Talbot, Father Albert Donat
1962, June 21
Date of Birth: 1898, July 29
While no Memorial Card is available, the above picture accompanied the archive record of Fr. Talbot on the web page for the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Museum.
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Albert Donat Talbot was born in Warwick, Province of Quebec, Canada, on July 29, 1898. After his early education (1903 to 1913), he entered Montreal College, conducted by the Sulpicians, in 1913. He left there in 1919 with a B.A. from Laval University. For the next two years he took his Philosophy at St. Laurent. Beginning in 1921 he studied Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary, Baltimore, and at the Sulpician Seminary (now Theological College) at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. he earned an M.A. in 1923. In 1924-1925 he taught at St. Charles College in Catonsville. During that year he was ordained on December 20, 1924 by Bishop Feehan of Fall River, the diocese whither his family had moved. At the finish of the scholastic year, in 1925, he earned his S.T.B. at The Catholic University of America. In 1925-1926 he made his Solitude in Catonsville, Maryland. During the next fifteen years he taught at: St. Joseph’s College in Mountain View, California; at St. Mary’s Seminary, Paca Street; at St. Edward’s Seminary, in Seattle, Washington. He spent some time in study in Paris. In these years he received several degrees in music and another M.A. from the University of Washington in Seattle.
Just before World War II came to the United States, Father Talbot became an Army chaplain in March 1941, and was in the Philippines when they fell to the Japanese. He was taken prisoner at Corregidor on June 1, 1942 and was in the infamous “Bataan Death March.” He was released on February 4, 1945, when MacArthur recaptured the Philippines. He was awarded the Purple Heart. After the war Father Talbot became a hospital chaplain in Parma, Ohio, for the Veteran’s Administration. He retired from the service in 1953. After an assignment at St. Mary’s Seminary, Roland Park, he went to the then young Diocese of Bridgeport. He died on June 21, 1962.
Adapted from The Voice and from Fr. Talbot’s “Personal Data” sheet.