DOB/DOD: January 6, 1897 (South Weymouth, MA) – October 25, 1918; 20 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Unmarried
ENLISTMENT: September 1917
FAMILY: Born to Richard J. Sr. (1860-1915) and Mary A. O’Connell Talbot [born in Canada] (1863-1946). Three brothers, Henry E. (1886-1887), Arthur R. (1895-1903), John O. (1900-1981), Richard J. Jr. (1901-1904), and Harold A. (1903-1905). Three sisters, Jennie E. (1888-1900), Catherine G. (1889-1905), Alys L. Talbot Hall Kimmy (1891-1988), and Louise (1897-1902).
NOTE: While he didn’t live in Connecticut, Ralph Talbot was attending Yale University when he was appointed to the Navy/Marine Corps.
Weymouth High School, Weymouth, Massachusetts, Class of 1915 yearbook
Photo courtesy of Doug Smith, Archivist, Mercersburg Academy, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.
MEDAL OF HONOR CITATION
AWARDED FOR ACTIONS DURING: World War I
BRANCH OF SERVICE: Marine Corps
UNIT: Airplane Squadron C, First Marine Aviation Force
CITATION:
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Second Lieutenant Ralph Talbot, United States Marine Corps, for exceptionally meritorious service and extraordinary heroism while attached to Squadron C, First Marine Aviation Force, in France. Second Lieutenant Talbot participated in numerous air raids into enemy territory. On 8 October 1918, while on such a raid, he was attacked by nine enemy scouts and, in the fight that followed, shot down an enemy plane. Also, on 14 October 1918, while on a raid over Pittham, Belgium, Second Lieutenant Talbot and another plane became detached from the formation on account of motor trouble and were attacked by 12 enemy scouts. During the severe fight that followed, his plane shot down one of the enemy scouts. His observer was shot through the elbow, and his gun jammed. Second Lieutenant Talbot maneuvered to gain time for his observer to clear the jam with one hand and then returned to the fight. The observer fought until shot twice, once in the stomach and once in the hip, and then collapsed, Second Lieutenant Talbot attacked the nearest enemy scout with his front guns and shot him down. With his observer unconscious and his motor failing, he dived to escape the balance of the enemy and crossed the German trenches at an altitude of 50 feet, landing at the nearest hospital to leave his observer and then returning to his aerodrome.
WEBMASTER NOTES: The medal was sent to his mother on the day it was awarded, November 11, 1920. Both Lieutenant Talbot and his gunner, Gunnery Sergeant (later to be promoted to 1st Lieutenant) Robert Guy Robinson (pictured below), were awarded the Medal of Honor. Gunnery Sergeant Robinson survived the war and died on October 5, 1974, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Section 46, Grave 390.
Seventeen days after the incident resulting in Lieutenant Talbot being awarded the Medal of Honor, his DH-4 crashed on takeoff during an engine test flight at Le Fresne Aerodrome in France. There was engine trouble; the machine failed on the takeoff, crashed into a high embankment, and instantly burst into flames. All efforts to extricate Lieutenant Talbot were in vain.
Riding with Lieutenant Talbot was Second Lieutenant Colgate W. Darden, Jr. He was in the observer’s cockpit, was thrown clear of the wreck, and seriously injured. In WWI, he served with the French Army in 1916 and 1917 and later as a Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps Air Service. After the war, he studied law, graduating from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1922 and from Columbia University, New York City, in 1923. He was a member of the Virginia State House of Delegates from 1930 to 1933 and was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Congresses, March 4, 1933 to January 3, 1937. Reelected to the Seventy-sixth and Seventy-seventh Congresses, serving from January 3, 1939, until his resignation on March 1, 1941, to become a candidate for Governor. He served as Governor of Virginia from January 21, 1942, to January 16, 1946, and as president of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville from June 23, 1947 to September 1, 1959. In 1955, he was a United States delegate to the Tenth General Assembly of the United Nations and, in 1960, accepted a presidential appointment to the Commission on National Goals. His last public office was in 1961 as chairman for the Commission on Goals for Higher Education in Norfolk, Virginia. Colgate Darden Jr. died at 84 years old in Norfolk, Virginia, and is buried in the family estate in Southampton, Virginia.
The honorary namesake of the destroyer U.S.S. Ralph Talbot (DD-390) in 1936. The Ralph Talbot (DD-390) was laid down on October 28, 1935, at the Boston Navy Yard and launched on October 31, 1936. The ship was sponsored by Mrs. Mary Talbot, mother of 2nd Lt Ralph Talbot, and then commissioned on October 14, 1937, with Lieutenant Commander Harry R. Thurber in command. The Talbot was anchored at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and served in the Pacific Theater during World War II, from the attack on Pearl Harbor through the battle of Okinawa, earning 14 battle stars for her service.
