Albert Edward TALBOT

TALBOT, ALBERT EDWARD (b. Salford Lancs, England, 18 Aug 1877; d. Sydney, NSW, 9 July 1936). Anglican clergyman.

A E Talbot's parents were Edward Talbot, a milk dealer and his wife Elizabeth, née Rothwell. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School after which he had a short career as a real estate agent before winning a scholarship to Emmanuel College Cambridge (BA 1904, MA 1908), distinguishing himself in Hebrew and achieving firsts in both parts of the theology tripos. Talbot was ordained deacon in 1905 by the bishop of Manchester, and priest the following year. After a short curacy in Manchester, he tutored at the CMS training college at Islington 1907-09. In 1909 he became rector of Stowell Memorial Church in his home town of Salford.

Talbot was a member of the Group Brotherhood, started in 1907 by a group of younger evangelicals who believed that there was a need for a "'newer" type of Evangelicalism which should be positive, active and liberal in its outlook'. Canon J C Wright (q.v.), later abp of Sydney, was among the first members of this Group and was its chairman until he came to Sydney in 1909. The individual Groups met to pray, to study and to think afresh the doctrinal position of evangelicals.

In 1912, Abp Wright appointed his fellow Group Brotherhood member as dean of St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney, archdeacon of Sydney and Eastern Suburbs, and one of the archbishop's examining chaplains. Talbot, with Wright, was conservative in theology but liberal in scholarship with an earnest desire to communicate the essential truths in a fresh and meaningful way to the twentieth century. The position of dean afforded him that opportunity. He quickly became noted as a powerful, popular and sometimes controversial preacher, relating the demands of the gospel to the social needs of Sydney. To this end he helped found the Australian Christian Social Union and supported A C Willis in his founding of the Industrial Christian Fellowship. Talbot's association with members of the Labor party, particularly J S T McGowen, premier of NSW 1910-13, and Sunday school superintendent of St Paul's, Redfern, was in stark contrast to the more conservative political associations of most Anglican churchmen in Sydney.

It was in World War One that Talbot cemented his credentials as a churchman that the ordinary Australian working man could respect and admire. This was no pious pulpit preacher. Talbot was quick to enlist in the AIF as senior Anglican chaplain with the rank of colonel and then, prior to departure, married Adrienne Elizabeth Vert, the daughter of J W Vert, also of Lancashire, on the 5 Sept 1914. On Gallipoli he was admired by the men and by fellow chaplains, displaying an uncommon ecumenical spirit. In August 1915 he was wounded at Lone Pine and was repatriated to Australia in Feb 1916. Demobilised, he returned to his duties as dean.

Talbot did not return as a rabid advocate of the war and the policies of the government. As the nation became increasingly divided over the attempts to introduce conscription Talbot, alone amongst prominent Anglicans, refused to support the 'Yes' case. He was even more forthright when he opposed the policies of the Nationalist government during the 1917 general strike. Talbot's motivation was simple: he saw that the church should mediate not divide and he was very aware of the causes of the strike. While his public understanding of and refusal to condemn the striking workers ensured that fellow conservative churchmen viewed him askance, it enlarged the esteem with which workers held him.

In church politics, Talbot joined the Anglican Church League, soon becoming its president highlighting the fact that the League in the 1920s encompassed both conservative and more liberal evangelicals. However, when Abp Wright died in 1933, the conservative evangelicals secured the election of Howard Mowll (q.v.) as his successor, brushing aside the claims of other, more moderate candidates. For Talbot and also D J Davies (q.v.), the short shrift that they had been given by their conservative evangelical party colleagues made political reconciliation impossible. In May 1933 Talbot resigned as president of the ACL; Davies followed soon after and together they founded the Anglican Fellowship which stood for freedom of inquiry and study and regarded new knowledge as a gift from God rather than a threat to His Word. After years of cooperation, the liberal evangelicals were throwing down a last, desperate and ultimately vain challenge at the conservatives' feet. Within three years the Anglican Fellowship was in no position to threaten the dominance of the conservatives. The Fellowship was dependent on Talbot and he, like Davies, was experiencing failing health. His influence in a conservatively dominated diocese also waned. In 1935 Talbot took extended leave and returned to England. But his health was still poor and he died of pleurisy.

STEPHEN JUDD