Friendship’s Corner 

Could this wall speak, it would be eloquent. 

P.B. Clayton

When in 1929 Major Paul Slessor, on behalf of Lord Wakefield, purchased the House from Maurice Coevoet, the following notice painted on a wall of the entrance hall during the war, was still visible:

This Board is intended for the use of men who wish to get into touch with friends, who may possibly see a message left for them. Please use cards provided or put communications in an envelope before placing in the rack.  
P.B. Clayton  

These messages were duly typed out and put on the noticeboard in a 'Space Reserved for Friendship'. painted notice has long gone but one of the long typed lists that hung beside it, of N.C.O.s and men who made use of this ‘Friendship’s Corner’ is still there. Considering the coming and going of the units these men belonged to, we can assume that the list dates from the period May – November 1917, when in Tubby’s words “Talbot House reached its zenith”. Two men actually left dates on their notes. On 17 June 1917 Pioneer T. Mullen, Royal Engineers, left a message for his cousins Joe and Willie, and exactly a month later, Gunner Wiliam Noble, 7 Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, did the same for his friend Sapper John Collins.

“The rendez-vous list”

The much-stained sheets contain 118 names of men serving in 84 different army units. The Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers and Labour Corps are strongly represented, which is not surprising as they provided essential support in preparation of and during the Messines and Passchendaele offensives. Also men serving with infantry regiments and Field Ambulances left notes for relatives or friends, as did a member of the Royal Flying Corps. As one can imagine, this proved a particularly devastating time for many of these units. Pte. John Bullock of 254 Tunnelling Company lost no less than 44 comrades during that period, 14 of whom are buried in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery. No wonder he wanted to get out of the war’s madness for a moment hoping “to get in touch with friends or relations round this part of the world”. 

Unfortunately the war would also take its toll amongst those who had left messages. Five were killed in action in the Salient, three of them being buried in the same row in Vlamertinghe New Military Cemetery:

  • Gunner Harold Stooke, 256 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, who was hoping to see his brother Bill, died on 21 August 1917, age 23 (V.E.4);
  • Bombardier A.V. Machin, 217 Siege Battery, R.G.A., died on 29 August 1917 (V.E.25);
  • Gunner Robert Villiers, age 19, from the same unit as Machin, died the following day (V.E.34). Next to his name on the list someone pencilled “killed in action”;
  • Gunner John Law, 278 Siege Battery, R.G.A.,  who was trying to trace his brothers Ernest and Herbert, died on 26 September 1917, age 30,  and is buried in The Huts Cemetery (Dikkebus, VII.D.12);
  • Driver Harry Page,  155 Brigade, R.F.A., was killed on 26 October 1917, age 21, and is buried in St. Julien Dressing Station Cemetery (I.A.15).

Pte. H. Hicks, 299 Siege Battery, wanted to get in touch with Rev. Basil Plumptre, Chaplain to 1st Surrey Rifles. However, the latter was killed on 16 July 1917 by a stray shell which landed on his dugout. He is buried in La Clytte Military Cemetery (II.F.36).

Two other men who had left messages would die the following year: 

  • Pioneer Frank Tilley, 11 Hampshire Regiment, was killed on 30 September 1918, age 24, and is commemorated on Vis-en-Artois Memorial, Panel 6;
  • Gunner Robert Cook, 126 Siege Battery, R.G.A., sustained a ‘Blighty’ wound and was evacuated to England. He died on 4 October 1918 at Netley Hospital and was buried in the adjacent cemetery (C.E.1973).

The first man on the list, Gunner S. Morrison, ‘D’ Howitzer Battery, 210 Brigade, R.F.A., also has a pencil note “killed in action” against his name, but no one of that name and from that unit can be found in the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.  In times of war, the available information was often scanty or conflicting, or based on hearsay. On several occasions Tubby pencilled “R.I.P.” + a location against a name in the Communicants’ Roll, but in at least two instances the men had actually survived. Unknowingly, their names were included in “The Calendar of Remembrance” (1923), which was put on display in All-Hallows-by-the-Tower, where Tubby was the vicar. They even featured in the printed version of 1928, i.e. the “Liber Vitae – The Roll of the Elder Brethren.” Pte. Ernest Strickland, 2 Sherwood Foresters, actually lived until 1959, and Pte Arthur Jarmain, 7 Australian Field Ambulance until 1972…

Other pencil notes on the list include “in Blighty” next to the name of Gunner T.C. Aldersey, and “wounded” against Sgt. H.N. Copsey’s name. Lonely Sapper R. Jarman, 6 Bn. Canadian Railway Troops, didn’t bother to write his message on a card first, but put it in big letters directly on the list: “Friends please write”. 

And they met…

No less than sixteen men on the list were looking for their brothers, others for cousins, “old chums” or men from their home villages or towns. Luckily, in quite a number of instances the wishes or hopes of men to meet relatives or friends came true. Leaving aside this particular surviving list, we have already identified nine sets of brothers who were able to spend some time together at Talbot House, and there are many more examples of men who managed to catch up with other relatives, neighbours, fellow scouts, members of their boys’ clubs, etc.

On at least one occasion Tubby had to provide a nudge in the right direction to make sure that two brothers could actually meet up at the House:

One day Talbot House received a stray lance-corporal, discovered scanning most excitedly the Rendez-vous lists in the hall opposite the kitchen door. These lists were a device whereby men could acquaint their friends in other units with their prospective presence, and thus hope to achieve a meeting. Lance-Corporal Quin found to his tense amazement that his own brother had been in the House the previous day. He had not known till now. They had not met since 1914. Could he now be found and summoned? I took fire at this, and went to the Town Major. There I learnt that the brother’s battalion had just moved to Abeele, on their way south. I took a Signal form and (with an element of connivance) drafted a most official wire to the Adjutant of the brother’s battalion, demanding that Pte. Quin should be sent back immediately to the Town Major’s Office. No reason was vouchsafed. I wonder what the Adjutant conjectured. But, sure enough, it worked; and the two brothers met in Talbot House that very afternoon. It was well they did, for one was killed soon afterwards. This was the sole occasion when I deliberately deceived the British Army, making no bones about it.

 

“Grand old Sgt. McInnes”

We may reasonably assume that the list with names was typed by Sgt. Horace McInnes, in Tubby’s words “the oldest British inhabitant of Poperinghe”. McInnes initially served with 17th Field Ambulance. In December 1915, three men and an N.C.O. of this unit were dispatched to Talbot House as staff members, possibly through the good offices of Rev. Neville Talbot, their former chaplain. McInnes may well have been one of them. When his unit moved south in August 1916, he remained in Poperinge, becoming attached to the Intelligence Service. At Talbot House he attended Sunday social meetings and services, and also gave French classes. In 1917 McInnes volunteered to act as Tubby’s secretary and typist two nights a week. In July of that year he became a member of the Talbot House Committee that oversaw the running of the House. He eventually left Poperinge in December 1917, much to Tubby’s regret as he was unable to find a replacement.

At the end of the war, Tubby took the typewriter back to England. It was used in the early days of Toc H but finally discarded, with the padre describing it as “shell-shocked and quite incapable,” and wondering “how Sergt. McInnes had endured it…”

All names and messages on the surviving list can be found in the digital guest book (database) of Talbot House  (https://www.talbothouse.be/en/history/talbotousian-database) by putting in the word ‘Friendship’ in the search box ‘General’.

Jan Louagie