Humfrey Talbot was the youngest son of Gustavus and Susan Talbot of Marchmont House, Hemel Hempstead. He was born on 11th September 1889 in Ceylon where his father was a member of the Legislative Council (the first form of representative government in the island) during the late 1880s. Humfrey had four older siblings; Reginald, Cecil-Emily, Constance and Gilbert and they were part of an illustrious family.

He was the grand-nephew of the 18th Earl of Shrewsbury and his father Gustavus, was the first Member of Parliament for Hemel Hempstead in 1918, as well as Mayor of the town and a Justice of the Peace. His sister Cecil-Emily married the noted Scottish ornithologist and Lord Lieutenant of Dumfriesshire, Sir Hugh Steuart Gladstone of Capenoch, whilst his oldest brother Reginald was a CBE and was a Lieutenant-Commander in the Royal Navy.

Indeed, even Humfrey’s family home Marchmont House had aristocratic connections. It was named for the 3rd and last Earl of Marchmont Hugh Hume-Campbell who had married Elizabeth, a daughter of Windmills Compton a previous owner of the house, in 1748.

Humfrey initially attended his father’s alma mater, Wellington College in Crowthorne, Berkshire which had been established in 1853 after the death of the Duke of Wellington. It was a charitable educational institution acting as both a monument to the Iron Duke and as a living institution to educate the orphan sons of army officers. This privilege would later be extended the to the orphan children of deceased officers of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and the Royal Airforce. Today the orphan children of deceased servicemen or servicewomen of Her Majesty's Armed Forces irrespective of rank are eligible to receive an education at Wellington.

On the 11th December 1909 after completing his formal education in Freiberg in Germany, Humfrey was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant to the King’s Liverpool Regiment which was then in India. He was promoted Lieutenant on 16th December 1912. Just a few months later on the 26th February 1913, Humfrey transferred to the 3rd (Prince of Wales’s) Dragoon Guards and it was with this regiment that he fought and died in Flanders. His transfer may have been because of another family connection. Major General Sir Reginald Arthur James Talbot KCB, who was Colonel of the Regiment between 1907 and 1920 was Humfrey’s 1st cousin once removed and the third son of the 18th Earl of Shrewsbury.

The 3rd Dragoon Guards had an illustrious service history and had fought at the Battle of Blenheim, in the War of the Spanish Succession and in 1765, it took the title 3rd (Prince of Wales's) Dragoon Guards, for the future George IV. The regiment, which was in Cairo at the start of First World War where it had been stationed since 1912, returned to Britain in October 1914 and assembled at Ludgershall in Wiltshire. From there the Regiment entrained to Southampton on 30th October where it embarked for France on the SS Victoria for Le Havre as part of the 6th Cavalry Brigade in the 3rd Cavalry Division. After a seven and a half hour crossing it reached France and only five days later, Humfrey was in the trenches at Heronthage Wood about two miles west of Ypres.

On 6th November the regiment experienced severe outbursts of rifle fire and heavy shelling between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. and Lieutenant Talbot was reported wounded along with two fellow officers. The casualties for the day were: " 3 Officers wounded, 20 NCOs and men killed, and 34 NCOs and men wounded."

Humfrey’s wounds were not debilitating and he recovered enough that by 13th November he was again with the regiment in the trenches about one and a half miles south east of Zillebeke near Ypres. It was here that he died as the regimental war diaries report; “…all was quiet until around 8.30 am when there was some very heavy shelling and Lieut. Talbot was reported killed at around 9.30 am the trenches having been attacked in some force but successfully repulsed…”.

News of his death appeared in the Gazette. His father Gustavus had just been elected Mayor of Hemel Hempstead when Humfrey was killed, and the Town Council acknowledged the Mayor and Mayoress’s loss at a special meeting on the 23rd November 1914, a report of which appeared in the next edition of the Hemel Gazette.

Humfrey Talbot is Remembered with Honour at Ypres Town cemetery where he was interred in Plot: E1. 3.

He was 25 years old when he died.

Humfrey was eligible for the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.

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