A Haven from Hell: Talbot House, Poperinghe

Talbot House Poperinghe was opened in November 1915 as a ‘Soldiers Club’ - a haven from hell - by two Chaplains of the 6th Division, Philip ‘Tubby’ Clayton and Neville Talbot. The house was dedicated to the memory of Gilbert Talbot, Neville’s brother, who had been killed in in the afternoon counter-attack (set up to re-take the positions lost in the early morning Liquid Fire attack of the same day) at Hooge on 30 July 1915. For the following three years, except for a short period in 1918, the doors of Talbot House never closed and it became a ‘home-from-home’ for the officers and men of the British and Imperial armies of the time. Today Talbot House is a living museum offering a friendly greeting and a cup of tea to visitors on their arrival - a house rule established by ‘Tubby’ Clayton in 1915. Bringing to the reader the history of the house and its contents, the book brings to life the multitude of events that took place in and around it as well as telling the little-known stories of Clayton’s frequent trips to the front line to minister to the men in the trenches around Ypres