The subjects I choose to write about in my blog, are chosen for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, it is a request for information from a family member that sparks my interest. This blog is one of those times.
I was already aware of the subject before I was contacted by his grandson; indeed, he is mentioned in at least one of my previous blogs. However, when I started to research him, I realised a knew little about him, especially his life outside of Toc H. But his grandson was seeking information on behalf of his own mother, who is the daughter of our subject. That is why this blog does include some very personal family information. It is published with the full permission and support of his daughter, who wanted to find out more about the man she barely knew. It is an interesting tale that reveals the complexities behind a man who was quite legendary in Toc H. And that man is Jock Brown.
William Boyd Brown – known always in Toc H as Jock – was born illegitimately at Pathway, Bannockburn on the 5th November 1893. His birth record even helpfully gives us the time of birth, which was 7.15pm. Although his parents – Orlando Brown and Annie McLeod – were not married, their names both appeared with the registration, and the child was given the surname Brown.
It is unclear whether or not they actually married for in September 1895, when Orlando, an Iron Foundry Worker, was fined for a breach of the peace, Annie was described as his wife but was listed as Annie McLeod, or Brown. Incidentally, she was also admonished by the court. Unfortunately, this was not Orlando’s only offence and he seemed to be frequently in trouble for disturbing the peace or trespassing (probably poaching).
At the time of the 1901 census Orlando was living with his parents, and William was with him. The extended family, who were living in Broad Street, Denny, also included four other young children, each bearing a different surname though described as grandchildren to Orlando’s father William, the head of the household. Jock’s mother, Annie, appears to be an inmate of the Bellsdyke Hospital (Stirling District Lunatic Asylum) in Larbert. She would die here in 1903. Orlando died in July 1921 at Denny Cottage Hospital, having married another woman. What is clear is that Jock grew up in very difficult conditions.
Information about his early life is quite difficult to come by. We learn from his later letters to his daughter (more of which presently) that in 1911, at the age of 18, he met the woman whom he loved. I believe this was Bessie Violet, though her maiden name is not known to me. Indeed, I can find little about her, and I found no evidence of a marriage nor any sign of them as a couple on the 1921 census.
According to one source, he served with the Gordon Highlanders (another states the Highland Light Infantry) during the Great War and visited the original Talbot House in Poperinge during that time. This makes him, what is known as, a Foundation Member of Toc H. So he would have known about the Movement and possibly received a ‘Whizz-Bang’ from Tubby (see my Postcards blog for an explanation). Thus, it’s no surprise that he became a member of Toc H (one source says he joined in 1924 though I don’t have proof to back this up). What I do know is that by the mid-1930s, he had become an active member of a group in Greater Manchester (the source says Sale but this is unlikely as Sale group doesn’t get underway until about 1938). In the 1934 Electoral Register, he and Bessie are living in Iron Works Cottage, Trafford Park which is a stone’s throw across the river from Salford. I think that it was Salford branch that Jock joined in the mid-1930s. As you can see, information about this early life is confusing.
The couple are difficult to track in more detail by my usual methods. This is not unsurprising as they were both common names. Also, one of the ways a researcher can track down people is through key life-events, for instance, the birth of a child. We know, again from Jock’s later letters, that he and Bessie agreed never to have a baby. Why, we just don’t know for Jock clearly loved children, as we shall see.
Squire’s Gate Children’s Camp where Jock was Warden in the 1930s
And so the next time we ‘find’ Jock and Bessie, it is through the 1939 register, taken at the outbreak of World War II. Here they are living, on site, at the Squire’s Gate Children’s Camp (not to be confused with the Squire’s Gate holiday camp across the road) in Lytham St Annes near Blackpool. The camp was established by the Wood Street Mission in the 1897 (though the building Jock and Bessie knew, opened in 1922) to provide holidays for underprivileged children. Toc H appeared to have some involvement which may have led to Jock being appointed Camp Master. He was probably appointed soon after April 1935, when the previous Camp Master, Henry Bent, had to retire due to ill-health. Jock was also Childrens’ Gym Instructor, and Games Master. Bessie was Matron. According the one person on an Internet forum, who visited the camp as a child, they also had a dog called Betsy.
Squire’s Gate Children’s Camp from the air (Photo Britain From Above)
Interestingly, in 1939 the couple had a third person living with them. Betty Constance Boyd Brown was 20 years old and described as a Children’s Nurse. If Jock’s assertion that he and Bessie didn’t have children is to be believed, then perhaps she was a niece or another relative?
It is with the outbreak of World War II that Jock’s life changed direction as he turns his hand to what would become Toc H’s main war work – running Service Clubs. (see this blog).
With Allied troops spreading across the globe, Toc H starts to run clubs for soldiers both in the UK and wherever they are stationed abroad. This is a real ‘back to its roots’ moment for Toc H. It is also the end of his relationship with Bessie. As Jock later writes, “[we] were separated by war since 1940”. In the same letter he also says “war meant I had to go on living and expressing my soul in service to the young people of the world who share my hearth”. It was clear where Jock’s soul lay.
The first record I have of him running a Toc H club in in San Severo, Italy around 1943. The following year he was further north in Italy running clubs in two villages – Mogliano and Urbisaglia – with Winfred Taylor. After the war had ended, in late 1945, Jock was running a club in Sezana, then under the control of the British and Americans. Formerly part of Italy, it shortly became Yugoslavian and now is Slovenian. Military orders stated that the club was only to be open to Allied soldiers, as things between them and the Yugoslav soldiers were tense. Jock circumvented these orders by setting up chairs and tables in the garden of the club and relayed classical concerts to his friends, the predominantly Slav townspeople of Sezana.
As the troops left the battlefields across the world, so did Toc H. Instead, they started to travel with the BAOR (British Army Of the Rhine) running clubs in Germany. Jock was transferred near to the ruined city of Hanover where he opened a club – Exeter House – in Hildesheim. He was assisted by Phyliss Jones. The building was an old hotel on Einumer Strasse, and it was here Jock built a playground for younger children. He also ran a Scouts Rover troop for older German boys, and they worked with children at a nearby TB hospital. Phyllis Jones was later replaced by Mrs Webb, wife of Paul Webb, the Toc H BAOR Commissioner in Germany.
Jock with ‘his children’ at the playground in Hildesheim
Any visitor to the Toc H Services Club, Hildesheim, Hanover, cannot fail to notice numbers of German children playing in the Club garden at all hours of the day. They start arriving as early as 7.30 a.m., and continue to come and go throughout the day for, with 85 per cent. of the city destroyed, school lessons have to be taken in shifts and play-time must be adjusted to correspond.
It was whilst running this club that Jock first encountered Ilse Smolenski, a German woman whose father ran the Huckup restaurant in Hildesheim (a Huckup being a local troll like creature). Jock met Ilse there and she would become his Assistant Warden and Administrator. They also fell in love and Ilse would become Jock’s partner, though they could not marry since Jock was still married to Bessie.
Jock with Ilse in the Huckup restaurant (Photo Elizabeth Stollowsky)
In 1950, Jock was recalled from Germany by Toc H and on 29th December 1950, he set sail for Gibraltar where he was tasked with setting up a Leave Camp at Europa Point on Little Bay. The camp was in some pre-existing huts and Jock planned for it to be open by Easter 1951. He would later open a sister camp, this time in tents, across the Strait of Gibraltar in Tangier. Initially Ilse went with Jock and was his Assistant Manager, responsible for the Spanish Staff, buying goods and acted as a Spanish interpreter.
