WORK to renovate the Droitwich memorial of a soldier killed in the First World War will now be able to take place after a relative was found to give permission for the maintenance to happen.
At the end of last month, we featured a story about the appeal by Sandra Taylor from Remember the Fallen and historian Peter Kennedy relating to the monument in St Mary’s Churchyard which remembered Pte Edgar Francis Talbot.
The terracotta memorial surrounds the grave of his mother Marianne Talbot and is alongside are the two graves of Pte Talbot’s sisters.
Despite the memorial being in the Droitwich cemetery, he is not commemorated on any Worcestershire war memorial and it is unclear why that is.
Research shows Pte Talbot, a member of the 26th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, was killed on September 18, 1916 and the centenary of his death was marked with a special service last Sunday held by Peter and his wife.
Then last week Charles Talbot, the chairman of Kidderminster Carpet Museum, came forward to reveal his link to Pte Talbot after two people got in touch with him to tell him about the grave of his ancestor after seeing it in the local media. There is no direct line left to the soldier, Charles is the second cousin to Pte Talbot’s great uncle.
Charles travelled to Droitwich on Thursday and Friday (September 22 and 23) to see the grave and to meet Peter.
Charles, who turned 85 on Tuesday (September 20), told The Standard: “It’s very exciting – it was great to find this missing piece of the jigsaw and to find some more information for my family tree.”
Although Charles said he had not been actively researching his family history, he did have a portrait gallery at his home which dated back to his great great great grandfather and had a large family tree document which could now be added to, thanks to this discovery.
“There was not an ‘Edgar Talbot’ on the family tree but there was a ‘Francis Talbot’ and Edgar is of course ‘Edgar Francis Talbot’ so that solves that one.
“It is lovely to fill in another missing piece of the jigsaw and great to come here and see the memorial.”
He added he had no hesitation about giving permission for the grave being restored to its former glory, adding he was glad the memorial was ‘in such safe hands’.
Peter said: “We were absolutely elated when we found Charles who was out last chance to find a relative to Edgar Talbot.
“It was also even better that Charles wasn’t aware of the grave – you could see it was a very moving moment for him when he saw the grave.
“It just shows the power of the media,” he added.
Now permission has been granted, Peter and Sandra need to find out what needs to be done to restore the grave and how much it will cost.
First the area around the memorial will need to be cleared of vegetation and a large tree which lies right next to Pte Talbot’s grave and across his sister’s.
“If I was a few years younger, I would take a chainsaw and chop that tree up myself to clear the grave,” added Charles.
Then quotes will be sought for the work which will involve repairing some of the edging stones and repositioning.
Peter said: “Fortunately terracotta is so hard waring it is not in as bad a state as it could have been.”
A decision will also have to be taken on a broken terracotta statuette of a female figure holding a rabbit which is also next to the graves. That has been broken in half.
Charles has several other links to Droitwich – his mum was a County Alderman for the area and she was the governor of a Droitwich school and the chair of education committee.
He is also the clerk of the Bishop Hall Bible Charity which has a Droitwich branch.
“I have always had a very happy relationship with Droitwich and always felt a kinship with town.
“It felt so fitting that the memorial was here.”
