‘TUBBY’ AND ALADDIN’S LAMP

The story of Toc-H

2014 has been a year for commemorating the outbreak of the ‘War To End All Wars’. There have many events across the globe and probably the one uppermost in most people’s minds has been the planting of ceramic poppies that carpeted the moat of the Tower of London. There were visits to the battle fields of Belgium and France and several members of our congregation travelled to Ypres to pay their tributes to the many that had died for freedom from tyranny. Next year there will be another centenary near Ypres, at Poperinge which is a small town situated a few miles from the trenches. During the World War 1, it was a busy transfer station where troops travelling to and from the battlefields were billeted. In 1915 an army chaplain, the Reverend Phillip (Tubby) Clayton was sent by his senior chaplain, Neville Talbot to Pops (as it was called by the soldiers) to set up a rest house for the troops.

Tubby rented a hop merchant’s house and made this his base. It was called Talbot House in memory of Gilbert Talbot (Neville’s brother who had been killed earlier in the year) and it opened on December 15th 1915. Very soon it became known as TH and later, using radio signaller’s speak, Toc-H. It was to grow into a world wide movement.

Tubby ensured the house was open to both officers and other ranks. He provided a place of peace and comfort. There was a large kitchen where copious amounts of tea were drunk and a library where books were checked out by the leaving of a cap behind in lieu of a ticket. This was very shrewd of Tubby because he knew that no soldier would go on parade without his cap, thus ensuring all his books were returned. As a former librarian that appeals to me and I wish we had had a similar scheme! Toc-H had a large walled garden where the men could sit in peace for a while away from the carnage of the front line. At the top of the house was an attic room which became the ‘Upper Room’, a chapel which was to become the focal point of the house. Throughout the war, Toc-H was an oasis of sanity for the men who passed through Pops. Here there was fellowship, entertainment and the chance to leave messages to missing comrades in the hope that they would also pass that way and see them.

At the end of the war, Tubby returned home to set up an establishment for the training of soldiers who wished to be ordained. He remembered the fellowship of Toc-H and resolved to open a new Talbot House in London. He gathered together many of the men who had passed through Talbot House during the war and the first committee was formed in November 1919. The name Talbot House was dropped and the soldiers’ nickname of Toc-H was adopted. Their first house was in Queensgate Place in Knightsbridge, as a hostel for men coming to the capital to work. Very soon they outgrew it and moved to a larger place in Queensgate Gardens called, in typical army fashion, Talbot House Mark 1. Soon the Marksmen as they quickly became known began carrying out the aims of Toc-H within the community, that of friendship and service. The movement spread and men leaving the Mark took the ideals and aims of the movement back to their own towns and cities where they set up their own groups. Eventually they would become a branch and would receive one the Aladdin-type lamps which became the symbol of the movement. Thus Toc-H grew and spread across the world. In 1922 it was granted a Royal Charter and in 1925 Toc-H Australia held the first ‘World Chain of Light’; a twenty four hour vigil where lamps were lit around the world.

Women became involved and the League of Women Helpers was formed to support Toc-H’s work under the leadership of Alison MacFie. During the Second World War women took a more active role, later becoming Toc-H (Women’s Section) until the early 70s when both sections were merged. By the 1930s the membership had grown and there were hundreds of branches. Tubby was very closely associated with the work of LEPRA and many members went to work in the leper colonies of Africa. Toc-H was one of the key organisations involved in the birth of the National Blood Transfusion Service. During the Second World War, servicemen’s clubs were set up both at home and in the theatre of war wherever men and women were stationed. With peace came a return to the role of service to the community but by the end of the 1950s the movement was struggling to attract younger members. Thus the Project scheme was born whereby branches were asked to establish a series of short and longer residential projects for young people to come and volunteer. These were very successful and Toc-H branches worked in every scheme one could imagine. Two such schemes were the Talking Newspaper for the Blind and the Samaritans (their founder Chad Varah was one of Toc-H’s padres.)

This period of success lasted until the end of the twentieth century. The membership was now in decline as people aged and many branches closed. Legislation made it more difficult for branches to organise projects and increasingly the staff of Toc-H had to become involved. There were efforts to win contracts to run services for local authorities and an extensive property portfolio had to be made profitable. Although there were some successes, this was a fundamentally different way of running the organisation and a radical re-think was needed which continues. Fashions change in voluntary work as in other fields but it is to be hoped that Tubby’s movement will rise again like the phoenix to give service and offer friendship wherever it is needed. It would be a shame if Aladdin’s lamp were to be extinguished after a century of spreading light.

Barbara Hothersall