Jock and Ilse in Germany 1952 (Photo Elizabeth Stollowsky)
In 1953 Ilse fell pregnant. She wanted to marry Jock but he was unable (or perhaps unwilling) to do so. He may still have been married to Bessie at this time. Ilse was unhappy with this situation so in December 1953, she returned to Germany and on the 4th January 1954, in Frankfurt, gave birth to Elizabeth (aka Lili). Jock flew out to Germany to see her and was happy to be registered as her father. However, his work kept him in Gibraltar and soon after, Ilse met and married another man and Jock was prevented from seeing his daughter. He did however write to Elizabeth when she was older, and it is these letters that I quoted from earlier. It was Elizabeth and her son Florian who contacted me seeking more information about Jock and started my research rolling.
Meanwhile, back on the rock, as well as the hostel, Jock also helped run the local Toc H branch. It included Rover Scouts who visited the Colonial and Military Hospital three times a week as well as the psychiatric Hospital. They took a record player and records with them to entertain the patients. They also worked with local blind people.
In March 1954, Jock was caught up in an incident in the Mediterranean when the troopship, the Empress Windrush, caught fire and sank. Jock took survivors in to the Toc H camp until they were shipped home.
Sadly, in March 1955, Toc H decided to close the Leave Camp. At this point, Jock chose to take matters into his own hands. Without the financial support of Toc H (though with permission), he persuaded the military to loan him quarters built into the South Bastion, part of the Charles V fortress wall that surrounded part of the town. This included gun batteries and powder rooms. Jock would turn them into a new Toc H club. He was helped in this endeavour by a young Spanish girl called Isabella, who remained with him for many years. Jock thought of her as another daughter. Isabella later married Harry Kirby, a carpenter, whose skills were put to use converting the Toc H club. A chapel was built into one of the old powder rooms. Jock called it a Peace Camp, and it was also his home, and would remain so for the rest of his life.
Jock in the Gibraltar chapel
Jock was a familiar figure around the town. Nearly always in his kilt, the diminutive Scotsman (he was little more than five feet tall) was often seen riding his bike around. His love of people, particularly children, was well known and he was popular for his work with them. He was a Freemason and a member of the Kirk. He was also passionate about Toc H despite the fact he had been virtually abandoned by them.
Toc H lost part of the club when, in 1956, a new Primary school building was built atop the bastion. A few years later, two Old People’s Homes (Church of England and Jewish faith), were also built upon the northwest side of the sea-facing wall of the South Bastion and inaugurated on 10th February 1964. The remaining part of the club was increasingly being used as a hostel for young adventurers rather than a club for military men.
However, Jock did a lot more than offer a bed for itinerant back-packers. Before the Government Probation and Child Care services became available, Jock often took in troubled youngsters who required separation from the family environment. Also, travellers who had become stranded (quite probably youngsters on the ‘hippy trail’) were put up free of charge until they could be repatriated.
One newspaper report expounded on his talents and said that he was ‘also an electrician, a motor mechanic, a cobbler, and an artist’.
Jock’s only income at this time was small fees from the boys who camped with him. And, as he admitted in one of the letters to Elizabeth, after the Spanish border closed in June 1969, this income somewhat dried up. By the mid-seventies, Jock was reduced to selling his possessions to survive.
In 1969 Jock was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours list for Services to the Community of Gibraltar. He made occasional visits to London to see Tubby or visit Toc H HQ. My friend recalls seeing him on Tower Hill once. And many Toc H folk visited him on the Rock, and enjoyed his hospitality.
In February 1982 when he was almost 90, Jock was involved in a car accident and broke his leg. His health was already declining and after that he got more fragile. He was regularly visited by two local policemen and was well looked after by his housekeeper. However, his sight was deteriorating, as was his memory. Jock died in 1986 at the age of 94. Harry and Isabella took over the running of the hostel.
Jock at the hostel in his later years
What was Jock like? He was also, by all accounts, a staunch Christian. Well liked, he was determined to look after his flock, be that German children in a ruined city, or British sailors on the Rock of Gibraltar. I cannot begin to guess at why he would leave behind a woman and child in Germany. Certainly, he would have been ordered to Gibraltar by Toc H (they sent staff where they were needed in a very military fashion) but why he didn’t attempt to take his family with him, I cannot say. It seems out of sorts with the man he was. Clearly Ilse visited him in Gibraltar (with her sister) so contact was not lost entirely. However, his daughter didn’t manage to visit him in his lifetime. It is clear from the letters Jock wrote to her when she was a teenager, that he loved her and very much regretted not being able to be with her.
Interestingly, in one of these letters, Jock encouraged Elizabeth to work hard and study hard. He reflected how many young people lived from day to day and needed to smoke dope to get by. I imagine this was the image of young people that Jock saw from managing, what by the, was a back-packers’ hostel.
It was said he thought ‘young’ and he was certainly a character. Once, when waiting for Toc H founder Tubby Clayton – a good friend of his – to arrive in Gibraltar by ship, Jock tired of waiting, jumped into the water, and swam out to greet the ship.
He is well remembered on Gibraltar even today. I posted about him in a Gibraltarian facebook group and received a number of replies. All thought he was a kind and lovely man. Many also commented on the hostel grounds and how they were overrun with birds and other wildlife. Many also commented on how peaceful a haven it was, away from the bustle of the Rock. How very similar to the garden of the original Talbot House where Jock first encountered Toc H.
Oh, and by the way, the hostel that Jock ran for so long, is now being turned into a boutique hotel!
Several photos of the Toc H hostel after it had fallen into disrepair
Acknowledgements
As ever I am thankful for assistance with this article. In this case I am especially grateful to Florian and Elizabeth Stollowsky without whom I wouldn’t have even begun.
This blog looks at the Birthday Festivals of Toc H. It has proven to be another mammoth undertaking so I have decided to break it into two parts. This first piece looks at the Festivals from the beginning until they were interrupted by the Second World War. Part 2 will follow in a month or two. As well as unravelling the story of the Birthday Festivals, it is also an excuse to put in links to several of the programmes, and associated papers relating to the Festivals. I have scanned and uploaded these to The Internet Archive in recent weeks. The links can be found throughout the blog. Or if you just want to look at them in teh archive with all the other scanned material, click here
Everybody likes a good party don’t they. Tubby was certainly no exception and his regular attendance, in his later years, at the Christmas parties for Stepney children are remembered by some of those who read this blog. But let’s go back some 50 years before these parties, to late 1921. Toc H, as a Movement based in the UK (and starting to spread global wings) is barely two years old, yet it is already a huge association, with several Marks (hostels), many Branches, and many, many members. It already has sports teams, a drama Group, and had the patronage of well-known people from royalty to social reformers. Surely this was something to celebrate?
And so, in December 1921, a birthday party was arranged. It was officially the Sixth Birthday Party of Toc H – in this case meaning the anniversary of the opening Talbot House itself – and took place on Thursday 15th December. Yes, the 15th! You see, in the very early days it was mistakenly believed that Talbot House first opened on this date in 1915. Later, when some of Tubby’s letters home found the light of day, it was realised that in fact the Old House opened first on the 11th December. Conveniently this revised date was the day before Tubby’s own birthday and thus became a very fitting time to celebrate, and later to start the World Chain of Light.
Last minute advert for the first party
The first party though, was celebrated on that erroneous date, though it matters not one jot. Hastily organised, with notices only appearing in the press around the first week in December, the Family were to celebrate across two venues. It began at 7pm in the crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields by Trafalgar Square; the church run by Toc H’s great friend (and Tubby’s claimed cousin though, this has never been proven) Dick Sheppard. Here the assembled throng (700 apparently) held a service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance. Led by Padre Tom Pym DSO, it was bolstered by hymns, and given the time of year, carols too. After which they proceeded westerly for a mile and half toward Park Lane, and the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor House.
