‘As dim as a NAFFI candle’ and ‘as dim as a Toc H lamp’ were well used by past generations as derogatory terms meaning someone who is not very bright.
Established in 1920, the Navy, Army and Air Force Institute (NAAFI) ran recreational establishments and provided goods to service personnel and their families. They had a reputation, probably unjustifiably, of selling poor quality goods, and the illumination power of their candles – dim – was soon used as a metaphor for someone lacking in intelligence, as was The Toc H lamp.
But what, or who, is ‘Toc H’?
Toc H – Talbot House – a sanctuary during WWI
The ‘Toc’ part of Toc H derived from the British army signalling core phonetic alphabet during WW1 for the letter ‘T’ and ‘Toc H’ was the code for ‘Talbot House’. (Today ‘tango’ is the phonetic alphabet for the letter ‘T’.)
Talbot House is the white building in the photo above. It was originally a hop warehouse in the centre of Poperinge in Belgium, a building abandoned by the owner after it was shelled during the war. Army chaplain Philip (Tubby) Clayton commandeered the building in December 1915 as a soldiers’ club on behalf of the 6th division of the British army.
It was originally named ‘Church House’ and was always intended to be a place of relatively quiet reflection away from harm’s way where every rank could recover, meditate or pray without rank. Orders and notions of military status were prohibited and a sign to the entrance read ‘ALL RANK ABANDON YE WHO ENTER HERE’. It was also meant as an alternative to the more boisterous nightlife available in the rest of the city.
The building was renamed ‘Talbot House’ after Gilbert Talbot, the brother of the head army chaplain Neville Talbot. Gilbert had been killed in July 1915.
The lighting in Talbot House was provided by oil lamps, similar to the lamp in the first photo, which I very much suspect is a posh reproduction to symbolise the subsequent development of the Toc H international Christian fellowship movement.
Poperinge: hop capital of Belgium
Poperinge is in West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is a beautiful city about seven miles to the west of Ypres and is known as the hop capital of Belgium. The town is the home of the national hop museum, which means it has a responsibility to produce the best beers, and in my humble opinion it is certainly up there with the best. Each beer is served in its own distinctive glass, but care is needed, for some of these beers are as strong as wine and the experience of falling over can happen quicker than expected.
During our motorcycle touring days, I often found that Belgian beers are best experienced in Belgium, German beers in Germany, French wine in France, Spanish wine in Spain and of course Guinness in Ireland and so on. There may be several reasons for this: the locals may like to keep the best for themselves; sometimes these beverages don’t travel well; or of course the excitement and atmosphere of being there always adds to the experience.
Whatever the reason, beers and wines are better experienced in the region in which they are produced. Obviously, the experience of drinking was always after we had reached our destination; driving immediately after drinking is not only illegal but it is also foolish and riding a motorcycle is dangerous enough without adding alcohol to the mix.
An important location during WW1
Poperinge was far enough away from the front lines to be relatively safe from the German artillery but close enough for the locals to seek safer places to live and work. Ypres just seven miles away was flattened but never captured by the Germans, though it was definitely too close for the local inhabitants of Poperinge.
As Poperinge was usually just out of German artillery range their railway station was an ideal place for allied soldiers to disembark on their way to the front lines. They would then march off through Ypres and along to the Ypres Salient. (A salient simply means a bulge in the front lines, which in theory has a defensive advantage as it can be defended from three sides, then again, it can also be attacked from three sides.) Many famous and bloody battles were fought in this area. Iconic names like Passchendale, Langemarck, Zonnebeke, Gheluvelt and Messines.
Poperinge was also a city of relative safety that the allied soldiers returned to after their period of duty. It was an administrative centre as well and the town hall and jail were used to determine the fate of soldiers accused of desertion.
A modern pardon for soldiers convicted of ‘desertion and cowardice’
The tiny jail is now a shrine to those who were convicted and shot at dawn.
In the courtyard behind the town hall lies a reminder of these incredibly sad moments in military history:
It total, 346 men from the British and Commonwealth countries were court-marshalled and executed for various military capital offences such as desertion and cowardice. Some 309 were pardoned in August 2006 after a prolonged campaign started in the early 1990s following an increasingly better understanding of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). But 37 were not pardoned, as they were charged with murder and would have been executed under civil law at the time.
The Shot at Dawn Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire depicts a boy, Private Herbert Burdon, who was 16 when he first volunteered but lied about his age to join the Northumberland Fusiliers. There is much confusion concerning his military record but it is generally understood that he was ill disciplined and often left his post. He was eventually found guilty of desertion and executed at the age of 19.
Young men join the military for all sorts of reasons such as family tradition, seeking a steady disciplined life to get them off the slippery slope that they may find themselves in, or a romantic notion of national identity and duty. Many young men from earlier periods were simply seeking to be fed regularly.
A better understanding now of the stresses of modern warfare
Wars and battles had never been fought in conditions that the soldiers found themselves in during WW1. Previous battles may have lasted just a few hours, or on rare occasions all day, but the effects of trench warfare, constant bombardment and sleep deprivation that became common in WW1 were little understood. All that was absolute was that strict discipline still had to be kept at all costs.
Modern warfare is incredibly noisy.To a degree this is deliberate, as it is good (or bad depending how one looks at it) at affecting the morale of anyone at the receiving end of a bombardment. In the static warfare of WW1 this could go on for days or weeks.
In his podcast entitled ‘Did battle fatigue affect soldiers in the ancient world’, Nikolas Lloyd (Lindybeige) says that there have been many opportunities to study how modern warfare affects the individual.One such study found that after 60 days of constant bombardment, 98% will develop a serious mental disorder often described as battle fatigue, battle stress or PTSD.
Many will begin to develop these conditions immediately, though there is little in their training that can show how an individual soldier will react in real war situations. The study also went on to describe why not everyone is affected and the answer was that the remaining 2% were psychopaths. I would humbly suggest that this is a study that generates more questions than answers.
Ypres: memories endure and history is honoured
There are many places to visit in Northern Europe if WW1 is of any interest. Even though Ypres was flattened by German artillery, it was re-built to its former splendour that can only by fully appreciated by standing in the centre of Grote Market Square and admiring all the magnificent architecture up close.
The Last Post is played by members of the Ypres fire brigade at Menin Gate every night at 20.00hrs. I defy anyone to keep a dry eye while witnessing this.
