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Toe H Festival Begins on Monday
Members Journeying
To Adelaide
From Distant Areas
From far-off Maryborough, in northern Queensland,
through city and country, down the Australian coastline to
Hobart, and as far west as Pingelly, Western Australia,
members of Toe H have come or are on their wav to take
part in the twelfth Australian birthday festival, which will
begin in Adelaide on Monday.
Many have forgone annual leave to take part and to
become better acquainted with fellow-members of this
world-wide family. Each year the festival is held in a diffe
rent capital city, and this year it is Adelaide's turn to play
host.
'PHIS festival will embrace all acti
-*- vities of Toe H. Three sessions
of general conference will be held in
the A.N.A. Hall, and an afternoon will
be given to a padres' conference. Early
communion services will be held on
Wednesday at St. Mary Magdalene's
and Stow Memorial Congregational
Church.
Social activities include a civic recep
tion and a welcome at Mount Osmond
Clubhouse, both on Tuesday, and an
evening for visiting members on Fri
day, af which the area president (Sir
David Gordon) will be host.
A tour will be made to Lobethal, and
the vineyard areas and visits paid to
Adelaide industrial concerns. Cele
brations will culminate on Saturday
with a festival thangskiving service in
St. Peter's Cathedral at 5 p.m., fol
lowed by a guest night in the Adelaide
Town Hall at 8 p.m., which the Gov
ernor (Sir Winston Dugan) will attend,
and at which Mr. E. F. Herring, K.C.
(area commissioner in Victoria) will
be chief speaker.
Members of the Australian staff will
go into conference at Mount Lofty for
three days from Monday, June 7.
South Australian officials are Sir
Winston Dugan (patron). Sir David
Gordon (president), Mr. E. W. Holden
(commissioner), the Rev. P. R. Ferris
(hon. area padre), L. M. Williams (area
secretary and festival secretary), and
J. O. Whicker (hon. area treasurer).
Toe H is a child of the war, and is
described as 'a 'living war memorial.'
It is the sacrifices made; the splendid
heroism, the splendid spirit of fellow
ship that existed between men of all
ranks during the war under the com
mon bond of service to their country,
that Toe H members try to emulate
and radiate.
A deserted house at Poperinghe,
Flanders (the owners of which had
gone to the south of France 'for the
benefit of their health') renamed Tal
bot House, was opened in 1915 as a
meeting place for soldiers of all ranks,
a place where they could momentarily
forget the horrors of warfare in an
atmosphere of home.
It was named after Gilbert Talbot,
son of the Bishop of Winchester, who
had been killed in action, and who
was chosen as a typical specimen of
English manhood.
Padre 'Tubby' Clayton was the 'inn-
keeper,' one who knew the secret of
mixing men, and possessed an un
limited sense of humor. Their physical
and mental needs attended to, soldiers
were invited to 'come upstairs and risk
meeting the padre,' and on many an
occasion strange mixtures of men sat
round his tea table.
On one occasion an elderly, mud
bespattered private entered the
room, only to meet an N.C.O. much
younger in years. 'Excuse me, sir,'
said the N.C.O.,' bat weren't
you professor of mathematics at
? University?' 'Xes,' replied
the private, 'and I'm still driving
mules.'
At the top of the house an old hop
loft had been converted into a chapel
to which men might go, either to orga
nised services or at their will. While
the spirit and atmosphere of this
'Upper Room' as it was called, per
vaded the house, yet it obtruded on no
one, and many habitues not even knew
of its existence. In that chapel count
less soldiers were baptised and con
firmed, and many of ; them took com
munion before going to the battlefields.
Recreated Fellowship
After the war many of those who had
used the Old House banded together
in London to recreate the fellowship
that had existed between them, and
eventually centres sprung up in pro
vincial towns under the abbreviated
army signallers' name of Toe H.
This spirit of the Old House, a spirit
of cheerfulness, of friendliness, of god
liness, has to some degree been cap
tured by members of Toe H; it is their
self-appointed task to transmit it to
their generation.