The magnificent townhouse, one of the largest in London, had been loaned to Toc H for the evening by the Duke himself, a great supporter of the Movement, introduced to them when the Cavendish Society (of which he was a a founder) was amalgamated into Toc H. The House sadly is gone – demolished in 1927 – and the Grosvenor House hotel now stands on the site.
In this magnificent property the ranks were swelled. It was later stated that 400 were anticipated and 2000 turned up! Somehow at 8pm, the evening’s proceedings began with supper though many picnicked on the floor due to lack of place settings and food.
The full programme can be viewed here so let us settle for the highlights.
Supper consisted of Crème de Tomme, whilst Boeuf a la Darby & Joan, and Pommes de Terre a la Somme were also amongst the humorously named items à la carte.
Newspaper report about the forthcoming party
After supper, the concert and dance programme in the ballroom opened with the Band of the London Rifle Brigade. Then at 9pm, the frolicking paused as HRH Prince Henry, arrived. Lord Salisbury welcomed him and he read a message from his brother – and Toc H patron – the Prince of Wales. Private Pettifer (https://tochcentenary.wordpress.com/2022/06/10/the-steadiest-buff-arthur-pettifer-mm/) thanked Prince Henry but the General’s final words were drowned out by thunderous applause.
Malcolm Davidson, Minna Woodhead, and others continued the musical entertainment whilst at 10.10pm a separate conjuring act took place in the Supper Room. In the days that followed, several of the day’s gossip columnists reported the fact that Prince Henry did not join in the dancing.
Report about Prince Henry’s attendance
One of the most significant parts of the evening was the circulating and signing of the Round Robin. This document bore the signatures of all present – including Prince Henry – and a message to be read out at the Centenary Celebrations in 2015. That message read as follows:
Address to be read at the Centenary family party of Toc Н on the fifteenth day of December, A.D. 2015: Whereas it is as unlikely that we shall be able to join your festivities as that you will join ours to-night, we indite this Round Robin to you. Not knowing you, we have the Utmost Confidence in you, and trust that our Sentiments are reciprocated on the same terms towards all those whose signatures аrе attached—with the inevitable exception of those whose names have plagued you in your History Books. But like all great causes, Toc Н is similar to the “Wood” in “Alice” where names of persons are lost. To be serious in a document of this character would be unconvincing in the last degree. We will therefore content ourselves with wishing you all Many Happy Returns of the Day and remaining your obedient ancestors in Toc Н.
This most pertinent document survived in the Toc H archives for decades but sadly went missing around the time of the upheavals at the very beginning of the 21st century. It’s whereabouts are unknown and Talbot House offered a substantial reward for its return. I was most fortunate to be at the Centenary Celebrations in the Old House in December 2015, and it was such a shame the Round Robin was not there with us.
The Round Robin signed by all who attended the earliest birthday party
Thus ended that first party. The bar had been set high. Would any future party be able to surpass it? Well, regular readers of my work will know that 1922 was Tubby and Toc H’s annus mirabilis so let’s see.
The following year’s birthday party was organised much further in advance – the date was set by the summer – since it was to be a more prestigious affair. If you followed the posts in the facebook Group in 2022, you will know that much happened in 1922. The most relevant to this article are that Tubby was appointed vicar of All Hallows, and that the lamp was introduced as the symbol of a Toc H Branch. These would both prove integral to the 1922 Birthday Festival.
The event was initially planned for the 15th December – a Friday this year – at Grosvenor House again and it was believed his HRH the Prince of Wales would be in attendance. However, by October, it was clear that the Duke’s house, substantial though it was, would not be capable to holding all those who had expressed an interest in attending. On top of which, a Thanksgiving Service was planned for All Hallows which was some four miles away. Instead Tubby struck a deal with the Corporation, and the Guildhall was appropriated for the night (after the Tower of London and the new Port of London Authority building were rejected for various reasons). By this time though, the Prince of Wales had confirmed his attendance.
Moving the Service from St Martin’s to All Hallows was described as a ‘wrench’ but given that Tubby was to be installed as vicar of All Hallows on 15th December, it was perhaps inevitable. Promises were made to abduct Dick Sheppard and bring him to Tower Hill. Unfortunately, a bout of acute appendicitis would mean this didn’t prove possible.
Great efforts were made to accommodate the growing number of provincial members; quite literally as London members were asked to billet those coming from further afield. Toc H HQ was also prepared to subsidise train fares in exceptional cases. The newly formed League of Women Helpers were also called upon to offer similar hospitality.
The most significant difference from 1921 though, was to be the bestowal and lighting of the first Lamps of Maintenance to those Branches that had been awarded them since they were introduced in the autumn. Incidentally, something I now notice that I previously missed, is that the lamp provided by the Prince in memory of his friends, was originally intended to be awarded annually to the Branch which, in the opinion of the judges, had done the most that year to promote and extend the ideals of Toc H. As we now know, that plan changed and the Prince’s lamp became that from which all Toc H lamps were kindled and it would sit – as it still does – permanently on Sir John Croke’s tomb in All Hallows.
Another significant difference for 1921 was that no official refreshment was to be provided. Instead, delegates were to be issued with vouchers that would entitle them to a meal at Joe Lyons, that well-known chain of British restaurants.
And so, what did occur after all the planning. Well, to start with, it took place over three days (15th-17th December) instead of just one night. It began at All Hallows at 6pm on the Friday night, when Tubby was instituted to the living of All Hallows by the Bishop of London, Arthur Winnington-Ingram, and inducted by the Archdeacon of London, Ernest Holmes.
This was immediately followed by a Thanksgiving Service, at which the Prince of Wales made a discreet and unannounced appearance. At 7.20pm there was a Supper Break and those at All Hallows dashed off to one of several nearby J. Lyon’s restaurants with their reserved tickets. Let’s hope they were served quickly because all had to be assembled in the Guildhall by 8.45pm – punctually – for the 9pm official arrival of HRH the Prince of Wales.
Representatives came from many Branches but in particular, from those Groups who had been elevated to Branch status, since that distinction was introduced in the late summer (confusingly all Toc H units were known as Branches until the Lamp was brought in as a status symbol, at which point the units were ‘demoted’ to Groups, and then had to petition to become a Branch). Several affiliated schools were also present that night.
And so that night, the ceremony of the bestowal and the lighting of the Lamps of Maintenance to the first 44 Branches (and several schools), took place. See here for more details of the first Lamp-lighting Ceremony (https://tochcentenary.wordpress.com/2020/03/31/a-lamp-miscellany/).
The first lamp-lighting festival
How the branches and schools were arranged
After the ceremony there was what was described as a family reunion – ‘mingling’ I believe – followed by, at 11pm, a hearty rendition of Rogerum, before all departed.
Saturday morning saw a conference over at Mark I in Kensington, as well as a meeting of the LWH, whilst the afternoon’s entertainment was a soccer match at Folly Farm, the Toc H sports ground in Barnet. The Toc H First XI took on Barts, and despite a ‘scrappy’ game, emerged victors by two goals to nil. Toc H player Harry Heynes was unfortunate to break a knee-cap during the game, although perhaps more fortunate that the opposition were a team of doctors from Bart’s, so he received immediate and competent treatment. He did end up in hospital for some time but eventually recovered.
In the evening the Toc H Concert Party and the Toc H Dramatic League took charge of the recreation with a Smoking Concert at Church House in Great Smith Street. Later this year, I plan to write a blog on the various entertainment groups formed within Toc H.
Finally, on Sunday morning there was an Anglican Communion at All Hallows in the morning (followed by breakfast at the Bakers’ Company hall nearby, with the Prince of Wales once again unobtrusively joining the crowd), and a United service in the afternoon which was addressed by the Bishop of Pretoria, none other than Neville Talbot of course.
As you have read, the 1922 Birthday Party was certainly a step up from that first affair a year earlier. Thanks largely to the attendance of the Prince of Wales, it attracted press attention, and a Times photographer was present. His photographs made up the Birthday Supplement that appeared with the January Journal.
