Commemorated: | |||
| 1. Memorial: | Ypres Town Cemetery | E2. 7. Flanders | |
| 2. Book: | The (1921) Masonic Roll of Honour 1914-1918 | Pg.136 | |
| 3. Memorial: | The (1940) Scroll - WW1 Roll of Honour | 57D GQS | |
Awards & Titles: | |||
Early Life :
He was born in Milford Hall, Newtown, Montgomeryshire. Had he not been killed he would have succeeded as Squire of Pennant.He had an elder brother, John, and a younger sister, Alys Muriel. Sadly, the two remaining siblings, Eric and Alys, became orphans when their father, John Arthur, died in 1895. Their mother, Alice, died two years earlier. Their guardian then became Francis Lawrence Talbot (uncle) and his wife, Gertrude. His uncle was a Director at Flowers Brewery and lived at Redlands on Clopton Road.
Family :
Son of the late John Arthur and Alice Buckley Talbot, of Newtown, Montgomeryshire.Education & Career :
He went to Marlborough College (Cotton)
Service Life:
Campaigns:
- The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.
| Unit / Ship / Est.: C Battery Royal Horse Artillery |
| Action : The Battles of Ypres 1914 (First Ypres) |
19 October - 22 November 1914. Following the failure of the German Schlieffen Plan in August and September 1914, both sides engaged in a series of linked battles as they sought to outflank each other. The climax of these manouvres was at Ypres in November 1914 when the might of the German Army attempted to break the much outnumbered British Expeditionary Force. The political importance of Ypres, being the last town of any size in Belgium that remained in allied hands, established its importance for both sides and ensured a series of battles over four years.
The First Battle of Ypres in 1914 is characterised by a series of linked heroic stands by outnumbered British soldiers in conditions of confusion and weary endurance. The Germans never knew how close they had come to winning - at one point just the clerks and cooks were the last line of defence for the BEF. By the end of the battle the magnificent original BEF, composed of professional regular soldiers, had been all but destroyed and already the Territorial battalions were called into battle. From the end of 1914 a 'Regular' battalion was in terms of its compostion little different to a Teritorial or later Service Battalion. The professional soldiers had all but vanished.
In July 1910 he obtained his Jacket moving to ‘T’ battery Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) at Ambala, India, eventually moving to Abbassiyeah, Egypt. After being at Woolwich depot for a time, he was posted to ‘P’ battery.
From 1912 he was Master of the Royal Artillery Draghounds, Woolwich.
At the beginning of the war, he volunteered for active service and was appointed to ‘C’ battery. The battery was mobilised on October 8 1914 and landed at Zeebrugge as part of the 14th brigade RHA.
Detail :
Eric’s gunners fired their first rounds on the 18th, and on the 23rd he was fatally wounded. He received his wound while counter-attacking near Hooge. A number of his men were manhandling a gun towards the frontline trenches to take out a sniper and machine gun post in a farmhouse 250 yards away. Eric died in the ambulance the following day as he was being evacuated to Ypres during the Battle of Langemarck.
He is buried in Plot E2-7 in the Ypres Town Cemetery. There is also a memorial cross in his memory in his home town of Newtown, Powys.
He was the first man from Newtown to die in the First World War.
Masonic :
| Type | Lodge Name and No. | Province/District : |
|---|---|---|
| Mother : | A Scottish Lodge No. 0 S.C. | Scottish Constitution |
| Joined : | Old Marlburian No. 3533 E.C. | London |
| Joined : | Lord Kitchener No. 3402 E.C. | Cyprus |
Initiated | Passed | Raised |
15th December 1910 | - | - |
Came from Lodge No. 526 in the Scottish Constitution.
Became a member of Lord Kitchner Lodge No. 3402 on the 15th December 1910.
Petitioner and Founder member of the Old Malburian Lodge No. 3533, warranted to meet 26th April 1911.
Source :
The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:
- The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
- The (UK) National Archives
- Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
- ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry
Additional Source:
- Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
- Researcher : Bruce Littley