With Toe H under way in England,
a demand followed from the colonies.
In 1925 Padre Clayton, at the invita
tion of Lord Forster (then Governor
General), came to Australia, and in a
few short weeks met groups of men in
all capital cities, sowing the seed of
Toe H among them. Since then 150
units have sprung up in Australia,
with a total membership of 3,000.
Thirty-six of these units are in South
Australia.
Toe H has virtually encircled the
globe. It is in every British colony,
in lonely islands and outposts of the
Empire in the Pacific, the Atlantic, and
even the Arctic Oceans: in the Royal
Navy, the Army (particularly in the
outposts of India), the R.A.F., in
schools and universities, from Northern
Canada to Rio de Janeiro, from Jamaica
to Jerusalem, Kandy to Capetown, Ade
laide to Antofagasta.
In Toe H every man is welcomed
in to prove himself, no matter what
his occupation, his material wealth,
or his religious denomination; but a
probationary period must be served
before admittance as a member.
Beginning with a handful of Adelaide
men in 1925, the movement here now
has 750 members and probationers.
They are situated far afield, at Kimba,
Whyalla, and Port Lincoln on Eyre's
Peninsula; from Port Pirie in the
North to Mount Gambier in the South;
on Yorke Peninsula, in Adelaide
proper, and in the suburbs.
All in their way have contributed
to the advancement of their particular
communities, giving much service to
other organisations, public institutions,
and individual people.
And Toe H does not exist solely to
render community service; rather it
is a code of life.
The largest South Australian job is
an annual camp for poor boys; 100
were taken to Port WUlunga last
Christmas. Most city units worked
together for this, raising finance, in
I vestigating needy cases, and manning
the camp.
St. Peters and Unley branches, work
ing in conjunction with local citizens,
both sponsored similar camps, the for
mer taking 50 boys to Mylor. the lat
ter 70 boys to Clarendon.
But the end of a camp does not ?
mean the end of contact with the lads. |
Clubs have- been formed at Payneham i
and Unley, which they attend, and
another is being considered at St.
Peters. Other boys' clubs are con
ducted at Grange and Edwardstown,
while plans are afoot to begin clubs
at Woodville, Port Adelaide, and
Mitch am.
Boys' institutions which have been
helped are the Magill Reformatory and
Edwardstown Industrial School, at
both of which efforts at 'big-brother-
ing' are carried out. Men mix with
the lads, teaching them games and
giving them entertainment
More visits are paid and help ren
dered to hospitals than to any other
type of organisation, this applying
specially to the country, where libra
ries are maintained for use of patients.
Novel Jobs Here
Some novel and interesting jobs are
undertaken. One member is transcrib
ing into Braille lessons for a country
blind boy attending high school in
Adelaide. Another has befriended an
incurable hospital patient, for whom
he secures autographs of notable per
sonages.
A partially blind and crippled
man was discovered? living in a
dark back room in a filthy condi
tion; he was bathed and shaved,
provided with a wheeled chair, and
is now regularly taken for outings.
Another cripple had remained in
bed for five years, where he would
still be if an invalid chair had not
been, procured for him.
One unit wheels bedridden people to
church on Sunday mornings the whole
year round. Haircutting is done at
Minda Home and the Children's Hospi
tal.
Another unit was responsible for
organising a service of private cars,
by which patients attending the Chil
dren's Hospital were driven ? home
after treatment. Yet another unit
makes a feature of Mothers' Day,
giving lonely mothers in the district
a day's outing.
One unit has recorded having buried
a cow in an advanced state of decom
position which apparently had been
annoying the neighborhood.
Toe H claims that 'the sky's the
limit' so far as jobs are concerned.
Interstate visitors to the conference
will have much to tell: of the far
west holidav scheme for outback chil
dren in western Queensland; the State
wide annual camp for children in
Perth; Fairbridge Farm; reorganising
of State homes and big-brothering in
Tasmania; and welfare work at the
aboriginal reserve in western Victoria.
none Help
Rev. P. B. Clayton, M.C.
Rev. P. B. Clayton, M.C.
$