It is worth noting here, that the concept of Birthday parties started to gain traction in Toc H. For instance, on 20th December 1922, Sheffield held a Branch birthday party at which they lit the lamp in their Branch room for the first time. Such Branch, District, and Area celebrations would propagate profusely in years to come, particularly when the Movement was too big to celebrate at one huge party. To try and catalogue all these parties would be the path to madness for your humble researcher so I shall be focussing on the National Festivals – with a couple of exceptions which will be made clear.
By August 1923, it was clear that the Birthday celebration was to be repeated, and – as birthdays are wont to occur – it would once again be on the 15th December. The City Fathers had been approached for permission to use the Guild Hall again, and the Prince of Wales registered the date in his official engagement diary. The Guard of the Lamp were working on a new Lamp-lighting Ceremony but had decided to do something a little shorter and less grandiose this year. Indeed, the whole Festival was to be foreshortened by an evening and take place over just the two days of the weekend of the 15th and 16th December.
The 15th was a Saturday in 1923 and both the Drama League and the Sports Ground promised to play their part in the afternoon. However, it was at All Hallows at 6pm that the true celebrations would begin. Here, at 6.45pm the Prince would be asked to accept the magnificent casket – designed by Alec Smithers – in which his lamp would be stored on top of John Croke’s tomb in All Hallows. At the same time, the sword of Edmund Street would be laid in place. Street was one of the first officers who became involved with Talbot House in Poperinge. He was killed on the Somme in October 1916.
The celebrations would then be continued in the Guild Hall from 8.30pm as this invitation shows.
The arrangements for the evening celebrations were placed firmly on the shoulders of the Guard of the Lamp, this being Tubby, John Hollis, and Barclay Baron. By November, their plans were firming up. The Drama League’s contribution was to be – at 2.15pm on the Saturday afternoon, a performance of John Galsworthy’s The Skin Game (the first big success of the man later known for The Forsyte Saga). The sports team promised a ‘a couple of matches’ but were not yet any more specific. There was to be a Confirmation Service at 5pm, followed at 6pm by the Family Thanksgiving Service.
Tubby and Pat Leonard share a joke with members outside All Hallows at an early Birthday weekend
Supper (as of November, venue to be confirmed) followed at 7.15pm after which the crowds assembled in the Guild Hall. This of course, included the Lighting of the Lamps, and was followed by a speech from Viscount Grey of Fallodon, and others. It is perhaps, with a little irony, that Earl Grey is best remembered for his remark at the outbreak of World War One, that “the lamps are going out”. I wonder if he made reference to that at the Toc H Festival as the lamps came alight once again!
Sunday was again to be a mix of church services and an afternoon conference.
And did these plans come to be? Most certainly. The Drama League – rebegan after a short interlude – entertained well with their rendition of the Skin Game. Film fans might like to note that one of the leading lights was Edward Chapman, a diverse and well-respected actor of the mid-20th century but forever known to those of my generation as Mr Grimsdale from the Norman Wisdom films.
By chance, the Birthday coincided with the second round of the Amateur Football Association Cup, and the Toc H supporters were able to watch the team beat the Old Malvernians 4-3 and proceed to the third round.
The Thanksgiving Service at All Hallows was filled – if our commentator is to be believed – by 700 men in a church with seating for 300. It was rumoured that Boy Scouts were banked ‘nearly up to the vaulting’ and ‘the church mouse had no room at all!’ The same commentator was less that complimentary about the singing and stated that the Branches had to learn that singing and shouting songs were two different things. The service though, was noticeable for the first renditioning of the Birthday Hymn, written specially by Tubby.
The Birthday Hymn, composed by Tubby
The London Rifle Brigade Drill Hall, in Bunhill Row, provided the supper venue (integral coffee stall included, from which the Prince ordered a couple of ham rolls), and then the motley human zoo moved on to the Guild Hall. It was bursting at the seams, and that night it became apparent that in future years it would no longer serve the purpose. Nonetheless, John Hollis directed the proceedings the best he could. The Band of the Welsh Guards played; the Branches paraded their banners and the speeches were made, including one by J. M. Barrie, a reasonably new recruit to Toc H. And a little later, as the Prince of Wales lit the lamps of the new Branches, Barrie could be seen scurrying back and forth, along with Tim Harrington, passing the lit taper from lamp to lamp. Then as the evening drew to a close, Tubby raced headlong into Rogerum as such a speed, the Band of the Welsh Guard could barely keep up.
Sunday was a more subdued day with a morning Communion for the CofE then another for the Free Churches, with an afternoon conference at the London Rifle Brigade Drill Hall again. Alec Paterson chaired, and the subject focussed on the different types of work Toc H could, and should, be doing. And thus closed another memorable Birthday party. All attendees got a commemorative card.
Oh, and Grosvenor House once more played a part, being turned into a dormitory for 300 of the delegates.
By October 1924, the Guard of the lamp (Still Tubby, Barkis, and Hollis) had once again been put in charge of the Birthday Festival arrangements; hardly surprising given the prominent role the Lamp-lighting Ceremony was now taking. They co-opted Grantibus (Ronnie Grant), Herbert Fleming, ‘Buster’ Browne, and John Daly to assist. Am inconvenient leap year meant that the 15th would fall on a Monday, so it was decided that the main festivities would actually take place on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th December. Branches and Groups could hold their own local celebrations on the 15th thus allowing members to also attend the London celebrations.
And thereby lay the first problem. Toc H was already growing exponentially, and encouraging yet more members to join the London Festival, was bound to lead to problems of overcrowding. So firstly, the 6pm Service of Thanksgiving was to be split, and held simultaneously between All Hallows and the nearby church of St Dunstan’s in the East (even then St Margaret Pattens had to be added as a third venue).
St Margaret’s, parish church of the House of Commons. (Photo London Stereoscopic Company)
Afterwards, the Members’ night (or Family Party) was to take place, not at the Guild Hall but at the Memorial Hall in Farringdon Street. Built on the site of the Fleet Prison and opened in 1875, the Congregational Memorial Hall survived only until 1968. But on Saturday 13th December 1924 Toc H ate supper in the small hall on the first floor before ascending the stairs to the great hall on the third floor where the Prince of Wales lit the lamps before making a speech. This was followed by a traditional sing-a-long.
The Memorial Hall, Farringdon
Sunday was again dominated by Communion at All Hallows (Anglicans first, then the Free churches) followed by breakfast at the Baker’s Hall and other venues across the hill, then an afternoon conference.
A ticket entitling the bearer to breakfast in the Tiger pub on Tower Hill
One of the special occasions of this year’s festival was the official unveiling – by the Prince – of Gilbert Talbot’s wooden cross, recovered from the cemetery at Sanctuary Wood where it was replaced by a permanent headstone. There is more to the story of Gilbert Talbot’s cross but I will leave this for another time. What was perhaps not expected though, was the sight that accompanied that unveiling. Let us have an eye-witness explain it, for they can do it far better than I could hope to:
The Pilgrims’ conversation was over, and as the organ pealed out, the people, singing joyfully, began to pour into the street. Pew by pew the aisles emptied in orderly fashion, and the procession down Great Tower Street grew silently longer. Torches beckoned us to All Hallows, and the sudden blaze of light into which we stumbled by the south door, blinded our eyes for a moment to what we had come to sec—the Mother Church thronged with the family and the dark outline of Gilbert’s Cross standing in the distance near the Lamp in the restored sanctuary of Richard’s Chapel.
