Fricourt bell

Fricourt bell

• Height  356 mm
• Width  432 mm
• Weight  55 kg
• Note  C

The Fricourt bell is one of seven in the Carillon which is named for the 1916 Battle of the Somme. Fricourt was where the New Zealand Division camped as they prepared to join the offensive in September 1916. The bell was given by Mary Talbot in memory of her only son, Percy, who was killed in action in the battle. 

Percy Talbot

Percy George Alfred Talbot was born in Wellington in 1894, the youngest child and only son of Mary Talbot and her husband, Percy, a railway guard. As an adult, the younger Percy worked for the warehouse and import business Sargood, Son and Ewen before becoming a warehouseman for the large warehouse and manufacturing firm Macky, Logan and Caldwell.

In May 1915 Percy signed up for war service with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. He joined the 1st Battalion of the Wellington Infantry Regiment and, after being promoted to corporal, arrived on the Western Front in April 1916 with the newly formed New Zealand Division. After some months adjusting to frontline conditions at Armentières in northern France, the New Zealand forces were moved south to take part in the ongoing Battle of the Somme.

On 16 September 1916, the second day of the New Zealanders’ involvement in the battle, Percy was killed in action. In a letter to Percy’s mother, a comrade described his death: ‘Percy and I were together and just before we reached the enemy trench, which was being captured with great vim, a bullet struck him and he fell. I went to his assistance, but there was nothing to do. His end was peaceful and without pain; with a smile on his face he entered into his well-earned rest.’ [1]

Percy was buried by his fellow soldiers, but his grave was later lost. His name is listed among the more than 1200 men of the New Zealand Division commemorated on the New Zealand memorial to the missing at Caterpillar Valley on the Somme. 

Further information

Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph record – Percy Talbot

Commonwealth War Graves Commission record – Percy Talbot

'Deaths', Evening Post, 7 October 1916, p. 1

'Personal matters', Evening Post, 7 October 1916, p. 4

'Personalia', New Zealand Times, 7 October 1916, p. 3

Evening Post, 8 December 1916, p. 7