Seeker

Number 43 Gasthuisstraat in Poperinge, Belgium is one of the places I most wanted to visit during our recent visit to Ypres and the Flanders battlefields of World War I. I was not disappointed. Since 1915 (apart from when occupied by German military in WW2) it has been known as Talbot House or 'Toc H'. Except for a brief time in the autumn of 1914 Poperinge was in the small area of Belgium not occupied by the German army in World War 1. Only 10 km from Ypres it became a staging post for the thousands of British, Canadian, Australian and Indian troops moving to and from the front line and a place of recreation during leave. It's population was also swollen by poorer refugees from other parts of Belgium - the richer refugees having mostly escaped to France or Britain.  The juxtaposition of so many destitute refugees and thousands of young men with money in their pockets had inevitable, not always healthy consequences.  Poperinge became known as 'Little Paris...