Through the north door we passed out into the darkness. Torchlights, held high by bare-armed scouts and blown northwards by a steady breeze, ringed Tower Hill and showed dimly the gathering crowd, waiting quietly until the two thousand worshippers from the three churches filled the space and made one great congregation surrounding the Bishops and Chaplains. A flash from the side discovered the unexpected presence of the press photographer and his accessories on the roof of a familiar coffee stall, and for a second the scene stood out clearly— the white robes, the upturned faces, the expectant attitude, the stragglers still hurrying to the edge of the crowd, the shadowy Tower in the background. For the second time this year Tower Hill watched a great act of witness.
Onwards then to the Memorial Hall where supper was a joyous affair. Then upstairs to the great hall for the main event. Here for the first time we started to see the banners that would become synonymous with Toc H. At the previous Lamp-lighting festivals, each Branch had carried – on a pole – a very simple rectangular piece of cloth bearing a the Branch name. Now we had painted and embroidered banners, each showing some aspect of the town the Branch represented. Even more spectacularly was a painted canvas that represented the lower two floors of Talbot House itself. It was not just a static painting either because at the appointed hour, the great double doors swung open, and out stepped the Prince of Wales, flanked by Tubby and the Gen. What, I wonder, became of this great artwork?
However, as the Prince took his position between Lord Plumer and the Marquis of Salisbury, it became apparent he had left his pipe in the ante-room. An observant Boy Scout, realising something was amiss, slipped quietly into the back toom and returned with the Prince’s pipe. Order was restored, and that Boy Scout did his duty!
Musical entertainment preceded Light and then the lighting of the new lamps, after which the Prince made his speech. In it, he referred to the opening of the Brothers’ House which he had carried out that very afternoon, and spoke at length of the growth of Toc H in the Dominion. In particular who he had high hopes for Toc H taking root in Australia, which of course it very soon did.
After a short interlude there was more entertainment, kicked off by the Tic-Tocs (blog coming soon) and then, in a final and moving ceremony, the wooden crosses from the graves of unknown soldiers – passed to Toc H by the War Graves Commission when they replaced them with stone – were given into the care of various Branches to hang in their chapels.
And after that solemn moment, the crowd of some 2000 Toc H members spilled into the streets of London.
Sunday morning, with two Anglican Communions required to accommodate the masses, George Macleod and Alex Birkmire led the Free Church service at Bishopsgate Chapel. The inequity between the Church of England and the nonconformist churches was causing rumbles of discontent within Toc H. I won’t dwell on this here as I have previously written a blog on the subject (https://tochcentenary.wordpress.com/2016/11/16/everymans-club/) but it was at this time that a divisive row between Tubby, and some members of the Free Churches, blew up leading to Macleod resigning from the staff of Toc H.
On a more positive note, another innovation at the 1924 Birthday Festival was a conference specifically for the Rover Scouts. This scheme by Baden-Powell to keep young men involved with the Scouting Movement beyond their 18th birthday had begun in 1918 but was slow in gaining traction. Only when his friend Tubby encouraged Toc H units to adopt or begin a Rover Scout unit, did it really start to find its feet. Incidentally, between them, Toc H and the Rover Scouts pretty much provided all the ‘red gold’ for the early blood transfusion service, but again, that’s a story for another day.
Also, revealed at the 1924 Festival was the model of the Upper Room at Talbot House, commissioned by the Imperial War Museum, and painstaking recreated by Herbert Harry Cawood from measurements he made during a 1921 pilgrimage. He actually made two identical models. This one was set up in the Porch Room for the festivities but now sits in the crypt whilst the second is at the Imperial War Museum.
The model of the Upper Room in the Crypt at All Hallows (Photo Zoe Styles)
For the tenth birthday party in 1925, the festival committee line-up had changed slightly. The Guard of the Lamp were still central to arrangements but now consisted of Herbert Fleming, Ronnie Grant, and Barkis. Joining them as chair of the committee was David Boyle, whilst none other than Alan Alexander Milne was co-opted to the Group. Yes, that A.A. Milne, a new and very enthusiastic member of Toc H. The nearest Saturday and Sunday to the 15th fell on the 12th and 13th but Tubby and Pat were on a world tour so the following weekend of the 19th and 20th was chosen instead. This, the committee noted, was after the boarding schools closed for Christmas so the chances of more school masters and pupils attending, was increased.
A map of the main venues of the 1925 party
The Birthday Conference was now moved to the Saturday afternoon and limited to invited delegates (three per Branch) to stop the venue – the Royal College of Music in South Kensington – being swamped. The LWH held a separate conference. But it was at 6.30pm that the party began in earnest and this time it was held at no less a venue than the Royal Albert Hall; it’s capacity of 5000-6000 expected to give members a little elbow room. After some mingling, the evening proper began with a Masque entitled In The Light of a Lamp. A Masque, of course, is a form of entertainment with its roots in the royal courts of Italy. It should come as no surprise that this Toc H Masque was conceived and written by the pro-European and somewhat talented Barclay Baron. His co-conspirators were Christopher Ogle (described as something in the city) who wrote the music for Baron’s words, and Lawrence Martyn who designed the props. Then of course there was the cast and singers of whom we can’t mention all here except to say that Padre Tubby, Padre Pat, and the Gen, all put in appearances as themselves to great applause. Much more could be written about the Masque but I suggest you go read it for yourself
After this joyful entertainment, Tubby and Pat, just back from their epic world travels, were received to rapturous applause before the evening’s Lamp-lighting Ceremony got underway. The Prince of Wales attended despite the royal court being in a period of mourning for his grandmother, Queen Alexandra, who died on the 20th November.
Sunday’s main event was the Thanksgiving Service but with All Hallows now too small, the party assembled there but proceeded over the bridge to Southwark where the communion was held in the cathedral.
Tubby’s mother died in 1919 but it was sometime afterwards that her personal papers were being sorted, and letters Tubby sent to her from Talbot House resurfaced. These confirmed the stories Tubby told in Tales of Talbot House but – and in one important case – corrected a detail.
Ever since Toc H restarted as a post war Movement, it had been believed that the original House opened its doors on 15th December 1915 – a Wednesday. However, one of the letters Tubby wrote to his mother is dated (and timed) Wednesday Morning 3.30am, December 15th, 1915. In the body of the letter Tubby explains that the house is now open in two departments out of three, and says it opened on Saturday with a singsong. He goes on to say that the little chapel was full for celebration at 11.15 on the Sunday. So, in fact the House first opened on Saturday 11th December 1915, with its first service the following day.
Therefore from 1926 forward, the 11th December became the official birthday day. By chance, the following day is also Tubby’s birthday which enhances the celebrations.
The 1926 Festival was actually held in Manchester and spread across those two days (11th and 12th December 1926). It was felt that London had dominated the Festivals to date and it was time for the provinces to shine. Although District Festivals took place for those who could not make the journey to Manchester, many did come from all quarters including a large party of around 600 from London. Several of those travelled by train on reserved coaches from St Pancras and they were delighted when the Prince of Wales joined the train along the way. He departed at Chorlton to finish his journey to Mark IV by car. A second Toc H Special with no less than ten Toc H coaches, departed Euston a little later.
The Thanksgiving Service took place on Saturday evening, at Manchester Cathedral. Those Londoners who arrived on the Toc H specials were escorted ‘in fours’ by the Manchester Police Force, from station to cathedral, a police band included!
After the address, various Branches were presented with the wooden crosses of unknown soldiers. These had been taken from Flanders when the Imperial War Graves Commission replaced the simple timber gravemarkers with the familiar carved headstones. Various Toc H Branches (and other organisations) were presented with the crosses to look after. This sends a little chill down my spine, as one of the crosses presented that night was given to Broxbourne Branch. Almost 80 years later, this particular cross was in my hands (and my garage for a few weeks) when Hoddesdon House closed. It eventually made its way to Prideaux House, and is now, I believe, at Talbot House.
