Corps History
Salvaged REME Altar finally returned to Talbot House On 9th May, during the VE weekend, Cpls Steven Holt and Ryan Morrison who are Armourers based at European Joint Support Unit SHAPE, took part in the event to return the altar to Talbot House after going missing for more than 50 years. Scribe- Cpl Holt
Talbot House
T
albot House was built by the wealthy hop traders of the Lebbe family in the 18th Century. Maurice Coevoet, a local brewer, bought the house in 1911. In 1915, after the house was struck by a German shell, he decided to leave for a safer place with his family. Soon thereafter, the house was rented to the 6th Division of the British Army. It was here that Chaplain Philip “Tubby” Clayton opened a soldier’s club as an alternative for the often-controversial nightlife in the rest of the city. At first the club was called “Church House”, but Colonel Reginald May proposed despite of Head Army Chaplain Neville Talbot’s protest - to call it “Talbot House” after Gilbert Talbot, Neville’s brother who died on 30th July 1915. Gilbert Talbot became the symbol of a
Cpls Morrison and Holt with Belgium reenactors and Gp Capt Fowler
22nd Advanced Base Reme Workshop Lot nr Brussels who gifted the altar
“Golden Generation” of young men who sacrificed their lives in the war. Tubby oversaw the clubhouse and wanted to make sure that there was a cosy and homely atmosphere for all, regardless of rank and status. The sign on the door of Tubby’s office, the Chaplains room, still reads: “All rank abandon ye who enter here.” This sentence became one of the pillars of the house. Everyone who entered did so as a member of the human race and not as a soldier or officer. Orders were also prohibited in the house. Tubby insisted that Talbot House had to be a place where people could forget about the war for just a moment. The sign next to the front door saying: “To pessimists, way out!” speaks volumes in this respect. The house is full of similar signs that, by making
Before submitting an article you are requested to read the guidelines on the inside front cover 35
