouble. It is not just a matter of being good, and going to church - it is romance - love - adventure - peace - beauty. Pary hard sometimes - and pray for me when you do.

[stiletto_33853]

And again to Hermione Lyttelton:

British Expeditionary Force

June '15

I felt comforted the other day out here when Neville came to see me. I was saying that one felt such an atom out here, and if one was killed, one would only be like a bit of sand on the sea-shore. Neville said the thing to think of was the pentitent thief saying to Our Lord on the Cross, "Lord remember me," and then the infinite graciousness of the answer. The greatest drama of the world was going on, yet Jesus had the time to think of an obscure criminal.

[stiletto_33853]

In December 1911 he writes to the same:

I am delighted that you were impressed with ___________ . He really is a great man, and the services at his church are what I like. The religion there is not fromal - it is alive - it is personal. I think there is in the minds of so many people a misunderstanding of what Christian religion really is. It is not a philosophy, or a system of ethics; it is not a somewhat wiser way of talking about God. It is a direct revelation from God in the person of Jesus Christ. It all turns on what men think Christ to be. Christ was not the perfect man. He was God. The teaching of the Gospel is that God took man's nature upon him, and as God dwelt among men - that because He became a man, and because he was God, he has given himself as a permament means of approaching God. That is the doctrine taught when Christ says, "Come unto Me all you that are weary..... and I will refresh you."

[stiletto_33853]

Before leaving Oxford in June 1914, a most delightful offer had come from a great friend of Gilbert's, Geoffrey Colman, that Gilbert should be his travelling companion on a nine months' trip round the world, starting in July, with Canada and including visits to Japan, China, and India. No proposal ever received so delighted, enthusiatic, and grateful a welcome, and the plans and arrangements and joyous anticipation and novelty of the great trip made the months full of joy.

Harlech. Easter Day 1914.

....Meanwhile my chief and all-important item of news is in Mrs. Colman's letter which I enclose - with the most magnificent offer for me to travel with Geoffrey round the world, and paying my fares..... I've been delirious with joy since it arrived.....I've not to go as tutor to anyone, but simply travel with a most delightful friend and companion. It's like a sort of miraculous gift in the Arabian Nights. Since the letter came I've done nothing but hug myself with excitement in the intervals of work. Just think of the luck of it! I do feel so horribly undeseredly lucky at this wonderful chance falling into my lap like this. I've written a long letter to Mrs. Colman in which I've tried to tell her how grateful I feel........I do feel so awfully grateful and thankful. I think an offer like this falls to the lot of very few people........And I am trying to be thankful before God......

[marina]

he suddenly sounds much younger in this letter. Do we have to wait till tomorrow to find out if he gets on the trip?

Marina

[stiletto_33853]

But just before they started on 31 July 1914, there had come the shadow of the War, and though, hoping against hope, they did get off and got as far as Quebec, Mrs. Colman and I felt - and our sons felt - on the platform of Liverpool Street Station, that probably England would be involved, and that both would have to return to take their part in the War. And so it was. Even on the voyage out, a German cruiser pursued their ship - the Calgarian - the whole way across the Atlantic, without the passengers knowing of it - though they were requested to close all port-holes at night - the ship rushing through the night without any lights. It was only on arriving at Remowski on the St. Lawrence River, where the ship was received by a crowd of people with band and Union Jack flying and "God save the King," that any of the passengers knew that war had been declared, and of the grave danger thay had been in or realize the admirable coolness and pluck of the captain. Wireless Telegraphy had informed the Canadians of what had happened. After a most depressing twelve hours in Quebec, the keenly disappointed friends returned in the next ship to England, where they at once sent in their names to the War Office, and in September found themselves in an officer's training camp at Churm, alongside countless university and public school men.

[stiletto_33853]

A month's most strenuous training was got through in beautiful weather, with a considerable amount of enjoyment and zest, in most congenial company. Gilbert shared a tent with Mr. Kay-Shuttleworth (whose memorial book I also have in my library), and they were devoted to their Colonel, Colonel Maclachlan, afterwards Colonel in the Rifle Brigade. The friends were given commissions in a Battalion of the Rifle Brigade.

It was the deep and earnest conviction in the righteousness of the cause for which England joined the War, that made Gilbert a keen soldier, and this conviction grew and deepened as the months went by. He did not wish any more than before the outbreak of the War to take up soldiering as a prefession, but he did become a most keen, efficient and strict officer, delighting in the learning of so much that was new and interesting, and especially in the responsibility of having fifty-four men of his platoon under his direct control, and watching their development and excellent progress. The bottom of it all and of the kindling enthusiasm was the great cause of freedom for which the Allies were fighting.

[stiletto_33853]

He writes from Churm to Hermione Lyttelton:

Churm

Septermber 3rd, 1914.

......This isn't play. We drill and are lectured to for ten hours a day - the most utterly tiring thing I've ever done. But I'm taking to it rather kindly, and when one reads the papers it's good to feel one's doing every bit one can......

........Whatever else is true of life, one thing is certain - that I am doing the right thing now and that every ounce in me must go to it till the end. The War is amazingly inspiring, and all the Belgian stories and all the devilish and damnable horrors that these swine inflict on the women and children make one long to get there - though I don't flatter myself I should find war congenial ! ......It's all magnificent really - it's purging us all........

......I can't imagine wanting to be a peace soldier, but it's wonderful to be doing it now. And I still can't help reading the war news and the casualty lists without a sense of wondering whether some day one's turn will come, and whether it is possible to imagine a finer thing happening to me, and which at the same time would deal for ever with all troubles and difficulties in this world.......

[marina]

Shades of Rupert Brook there, and the romance of 'corner of a foreign field.'

Marina

[stiletto_33853]

After the training at Churm, his Brigade was quartered at Aldershot and Borden and back again to Aldershot; he constantly came over to Farnham and also brought his friends. He delighted in the very warm friendship that he made with his fellow officers. A life so concentrated and in such close quarters, with all the immense reality understood in a kind of quiet and silent way between them as to what it all meant, made a few months' friendship greater and deeper than many of a much longer time; they shared too in a very great and genuine pride for their Brigade and Battalions.

The following extracts from officers of his Battalion and others, written after the fatal day at Hooge, show what this friensdhip was.

[Greyhound]

It's Churn, not Churm. Churn was a tented Army camp on the Berkshire Downs (now just over the Oxon border), between Blewbury and the Ridgeway. Until the 1960s the main Didcot-Southampton railway ran through the valley, and Churn Camp had its own halt. Today the area is farmland and racehorse gallops.

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

[stiletto_33853]

Hi Grace,

Thank you for that, his Mother must have got it wrong as the book mentions Churm several times.

Andy

[stiletto_33853]

Great picture, thank you for posting it.

Andy

[Greyhound]

(Reposting as pic was way too big!)

No problem, Andy. I owe my existence to Churn Camp as had my grandfather not been posted there, he would never have met my grandmother! Here is a pic of the area today. The line of trees running across the centre marks the old railway line. The Ridgeway and Lowbury Hill can be seen in the centre, and the camp was sited to the left.