Talbot House

www.talbothouse.be if you wish to arrange a visit inside. €5 per student on a school group visit. €8 for an individual adult. (Entrance to the museum is not on this street but take the next right and you will and it is about forty yards away, on your right.)

Context

Spiritual retreat. A visit inside will take at least one hour, hence the flexibility in suggested time for the stay in Poperinge. The house still offers accommodation and the Chapel is very special, given it is much as it was during the war. You can look around the house, gardens and watch a recorded re-enactment of a typical Tommies’concert.

Spiel

Even if you are not intending to go inside, it is worth telling your group, either outside Toc H or in the Grote Markt, about the place as an apt prelude to the last Pop visit.

On December 11 1915 Talbot House or, in army signallers’ terms, Toc H, opened its doors. Reverend Neville Talbot had been searching for somewhere to house a church club when this property became available. He asked a friend, Reverend Philip Byard ‘Tubby’ Clayton to head up the project. The idea was for Toc H to be an oasis of calm, contemplation and respite for exhausted soldiers who, away from the base pleasures of the rest of the town (there would be no alcohol, and certainly no prostitution!), could read, talk, pray… be human again. No rank would be acknowledged, men and officers mixed freely. The house was named after Neville’s brother, Gilbert, whose grave we visited at Sanctuary Wood this morning.

After the war the house was reclaimed by its former owner (who had rented it to Tubby) and Toc H had to close; that was until Lord Wakefield purchased the house in 1929 and its doors were opened once again. In 1919, Tubby had returned to London and from there he established the Toc H (Christian) Movement, whose purpose was to encourage people to ‘think fairly, to love widely, to witness humbly and to build bravely’. This movement spread across the globe and still operates today.

So, we have seen Poperinge as both a place of debauchery and spiritual solace; now we shall see its darker side.

Walk back to the Grote Markt square. Head straight for the town hall/information centre and take the road to the immediate left of it. This is Guido Gezellestraat. After 20 seconds or so, you will come to a large archway on your right with double red doors. Go in! ¹⁷

Execution Post and Cells

Free Entry

Context

The dark side of Pop.

The cells are immediately to your right as you enter. The execution post is in the small courtyard.

Spiel

During the First World War there were 346 Military executions of British and Commonwealth troops by their own forces. These executions were largely carried out on soldiers who had deserted their posts or, much less commonly, those who had displayed acts of cowardice; the aim was to discourage others from doing similar. One, Private James Crozier, was only 16 years old when he was ‘shot at dawn’.¹⁸

On the evening before the execution, a chaplain would visit the condemned. In the morning, the man would sometimes be given copious amounts of rum and would then be led out to face a firing squad. Tied to a stake, blindfolded and with a piece of white cloth pinned over the man’s heart, a prayer would be said. At least six soldiers would make up the squad; sometimes one would have a blank round, though he would, of cause, be aware from the recoil whether it was blank or live.

The officer would give the command. Shots would ring out. The attending medical officer would check that the man was dead; if he were still alive then the officer would shoot him with his revolver.

We have just taken a very short walk from Poperinge’s good-time centre, yet we are a million miles away from that revelry now. Imagine, also, the psychological effect of the location of this post – a soldier enjoying a vin blanc may be only too aware of his proximity to this site.

This is a hugely controversial aspect of the war. Many of these men we would now recognise as suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and in 2006 all were posthumously pardoned. Yet, to judge history by the standards of our own time is a dangerous approach. For the British army, with a huge volunteer and then conscript army in the field, maintaining discipline was vital; a look at events in Russia and at the French after the Nivelle Offensive highlight how possible revolution and mutiny were.