Post service suppers took place at numerous cafes in the city, although the Prince and a select few supped at the Town Hall. Replete, everyone reconvened just before 8pm at the Free Trade Hall, where the Prince would give a speech. Greetings were read from Toc H around the world, followed by a revised and extended version of the Light Of The Lamp masque. Additional music was provided by Christopher Ogle (See Barclay Baron Blog https://tochcentenary.wordpress.com/2020/05/10/let-your-light-so-shine/). Here is Pat Leonard’s copy of the Masque.
Then the lamps, rushlights, and banners processed into the hall, the Prince of Wales lamp, already lit, being carried by a Boy Scout. Tapers lit from this lamp were hastily passed around the hall and the lamps and rushlights lit. Then 24 new lamps – those Groups that had been promoted to Branches – were ceremoniously lit, the last – a Silver Lamp – being dedicated to the late Herbert Fleming. As a by the by, this lamp later stood in the chapel at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich but is now MIA, the only one of the eight silver lamps I cannot account for.
The first evening closed with Light and a rousing version of Jerusalem before everyone spilled out onto the streets of Manchester.
On Sunday there were separate morning services for the Anglicans and Free Churchers followed by breakfast at various establishments. The rest of the morning was spent visiting Mark IV, Mark XIV, or Hulme House (See my blog about Stuart Greenacre for more about Hulme House https://tochcentenary.wordpress.com/2021/02/25/to-serve-them-all-my-days/), or listening to one of several Toc H sermons being delivered at different churches in the city. Various business was carried out in the afternoon including the LWH Council Meeting whilst a Family Gathering was held at the Lesser Free Trade Hall. (Who could imagine that just under half a century later – in July 1976 – a virtually unknown band called the Sex Pistols, would play the very same hall and bring punk rock to Manchester?) Amongst those speaking at the event were Harry Ellison, Pat Leonard – who got Toc H moving in Manchester -, and Tubby himself. By Sunday evening, most members, including the huge London contingent, had to leave for home. Those who were left assembled once again in the great cathedral where Tubby took Evensong.
The following Friday (17th December) there was London Federation party with a Thanksgiving Service at the West Kensington Congregational Church.
It was back to London in 1927 and – for reasons I cannot determine – it was brought forward to the weekend of the 3rd and 4th of December. The programme began on Saturday evening with a Service at Westminster Abbey. This Act of Praise and Purpose started with a procession and it is worth sharing a description of this from the Journal of the time:
The procession formed in two columns, one destined for the Northaisle, the other for the South, and began to file down the steps into the open, and then under the archway into the Cloisters, This preliminary march of the Banner-bearers, seen by very few onlookers, was a strikingly beautiful spectacle. On and on they came, out of the immense shadows of the arch, into the occasional light of lamps here and there in the Cloisters, their changing heraldry and gleam of gold and flutter of orange silk banner-linings half hiding eager and familiar faces. Their tramp and shuffle on the stone flags filled all that quiet place; their passing shadow still further fretted the carved and crumbled walls. They were “ like an army “—not “ terrible,” but joyful ‘* with banners.”
Thus into the Abbey itself. Brilliant light fell over the expectant Family, closely seated, or, here and there, standing (for the permissible seating of the Abbey fell far short of the worshippers). Beyond the Screen this light found its climax in the Sanctuary, where the great altar with its golden ornaments, its embroidery and the wonderful intricacy of its gilded reredos gleamed and dazzled in the light of many candles. Out of this lower area flooded with light—and it was indeed lofty enough to fill the height of an ordinary church—there soared the huge clusters of columns bearing the vault overhead; columns like age-old trees, with their feet in a golden glow and the spreading crown of their stone Branches almost lost to men’s eyes in the upper twilight.
Such was the attendance, an overflow service had to be hastily arranged at a few days’ notice at nearby St Margaret’s church. Gilbert Williams took the service here.
The service(s) was followed by the usual supper (3000 members to be fed at twenty nearby restaurants). This did, unfortunately, show another side of Toc H, as this piece from The Journal pointed out.
“A faithful Foundation Member of Toc H, who never misses the Birthday Festival, wrote а note to the Editor the other day, headed “As others see us.” He describes the thoughtless behaviour of some Тос Н members at restaurants—lumps of sugar thrown across the room, barging about at the entrance, and the singing of Why are we waiting? ” in the ears of those doing their best under difficulties. The writer then adds, “ It is hardly fair to expect the general public to admire our method of dispersing from the Albert Hall—the holding up of traffic by singing parties, marching twenty abreast along a main thoroughfare, may be good fun for us, but is hardly appreciated by other people. Might I suggest that we really let ourselves go only in the halls where the Family meets, and that we cut out ‘ Boat-race night” behaviour in public.” The citizens of London are really pleased to be invaded every year by Toc H from all parts, and we must play fair to them all round.”
Next then, a Guest Night at the Royal Albert Hall. Here the roof was raised by lusty community singing and the Band of HM Welsh Guards. And lusty it must have been for there were no less than 7500 in the hall. About 6000 of them saw the Prince of Wales light the new lamps, but the 1500 shoved high up in the gallery, had less of a view. Toc H were even outgrowing the massive Royal Albert Hall. At one point in the planning for 1927, Olympia was going to be used instead, but in the end, the more usual venue was favoured. The Prince’s speech was broadcast in a live 15-minute programme by the BBC, the first time any part of the Festivals had been aired. Tubby was present on the evening and gave a speech but was quite poorly. Immediately after the celebrations he was confined to bed by Dr Leonard Browne and was unable to attend Sunday’s events.
Radio Times for Saturday 3rd December 1927
Sunday 4th saw various communion services at different churches across town, including, of course, All Hallows, Gilbert Williams standing in for the ill-disposed Tubby. The Free churches celebrated in the chapel of St John in the White Tower of the Tower of London itself. Then there was an afternoon gathering in the London Rifle Brigade Drill Hall on Bunhill Row. After more Community Singing, many speeches were made including one by Harro Jensen, the first German member of Toc H.
A year on, and the major difference at the 1928 Festival would be the lack of a Lamp-lighting Ceremony. This was because the Prince of Wales was travelling in Africa. Instead, the Lamp-lighting would be held in April 1929 at Great Church House in Dean’s Yard, Westminster. Otherwise, the Festival took on a familiar form except it was extended over three days. The main Festival was held over the weekend of the 8th and 9th of December whilst an additional Guest Night was held on the 12th, the actual birthday. This was partly to help alleviate the overcrowding at the main Festival night.
However, before the hoards descended on Westminster, many headed for Buckingham Palace where the King – George V – was gravely ill with septicaemia. So many members attended that the Times noted that “the gathering was a large one, swollen by a number of Toc H members who had travelled long-distances to attend the Birthday Festival of their organisation.” Thankfully the King pulled through.
So, the proper celebrations began on Saturday 8th as usual with the Family Thanksgiving Service, this time spread between Westminster Abbey, St Margaret’s, St Andrew’s, and Christ Church. For the first the service was broadcast by the BBC on their 5GB transmitter allowing it to be picked up across the country and in some overseas territories. As well as the service, more wooden crosses of Unknown Soldiers were passed to Branches to look after. Also, a party from Belgium including the Burgomaster of Ypres, brought the silver lamp of Ypres to be dedicated by the Dean of Westminster “in memory of the Belgian soldiers who fell on the field of honour and of those their comrades of the British Army who gave their lives in the defence of the Ypres Salient.” (See this blog for more info on the Silver Lamps https://tochcentenary.wordpress.com/2020/03/31/a-lamp-miscellany/)
Radio Times listing for the 1928 festival
The Festival evening was again held in the overcrowded Royal Albert Hall with Lord Forster presiding. A message was sent to the palace from Toc H to wish the King well and a telegram was returned by the Queen (Later Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother) thanking “the family of Toc H”. Birthday greetings from around the globe were read and then a Masque – Four Points of the Compass – was performed. Light and Prayers concluded the evening.
