AT POPERINGHE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 21, 26 January 1931, Page 9

AT POPERINGHE

On Friday forty-seven of the foundation members of Toe H met at the old house at Poperinghe, which was used as a rest house during the war. Thanks to the generosity of Lord Wakofleld, the house ia now the property of Too H. A simple service was held in the

evening simultaneously with that held at Bt, Paul's, and a lamp was lighted which started a "world chain of light."

All present had known Talbot House during the war. In the reminiscences in which they indulged they recalled the physical comforts that they found in this building. But they laid emphasis, even' though in soldier-like reticence, on the spiritual impress of the place. Tens of thousands of men coming or going to the' trenches partook of Holy Communion in its chapel. A loft with bare rafters, this upper room is yet a place of beauty. It is invested with a wondrous peace, and before the service began men recalled that in the war it possessed such an atmosphere of serenity that it was never evacuated, even when the town was being shelled. Its altar is an old worn carpenter's bench, which was transported from an outhouse. Nearly every other accessory or ornament has been a spontaneous offering of love or a memorial of one who rests in adjacent or distant cemetery. Tho beautiful cloth altar canopy was given-by Bishop JE. S. Talbot, the father of Lieutenant Gilbert Talbot, of the Eifle Brigade, who was killed near Sanctuary Wood in July, 1915. The house is named >in memory of this brilliant young officer. The lighting ceremony performed by Mr. Glayton was profoundly moving. It was but a part of a great beautiful idea. The day before a masthead lantern had been lighted from the Prince of Wales's lamp of maintenance in the Church of All Hallows-by-the-Towor, of which Mr. Clayton is vicar. This lantern was brought over by the party, and from it Talbot House's lamp of maintenance, carried into tho upper room, was illuminated. Later the lantern was relighted from the lamp, and it was with this that the ceremonies at tho "guest night" in tho Albert Hall on Saturday night were inaugurated.