Liber Vitae. Being the Roll of Honour of Talbot House, Poperinghe and Ypres, & Others of the Elder Brethren, commemorated in Toc H
London, All Hallows Porch Room, 1928.
Quarto, [34] pages.
Red buckram lettered in gilt on the spine, and decorated in gilt on the front cover with a Toc H lamp; top edge gilt, others uncut (and some unopened); cloth on the top edges of the bevel-edged boards a little abraded; front cover lightly stained; top corner of all leaves, and the top half of the leading edge of the last half of the textblock lightly stained; endpapers discoloured, with the front free endpaper slightly tape-stained; overall, a decent copy.
Provenance: Mary Isobel 'Molly' Barr-Smith (1863-1941), with her ownership signature on the front free endpaper. Folded and mounted on the front pastedown is a typed letter signed from Philip Thomas Byard ('Tubby') Clayton (1885-1972) on All Hallows Porchroom [sic] letterhead (one page quarto, 18 December 1928), addressed to Mrs Barr Smith. Clayton 'volunteered as an army chaplain during the First World War. In 1915 he set up a rest-house - Talbot House - for troops travelling to and from the Ypres salient, which became known by its morse code call-sign 'Toc H'. After the War Toc H was refounded as a movement to teach the younger generation racial reconciliation and unselfish service' (National Portrait Gallery website). The letter commences with 'My dear Australian Mother'; the first paragraph is devoted to his health issues, and expressions of happiness and hope stemming from 'the extraordinary manifestation of growth and power presented at the Birthday Festival this year. I am sending a copy of the precious "Liber Vitae", for I do not think one reached you before you sailed.... It is a limited edition, and already precious among us. Moreover it was Herbert's last achievement, and the proofs were on his table when he went out to the football match. So no one is more truly entitled to this copy than yourself'. 'Molly Barr Smith was appointed C.B.E. in 1918 for war services and was very active in work for charity' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography'). 'Herbert' is Rev. Herbert James Fleming CMG, 'Senior Chaplain, Brigade of Guards; later Chaplain of Royal Hospital, Chelsea, and Hon. Administrative Chaplain of Toc H', who died on 17 November 1926 (see under 'All Soul's Day' near the rear of the volume).
Item #117516
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