Sunday was again taken up with various church services – the first at 6am at All Hallows – and a family gathering in the afternoon, once more at the London Rifle Brigade Drill Hall.
For those who could be in London on Wednesday 12th, and for many friends who were not members of Toc H, the actual birthday was celebrated with a Guest Night, again at the Royal Albert Hall. Tubby’s own birthday was also celebrated. A telegram was received from the Prince of Wales regretting he could not attend the event. The events of Saturday night were rerun but scaled down as it was mostly London Branches in attendance. Also, Lord Forster had laryngitis and was replaced by Lord Plumer. It was, nevertheless, a much-enjoyed evening.
1929 saw a slight reshuffling with a Birthday Guest Night being held on the evening of Friday 6th December, again at the stuffed to the rafters Albert Hall. Stanley Baldwin was amongst those making speeches. The former Prime Minister had narrowly lost the June election (to Ramsay Macdonald, who was also – albeit briefly – a member of Toc H), and said he now had more time to give the Movement.
Saturday saw the Thanksgiving Service at Westminster Abbey followed by the members only Festival Evening at the Royal Albert Hall. The Prince was here this time to light the new lamps and give his speech. Like the Friday, there was a Christmas play, At The Sign of the Star. Like the Masques, it was devised by Barclay Baron but was considerably shorter.
Sunday Services were followed by a Family Gathering at the People’s Palace, a library in Mile End which would be destroyed by fire just two years later. The change was probably because the London Rifle Brigade drill hall was too small. The 1929 Birthday Festival though, the Birthday Festival at which the greatest present of all was gifted to Toc H. It was announced to all present that Lord Wakefield of Hythe (https://tochcentenary.wordpress.com/2022/12/03/a-most-generous-man-the-story-of-charles-wakefield/), the wealthy owner of the company that made Castrol Oil, had bought Talbot House for the Movement.
It was clear now that the Festivals could not continue as they were. Toc H was too big. In November 1929 it was proposed that the Festival should be switched from December to May as just before Christmas was a busy time for most. It was also suggested that Olympia be the venue, which they had considered for 1929 but hadn’t happened as it was generally booked in December. It was also proposed that only Regional Festivals should be held in 1930 with the next National Festival taking place in May 1931. At the Central Council meeting in April 1930, these proposals were largely accepted, the resolution being passed that “the Central Council approves of the annual Festival being held in the future in the month of May in London, the next Festival to be held in 1931”
By October, the next National Festival had been fixed – not at Olympia but a garden party at Crystal Palace.
Regional Festivals went ahead in December 1930 with London’s being held at St Paul’s (the Thanksgiving Service) and the Albert Hall (less crammed with only London members and friends in attendance). No Lamp-lighting took place, this being saved for Crystal Palace. There was one exception – a party went to Talbot House to start the World Chain of Light and the Talbot House lamp was first lit on 5th December at the House before the party dashed back to the UK for the regional festivals. I wrote extensively about this trip here (https://tochcentenary.wordpress.com/2022/01/14/the-1930-world-chain-of-light/)
The BBC recorded some of the Albert Hall evening and parts of it were later released on HMV. If you wish to hear them you will find them here.
Birthday Festival 1930 Recording Side 1 (HMV)
Birthday Festival 1930 Recording Side 2 (HMV)
Radio Times listing for Tubby’s 1930 address
And so, to Crystal Palace. The immense glass palace, built in Hyde Park in 1851 to house the Great Exhibition and then reconstructed (in a different form) at Penge Place, near Sydenham Hill in 1854, was now a glorious event venue surrounded, and raised above, wonderful gardens. Here Toc H would celebrate with a Garden Party on the 6th and 7th June, a weekend that suited the Prince of Wales better than the originally scheduled May.
The crowds were expected to assemble on the terrace outside the hall at around 3.30pm where entertainment would be provided by the Band of the Welsh Guards. The traditional Thanksgiving Service started at 5pm in the Central Transept of the Palace (or the Super Greenhouse as it was known to some). The choir unveiled a new hymn, Song of the Builders to the 8000 members – yes eight thousand –who filled the Palace. Tubby spoke without resorting to a microphone and loudspeakers, his baritone echoing around the great glass atrium. More wooden crosses of Unknown Soldiers were handed to the stewardship of Branches. Lord Wakefield read the lesson, and two hymns penned by Tubby ended the Service.
This was followed by a meal for the chosen few – actually reservations at the several restaurants in the complex were prioritised for those who had travelled furthest – and a picnic for everyone else, i.e. the London contingent. Just after 7pm HRH the Prince of Wales arrived to unveil a memorial to the RNVR – a ship’s bell – who occupied the Palace throughout World War One. He then made a speech, answered by Tubby, which was followed by the Lamp-lighting Festival. After an interlude, a new musical pageant – The Thorn of Avalon -, written by Barclay Baron with music by Martin Shaw, and based around the story of the Holy Thorn, was performed. Evening Prayers and a Blessing closed the first night.
Not everything was to be held in South London though. On Sunday it was into the City for a Communion Services at All Hallows and other venues around the Square Mile (the Church of Scotland at St Olave’s and the Free Churches in Talbot House on Trinity Square). Then breakfast followed by preaching at All Hallows and St Margaret Pattens, and by visits to the Marks with a Family Gathering in the afternoon at the Royal Agricultural Hall in Islington before the family dispersed for its homes.
Interestingly, one of the topics raised at the Family gathering was that of future Festivals. It was noted that the North was poorly represented here in London and that future national Festivals must move around, or be held less frequently with Area and District Festivals taking precedent.
And that was exactly what was to happen in 1932. Each Area or District was left to arrange its own Birthday Festival, and not all would take place in December. Special status was given to the West Midland Area Festival where a Lamp-lighting Festival, presided over by the Prince of Wales as normal, was held on Saturday 3rd December. With no church in the city large enough to contain the entire congregation, it was left to Messrs Cadbury to provide the great dining hall at their Bournville factory for the Thanksgiving Service. They also invited the entire congregation to remain for tea, which overflowed into a second dining hall, and a smaller downstairs room. Several members of the Cadbury family were present and it is probably no surprise that they presented every single attendee with a box of chocolates wrapped in a special cover bearing the arms of Ypres. I wonder if any survive.
Then it was off to the town hall for the Festival evening where entertainment and speeches opened the proceedings followed by the aforementioned Lamp-lighting. This was followed by the Christmas mime, At The Sign of the Star, which made its debut in 1929 and had been repeated at various area festivals ever since.
Birmingham Town Hall
Sunday’s services were spread around the city churches with the likes of Pat Leonard, Hugh Sawbridge, and Owen Watkins leading the congregations. The Palais de Dance at Edgbaston hosted the Family Gathering where many greats and goods of Toc H spoke to the gathered crowds before prayers closed the Festival for another year.
Although it was not quite over. A week later, at Birmingham Town Hall on Sunday 11th December, Barkis presented a further showing of the mime At The Sign of the Star.
London held it’s own Service at St Paul’s on Friday 9th December
And London was once more home to the Festival in December 1933. The 9th and 10th saw the weekend celebrations whilst Monday 11th marked the start of the World Chain of Light, the first lamp being lit in Talbot House, Poperinghe for the second year running – a tradition that would continue until 1937.
The Thanksgiving Service was held at St Paul’s cathedral and the largest ever congregation of Toc H members filled the great church which has twice the capacity of Westminster Abbey.
The Saturday guest night was held in the Royal Albert Hall but numbers were restricted to members only – hardly a guest night – and those few women present (there to have their newly awarded lamps lit) were confined to the boxes up in the gods.
