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The Spike or Victoria University College Review September 1925

Toc H

page 45

Toc H.

Being a resume of a meeting held by the Christian Union on the above, addressed by M. Robinson, B.A., M.C. (of Oxford).

Did the Great War produce any good thing? It is claimed that the birth of Toc H was the only good thing the war brought forth. Then what is Toc H?

In 1915 at Poperinghe, just back of Ypres salient, Rev. P. B. (Tubby) Clayton, M.C, originated a religio-social club, which, as its name suggests, was to cater for the higher and social side of men. Its religious side was unostentatiously maintained in a little upper room of an erstwhile brewery, where, over an old war-battered carpenter's bench, communion was administered to all who chose to attend. Down-stairs the social side was catered for in sundry ways, not least being a fine library containing the latest books on phychology, etc. A glimpse of the spirit of this house is revealed in a couplet taken from the walls.

"A house of fellowship and of good cheer

Abandon rank all ye who enter here.

In 1919, with £20 in his pocket, Clayton resurrected Toc H in London; to-day its capital is £112,000, a striking tribute to the worth of the movement. It aims at carrying on that comrade-ship which existed during war days and its motto is, "Service before Self." Toc, standing for T (the army designate) and H for house, has, happily enough, come to signify "To Conquer Hate." To-day the movement is Empire-wide, in groups which function as social service labour bureaus. That is, where a job of service is to be done, Toc H tries to find the man to do it. In England alone, since 1919, over 700 trained leaders for Boy Scouts have been provided. Special effort is made to care for permanently disabled ex-soldiers whom society has cast aside and who are now neglected. Any needy social cause is helped, and especially it is sought to help those movements which serve youth. Permanent rules fix that the average age shall be kept below thirty years, so that the vigour of the movement is ensured.

When a group is sufficiently developed, a house on the lines of the original is built and peopled by residents who are drawn from all professions and walks of life, and thus class spirit is eliminated.

One very fine event in Toc H life is called the Service of the Lamp, when, before the pleasures or business of a guest evening begin, the lights are put out and the chairman, as he lights the rushing lamp, speaks these grave and touching lines of Binyon's:

"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old,

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them."

This is the memorial to those men who fell in the Great War, and it is the spirit of those, many of the finest of our race, which Toc H seeks to perpetuate. "Service," says Toc H," is the rent we pay for our room on earth," and being based on Christian principles, its service is rightly motivated.

The Christian world needs Toc H. We need it ourselves. Such a society, teaching by example, living the Gospel, spreading page 46 quietly, is destined to exert a great and growing influence upon any community. "A little leaven leavens the lump."

Of Toc H, Robert Blatchford says: "It's a stroke of genius—a beautiful wisdom and beautiful virtue born of the heart. There is one rule, the pledge of selfless service. Not talk, but service, is the order. It is the soul of mutual aid."