1. REGISTER OF VISITORS 1915-1918
"It was no afterthought that Talbot House would need its Register.
From the first opening, there was a conviction that something was beginning which deserved a system of record,
and signatures were constantly requested."
- Tubby
That Talbot House in those days was a much-visited place, is a well-evident statement.
To produce a proof for it, is more of a difficult job.
But the real trouble emerges from any question that is about evidence for a particular visitor.
Nevertheless, this is the kind of questions that many visitors today turn up with.
Therefore we have tried and built a register of wartime visitors to the House.
The list is based on various archive documents, and is updated step by step, or on the occasion of new information.
So please consult the online register knowing that it always will be fragmentary and incomplete.
If however you end up finding the particular name(s) you were looking for, we would be grateful to you for getting in contact.
You might be able to offer more (personalized) information, which could help us further to detail our register. Every little helps...
For the time being, these are the documents that can be consulted online:
- Officers' Book 14/12/1915 - 7/04/1916
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2. LIJSSENTHOEK MILITARY CEMETERY
"I buried him in the military cemetery on the Poperinghe-Boescheepe Road, one mile and a half from Poperinghe, well behind the firing-line in the Belgian countryside.
His grave will be marked with a cross bearing his name, and can always be easily found in future years.
It will always be cared for and preserved, and if you like to send out some flowers or plants to me, I will plant them myself on his grave.
Please accept my deepest sympathy."
- Rev. Brooker, chaplain to n°10 CCS
Lijssenthoek, Poperinge
Throughout the Great War, the Military Cemetery at the hamlet of "Lijssenthoek" (Poperinge) grew almost organically from the French, British and Canadian field hospitals that were based here, near Remy Farm.
At the summit of the medical activity, tents and huts housed four CCSs totalling four thousand beds.
In June 2009 a research project was started up, focusing on this medical aspect of the war behind the lines.
The project further aims at viewing Lijssenthoek Cemetery as a mirror, producing 'Daily Reflections of the Great War.'
Actually, the hospitals took in wounded men evacuated from the front. And those who did not live through any medical help, were buried in there.
The cemetery thus makes a massive witness of more than four years of daily warfare in the Ypres Salient.
The final focus of this research project is to try and deconstruct the Great History of the Great War, by bringing it back to almost 11,000 known, historical graves - and so to as many personal stories.
In order to work out this personalized approach, as much information as possible is needed. You can help us with this research.
If you have documentation on a Lijssenthoek grave, please fill in this form.
For further information: contact us.
This project is granted by the Flemish Government and the Town of Poperinge. Talbot House, In Flanders Fields, Passchendaele Memorial Museum and CWGC participate in this project.
"It is perhaps well that I allow the reappearance of the bundle of papers which emerged to-night from the corner of my cupboard.
For they could act as a slow fuse to a memory,
and summon to the minds of another generation the true picture of the incidence of War upon the souls of men."
- Tubby
The story of Talbot House in its whole can be regarded as a giant set of thousands of personal stories of men who visited the Club during the war or after.
Therefore we try and collect any reference on life behind the lines in general, and on Talbot House in particular.
If you have any material - letters, diaries, photographs, objects - that could add to this collection, we would be very grateful if you would contact us about it.
