Prayers answered as altar for war heroes is back home
IN the First World War it was a famous Belgian haven for British troops seeking respite from the horrors of Ypres.
And this week Talbot House in Poperinge was reunited with its altar – more than 50 years after it went missing after a royal visit.
The altar was presented to this historic sanctuary in 1945 by men of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers as they advanced through Europe towards the end of the Second World War.
They had salvaged it from the ruins of a Normandy church.
There it stayed until 1965 when Talbot House – or Toc H – was restored to its 1915 condition for the Queen and Prince Philip’s visit to mark its 50th anniversary.
Under the supervision of its charismatic founder, chaplain Tubby Clayton, the altar was put into storage – only to disappear.
But on Sunday it was returned to Toc H by modern REME troops in a Second World War Jeep after it was discovered about 10 miles away by a local history buff in an old Belgian brewery.
It came with the REME plaque declaring it to be “A memorial to our comrades who gave their lives in the Battles of Normandy and Germany June 6 1944 – May 8 1945”. In the intervening years
it had been used by scouts, a children’s home and a cultural centre before ending up in an old brewery bought by Ghent entrepreneur Hendrik Nelde.
When historian Halbe Fabriek was invited to take photos of the site, he found the altar and plaque and showed them to Talbot House manager Simon Louagie, who immediately realised their significance.
Restored
Mr Nelde then agreed to lend the altar back to Toc H.
It has now been restored to the 18th century house’s upper room which used to hold services for First World War troops given leave from the trenches.
The ceremony to mark its return was attended by a locally
based Second World War RAF veteran, George Sutherland, 99, and the British defence attache to Belgium, Group Captain Justin Fowler, with the altar blessed by Padre NiaWilliams.
A spokesman for Talbot House said: “The return of this long lost altar is the icing on the cake of all this historic research.”
Chaplain Tubby Clayton opened a soldier’s club at Toc H – Toc is signals code for “T” – in 1915 after its owner left when it was hit by a German shell.
Orders were banned so officers and men rubbed shoulders on equal terms. Tubby’s office door had the slogan: “All rank abandon ye who enter here.”
A barn served as a concert hall while a garden gave troops some brief peace before they returned to the hell of the front line.