The evening was marked by the Prince of Wales making a passionate speech that pulled few punches as he spoke of the poor housing conditions in Britain, and he praised Toc H for their work with the National Council of Social Services. Such was the impact of his words that it made the BBC radio news that same evening (following an article on the Loch Ness monster and the battle of the Falklands – it was the centenary of British occupation and Argentina were making one of their regular protests), and was widely reported in the Sunday papers.
William Temple, Archbishop of York and a true member of Toc H, not just a president whose name appeared on the headed paper, also gave a speech,
As normal, Sunday services were shared across the City, with All Hallows holding the main Anglican one. Breakfast was at Lyons, ABC, and also at the Baker’s Hall, which had been a breakfast venue since 1922.
This year the Sunday afternoon Family Gathering tried the Royal Horticultural Hall in Vincent Square which just about contained 8000 Toc H members and friends as they heard speeches, sang, and stomped their feet to the close of yet another Birthday Festival.
As early as the Summer of 1934, Toc H had decided to hold a Coming-of-Age Festival to celebrate the 21st birthday of the opening of Talbot House. By October it had been decided that this would take place at Crystal Palace once again, provisionally from 22nd-28th June, with further events happening in the week before and after. One side-effect of this was that the Festivals of 1934 and 1935 would be severely curtailed.
That of December 1934 was really an East Midlands regional event at De Montfort Hall in Leicester on the 8th and 9th, where the Lamp-lighting would take place. Lamps lit that year were simple recorded as being lit by ‘A member of Toc H’. In fact, in the absence of the Patron – the Prince of Wales – the names of seven random Toc H members from the East Midlands area were put in a box, and one was drawn by lot to light the lamps. He was not named, and those who recognised him were asked to hold their tongues! The similarity to how the soldier was chosen for the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, was almost certainly deliberate.
The Festival Service was held at St Martin’s Cathedral and at the Bishop Street Methodist church.
London’s own events took place at All Hallows, York Hall, St James’s Hatcham, and Goldsmith’s College Great Hall, where a play, A Child of Flanders, was performed.
Other regional rallies were held at different times of the year though Yorkshire celebrated at York at the beginning if the month and the South East split their celebrations over three days at Brighton, Canterbury, and Guildford.
It was the LWH who had most to celebrate in 1934 as they had their first ever Festival at the Royal Albert Hall.
1935 was bereft of a major Festival as all effort turned to the Coming of Age Festival in June 1936.
Invitation to the St Paul’s Service of the Coming of Age Festival
Although Toc H in the Dominions – especially Australia – had organised their own Festivals in recent years, the Crystal Palace event was set to be a truly international affair. Representatives from overseas were making travel arrangements and a string of happenings were being organised for the weeks leading up to and following the actual Festival, to make trips from abroad worthwhile. The official dates were set to commence on June 15th with the Central Week in London from 21st to 28th with the end on July 5th. The actual Crystal Palace days were to be Friday 26th and Saturday 27th.
Radio Times listing for the broadcast from the Coming of Age Festival
The full programme is too complex to reproduce here but this link will lead you to the timetable. Highlights though included pilgrimages to the Old House, which were particularly popular with the overseas Groups who could not just hop across the channel as easily as the Brits. These Overseas visitors were offered a very special programme which included visits to Buckingham Palace and Mansion House to be received by the King and the Lord Mayor respectively.
Services were held at St Paul’s, the Royal Albert Hall, Windsor, and many London churches. Tours of Toc H Marks, and of London tourist attractions such as the Houses of Parliament were interspersed with conferences on all manner of subjects and at various venues. The Duchess of York lit the LWH lamps at Crystal Palace on Friday 26th whilst the Duke of Kent lit the men’s at the same venue, the following night. It was originally planned that the Prince of Wales would light the lamps as usual but this of course changed in January 1936 when George VI died, and the Prince of Wales became King Edward VII. The event was broadcast by the BBC.
At the end of June, their was a pilgrimage to Flanders, mostly for Overseas visitors and probationers.
Itinerary for the Pilgrimage during the Coming of Age Festival
Family gatherings exuded a true party air, and it was, beyond doubt, one of the better birthday parties London had ever seen. The book – A Birthday Book – was produced for the anniversary. It contained essays and photos about various aspects of Toc H’s first 21 years. A new badge was created especially for the party. A The Journal also published a special edition recording the events.
Special Badge produced for the Coming of Age Festival
And so, after those shenanigans, December 1936 passed quietly, and all eyes looked towards the next birthday in December 1937. It was felt it was time for the Regions to do their thing again and this time it was decreed that York should be the lead venue. An opening service, led by Tubby himself, took place at the Minster on Saturday 11th December. Then Messrs Rowntree kindly provided canteen facilities for the hungry throng. Once fed, they descended upon the Exhibition Buildings, close by the Minster, for the Festival Evening at which Lord Halifax lit no less than ninety lamps for the first time. Communal singing was, of course, a highlight.
Further services took place across the city on Sunday 12th. A Family Gathering (although in this case space allowed for men only, the ‘Family’ being the Toc H family, not the more traditional one) was once again accommodated at the Rowntree factory, and the weekend closed with prayers at 3.25pm. Tubby, celebrating his birthday of course, was present for the weekend, along with Smuts, his beloved dog. Perhaps the most significant news he had to announce at the Family Gathering was that the LWH had found themselves a permanent home at Crutched Friars. He delivered this wonderful news, then left to address a gathering of the ladies elsewhere in the city before leaving for Gibraltar and the Mediterranean fleet where he would spend Christmas and the next few weeks.
Since space was limited to the local Branches and invited few, small area festivals were held elsewhere across the country.
In 1938 the entire country was talking about Germany and the prospect of war. In fact, at the end of September Central Council were considering cancelling the Festival, and preparations ground to a halt. When the Munich Agreement was signed, some were pleased with Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement but many felt it – with hindsight, justifiably – that it was the wrong move. I wonder how much time was taken up at the Toc H Festival discussing the situation. The feeling seemed to be that war was inevitable despite Chamberlain’s positivity. But with the immediate danger passed, and after much discussion, it was decided that the Festival was relatively straightforward, a tried and tested formula, and a place where members could fortify themselves for the tasks ahead. It went ahead.
Invitation to the Thanksgiving Service at the 1938 Festival
The Twenty Third Birthday Festival returned to London and the RAH with the opening night being on Thursday 8th December 1938. This was the Guest Night, and I’m not clear as to why it was held on Thursday rather than Friday – perhaps the Hall was pre-booked with something else. There was no official event on Friday evening but all the London Marks kept ‘open-house’ and welcomed in members and friends who had travelled to the capital.
Saturday saw the Thanksgiving Service at followed by the main Festival Evening that night. The King and the Duke of Windsor (The former, George VI, and the latter, a title created especially for the abdicated Edward VII, formerly the Prince of Wales) both sent messages. The Earl of Clarendon lit 67 new lamps and the Royal Albert Hall went from Darkness Into Light as all the Toc H Lamps were lit. It was perhaps, exactly what the Movement needed at that time.
Church Times report on the 1938 Service
Sunday saw various services and then a family gathering in the afternoon. The World Chain of Light also commenced in Toronto, Canada.
So the Twenty Third Birthday Festival took place, and yet, it would be the last time the Festival would be like this. The reason, of course, was that in September 1939, Britain was once more at war with Germany. And here we shall close this first part. It would be 1948 before the Birthday festival returned in all it’s glory. But you can read about that in Part 2, which will follow later this year.
Acknowledgements
As ever, this blog is compiled from a variety of sources but I am always grateful for the input of various individuals, in this case Daniel Callicott of the Bournville Village Trust, was most helpful.
One hundred years of Toc H 