Ralph Talbot School and Ralph Talbot Street in Weymouth, Massachusetts.
An article published in The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, Massachusetts, in April 2017, titled ‘Fascinating’ new insight gained into Ralph Talbot. Used with permission.
WEYMOUTH – Eileen Dumont was happy to share what she knew about Ralph Talbot when a resident of a small Belgian town reached out to her several years ago for information about the World War I pilot and Medal of Honor recipient.
Paul Callens had briefly heard about Talbot’s heroic actions in the skies above Pittem, Belgium, but he couldn’t find much research on the U.S. Marine from Weymouth.
So Callens contacted the New England Historic Genealogical Society, which pointed him to Dumont, then a member of the Weymouth Historical Society.
Little did Dumont know that Callens’ quest for information on Talbot would spur her to visit the Marine Corps archives in Quantico, Virginia, Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, and ultimately join Callens in meeting members of the Talbot family in New Hampshire.
“(Callens’) enthusiasm is infectious, and he is just so jolly – nobody could say no to him,” Dumont said. “What I found is never-before-seen pictures and letters offering new insight into (Talbot). For anyone interested in history at all, it’s very fascinating.”
Dumont and Callens will present joint exhibits – she at Tufts Library in Weymouth and him in Pittem – on Thursday, May 25. They will highlight their findings on Talbot and his gunner, Robert Guy Robinson, who also received the Medal of Honor. Artwork by students from both Pittem and Weymouth’s Ralph Talbot School will be displayed.
In the final days of the war, Talbot and Robinson were among the first Americans to fight alongside Royal Air Force squadrons over Belgium.
On Oct. 8, 1918, the two shot down one of nine enemy scouts that attacked them on a mission. Six days later, they became separated from their squadron over Pittem and were attacked by 12 enemy planes. Robinson was shot more than a dozen times, and the plane’s motor failed, but they managed to shoot down one of the enemy planes. Talbot then flew a gravely wounded Robinson to a hospital.
Talbot was killed in a plane crash on October 25, 1918. Robinson survived his injuries and died at home in Michigan in 1974. Talbot was posthumously awarded the nation’s highest military honor. He is one of five Weymouth men to earn the Medal of Honor.
Callens first heard about Talbot and Robinson during a Memorial Day event in Belgium, but he could find little information on the actions of the two American flyers. He later realized that the town’s name was typically written “Pitthem” prior to the 1930s, which was changed to “Pittham” in many documents.
Dumont initially pointed Callens to old periodicals and provided him with details about Talbot’s life as a Yale graduate, gifted orator, and aspiring poet, a young man who excelled in sports and academics. She even helped him locate Talbot’s family members.
On Veterans Day in 2014, the town of Pittem put up a plaque on a church honoring Talbot and Robinson.
But Dumont’s involvement didn’t end there. In March of 2015, she traveled to Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, a boarding school Talbot attended, and the Marine Corps archives in Quantico, Virginia, to locate Ralph Talbot’s papers. She got to see and copy condolence letters, Talbot’s school writings, and a scrapbook his mother had put together and donated.
“I met with different archivists, and it was really so interesting and so much fun,” Dumont said. “Some people go to Vegas; I go to Quantico, Virginia.”
Last summer, Callens and his family made the trek to America. Dumont joined them in touring Weymouth, seeing Talbot’s grave in Mount Wollaston Cemetery, and visiting Ralph Talbot’s nephew, Richard Talbot, and other extended family in New Hampshire.
“Meeting the family was wonderful,” Dumont said. “They were really so pleased that people cared enough this long after the fact.”
With the nation this month marking the centennial of its entrance into World War I, Dumont hopes people will take time to learn about a Weymouth native who earned the country’s highest honor.
Photos of Lt Talbot’s Medal of Honor were contributed by Owen Linlithgow Conner, Curatorial Section Chief, Uniforms & Heraldry, National Museum of the Marine Corps.
The inscription reads
Awarded To Second Lieutenant Ralph Talbot
United States Marine Corps
Pittham, Belgium
October 14, 1918
Initially buried in Les Baraques Cemetery, Sangatte, Calais, France; Plot 45, Row B, Grave 43. His remains were repatriated and buried in Mount Wollaston Cemetery, 20 Sea Street, Quincy, Massachusetts; Old Section, Lot 22, Grave 9. Photos by Jeff DeWitt.
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