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Gilbert Walter Lyttelton Talbot. Born September 1, 1891. Killed in Action, July 30, 1915.
Paperback edition, orig. printed wraps., 111pp., portrait frontis. Sidgwick & Jackson.
1917
#69368
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![[HLMainPic]](booksThumbs/69368.jpg "Click on the left or right of the image for more images")
Walter Lyttelton Talbot was born in 1891 at his father's vicarage in Leeds. His father became Lord Bishop of Winchester and Talbot was educated at Winchester and Christ Church College, Oxford. He was President of the Oxford Union (a family tradition) and his ambition was to enter the political arena, however this and plans for a world tour were frustrated by the outbreak of war. Talbot obtained a commission in the 7th (Service) Battalion Rifle Brigade, one of the earliest New Army battalions to be formed. He proceeded with his unit to Flanders in May 1915 and was killed in action at Hooge on 30th July, 1915, in his Battalion's counter-attack following the German 'liquid fire' attack on the 8th Rifle Brigade. He was twenty-three when he fell and is buried in Sanctuary Wood Cemetery. Talbot House, the famous soldiers' club at Poperinghe, founded by his brother Rev. Neville Talbot (formerly of the Rifle Brigade) and Rev. 'Tubby' Clayton, was so named in his memory. Contains a memoir of his life with numerous tributes and eulogies from various friends, also lengthy extracts from his diary in Flanders describing his work in the line, various carrying parties etc., and scenes he observed, e.g. the appearance of Ypres (from his diary entry of 15th June 1915): "I despair of telling you what the place looks like. It beggars description. The suburbs of the town are comparatively intact, though most houses there have been shelled. But the whole inside is simply a desolation. You cannot imagine it being rebuilt. We walked through the streets and found not one house which was not a mere mass of ruins or just a big heap of bricks. Of course there are fragments that remain, some with old familiar advertisements – I saw one of Singer's Sewing Machines. Odder than anything is to go into any of the ruined houses. They nearly all show signs of being abandoned in panic, without their owners waiting so much as to pick up anything: half eaten meals are on the tables: clothes lie in confusion on the floors… And then we came into the famous Place. The Cloth Hall, roofless and ruined, lies all the way down one side… The whole square is covered with loose stones and rubble… there's not a living soul to be seen, apart from passing British soldiers… Nothing has brought home the war to me as has this town. Its people had no connection with the war, no interest in the war, and their lovely home has been gutted until its unrecognizable. I wish everybody in England could see it…" This paperback edition was issued after the original privately printed hardback edition, due to the interest in the subject.
£125
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