Item HT 36054 Newspaper Cutting - 'Lone Pine Gallantry Commended', The Argus, 11 Apr 1916

Summary

Newspaper cutting from The Argus, Tuesday 11 April 1916, p.11, commending the gallantry of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in their occupation of the 'underground workings of Lone Pine' on 6 November 1915. The commendation includes the 24th Battalion 'which furnished the escort to the Engineers when they first entered the enemy's tunnel'. The newspaper cutting comes from a collection of material associated with the World War I service of Gunner James Clive Talbot, who was then serving in the 24th Battalion. It may have been cut out by his parents, James and Charlotte Talbot, or his sister Hilda.

James Clive Talbot was a 20-year-old grazier and wool classer from 'Yeo Vale', Birregurra, Victoria, when he enlisted to fight in World War I on 2 April 1915 (service #1350). As part of the 24th Battalion he served in Gallipoli and on the Western Front. He was killed in action aged 22, on 22 September 1917 in Belgium (during in the Third Battle of Ypres). His parents took the unusual step of visiting his grave in 1919 - out of the reach of many bereaved in Australia. They also placed a blackwood pulpit at the Birregurra Church of England, in memory of their son, who they knew as Clive. It is inscribed '...in loving memory of our beloved son and brother, James Clive Talbot, killed in action September 22nd, 1917, aged 22 years. He has fought a good fight, he has finished his work; he has kept the faith.'

Physical Description

Newspaper cutting, roughly cut at edges. Paper is browed, with some foxing, and has been folded. Double-headline, with lines above and below, and to the left.

Significance

The James Talbot mourning collection is of particular significance since it documents a set of personal effects from a son lost at war, including a tiny photograph and engraved medal presented to his bereaved parents, and his colour patch, buttons and badges. Importantly, it also includes a large certificate from Ypres Reservoir British Cemetery, Belgium, including cemetery images and Talbot's details pasted into a box at the centre. (Further research may link this to his father's visit to the cemetery.) It provides an important insight into the ways Australians memorialized the distant graves of their loved ones (discussed by Bart Ziino in A Distant Grief, and others).