Thursday, November 27, 2008

Andrew Geddes



I'm delighted to have been sent a photo of, and additional information about, S/7793 Private Andrew Geddes of the 10th Gordon Highlanders. Private Geddes, a native of Auchencairn in Scotland was wounded at Loos in 1915, wounded on the Somme in 1916 and wounded for a third and final time at Armentieres in 1918. He was then discharged from the army in 1918.

After being wounded in 1916, Private Geddes found himself under the care of Sussex 54 VAD at Beechlands in Newick which is how he appears on my website.

I am grateful to Stuart Wilson for contacting me with the additional information on Andrew Geddes which I have now included on his page. Being able to finally put a face to his name is a wonderful added bonus.

Andrew Geddes also appears on Stuart's Sons of Galloway website in the Auchencairn nominal roll.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Albert Leggett

Albert Leggett's service record survives as a burnt document in the WO 363 series at the National Archives. Ancestry has just made service records I-N available on-line and so, twenty odd years after I first transcribed Albert's entry in Nurse Oliver's album, I have been able to find out more about him. I've now written up my notes and updated Albert's page on the website.

Albert was not a resident of Chailey but a wound on a battlefield in France would ensure that he would soon be acquainted with the parish. He enlisted with the Northamptonshire Regiment at Norwich in April 1915. By the end of July that year he was in France and, posted to the regular 1st Battalion, would fight through Loos and the Battle of the Somme until severely wounded at Pozieres in August 1916. He was in hospital in France for just under a month and then, returning to England in September 1916, would spend at least another ten weeks in hospitals in England; first to the 2nd Eastern General Hospital at Brighton and then to Beechlands (or Beechland House) in Newick. Later transferred to the 2/5th Scottish Rifles and then the RAMC, Albert would spend the rest of the war in England. The leave that he was granted from hospital in December 1916 was beneficial to Albert and his wife. In September 1917 their second child was born.

Albert was discharged from the army in March 1919 and two months later, a grateful country, acknowledging that his wound amounted to a 20 per cent degree of disablement, awarded him a weekly pension of five shillings and sixpence, to be reviewed twelve months later. Subsequent Board papers do not survive but it seems likely, given the many other soldiers' papers I have seen, that his award was reduced.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Remembering


On this Remembrance Sunday, almost ninety years since the guns on the Western Front fell silent, I remember Chailey's First World War dead.

I remember those with connections to Chailey Parish :

Alfred Albert Agate; died of sickness on 19th November 1918
Henry William Beard; killed in action on 19th September 1918
Alfred Bird; killed in action on 11th April 1917
William James Brazier; killed in action on 23rd March 1918
Charles Bristow; killed in action on 3rd September 1917
Charles Bristow; killed in action on 27th September 1917
Sidney George Augustus Bristow; drowned at sea on 31st May 1916
Henry Alfred Brooks; killed in action on 15th June 1918
Charles Buckwell; killed in action on 11th July 1917
Thomas Chatfield; killed in action on 25th August 1918
George Cheeseman; killed in action on 28th June 1915
John Henry Cornford; died on 19th November 1920
William Trayton Cornford; killed in action on 18th November 1916
Frederick Samuel Cottingham; killed in action on 1st July 1916
Richard John Deane; accidentally killed on 18th July 1917
Frederick John Drummond; killed in action on 3rd November 1914
John Ellis; killed in action on 10th August 1917
George Masters Emery; died of wounds on 15th December 1916
John Ford; killed in action on 3rd May 1917
Harry Gates; killed in action on 19th February 1917
Richard William Gibson; killed in action on 6th September 1916
Frederick Heasman; killed in action on 26th September 1917
Owen Hobden; died of sickness on 13th November 1918
Charles Hodges; died 8th November 1918
Thomas Homewood; killed in action on 30th June 1916
Gerald Sclater Ingram; killed in action on 21st October 1914
Claud Foord Ireland; killed in action on 12th October 1917
Robert Charles Jessop; killed in action on 23rd April 1918
Cecil Langridge; drowned at sea on 31st May 1916
William Alfred Lansdowne; killed in action on 26th February 1916
Charles Lee; killed in action on 2nd June 1917
Sigurd Harold Macculloch; died of wounds on 20th December 1915
Joseph Charles Miller; died of wounds on 29th September 1917
John Henry Oliver; died of wounds on 25th September 1915
Albert Edward Padgham; died of wounds on 24th August 1916
George Robert Page; died in India in 1919
Frank Peacock; killed in action on 20th December 1915
Albert Plummer; died of wounds on 2nd July 1916
Alexander Plummer; killed in action on 23rd April 1918
Ernest Plummer; died of wounds on 3rd September 1916
Owen Plummer; killed in action on 5th April 1917
Lionel Henry Yorke Pownall; killed in action on 21st March 1915
Magnus Rainier Robertson MC; killed in action on 22nd August 1918
Richard Roffe; died on 5th February 1917
George Saunders; killed in action on 17th August 1916
Henry Alfred Saunders; killed in action on 7th October 1916
Albert Henry Selby; died of wounds on 12th April 1917
Frederick James Smith; killed in action on 17th April 1917
George Spencer Smith; killed in action on 26th April 1918
Arthur Harry Snelling; died of wounds on 25th August 1918
William Henry Spice; killed in action on 18th July 1917
Frank Stevens; killed in action on 25th October 1918
William Stevens; killed in action on 27th May 1918
Frederick Stevenson; died of sickness on 12th April 1918
Albert Henry Thompsett; killed in action on 3rd April 1918
Arthur Tully; died of wounds on 23rd June 1918
Arthur Turner; killed in action on 27th November 1917
George Turner; died of wounds on 24th August 1916
George Trayton Washer; killed in action on 23rd October 1915
Edward Wells; killed in action on 5th April 1918
Alan Herbert Mainwaring West; accidentally killed on 7th January 1918
Charles Jarrett Willey; killed in action on 26th September 1917
Charles Joseph Wood; killed in action on 31st October 1914
Frederick Albert Jon Wood; died June 1920
Thomas Victor Wood; killed in action on 4th August 1916

I remember those who were nursed at Hickwells or Beechlands and who were subsequently killed in action or died of wounds or sickness

William J Butters died of sickness on 25th January 1920
Stan Collins; killed in action on 18th August 1916
Joseph French; killed in action on 3rd August 1917
Robert Mearns Hobbs; killed in action on 28th November 1917
Ernest Arthur Malins; killed in action on 2nd July 1916
John William Sheridan; killed in action 11th October 1917
Thomas Clement Skurray; killed in action on 28th August 1915
James Sweeney; killed in action on 26th March 1918
John William Thurgood; died of sickness on 6th March 1919
Ernest Whitcomb; died on 10th December 1918

And I remember too, my great uncle who had no Chailey connections but who also laid down his life for his King and Country.

John Frederick Nixon; killed in action on 3rd October 1918

Seventy six men. The equivalent of two and a half First World War infantry platoons; or six village cricket teams (and four umpires). May they rest in peace and may we remember their sacrifice.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning. WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.



Pictured above:

The age of innocence - Jessie Nixon, Walter Nixon, John Frederick Nixon (1891-1918), Edgar Nixon

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Alfred George Mellish & John Percival Turner



Earlier this year, on the 92nd anniversary of the opening of the Battle of the Somme, I wrote a piece using extracts from an interview I'd conducted with Horace Ham. Horace was serving with the 16th Middlesex (Public Schools) Battalion and was wounded on 1st July 1916 before he even got out of the trench. The piece of shrapnel that hit him probably saved his life.

Less fortunate were the nearly 20,000 British soldiers who were killed in action that day, a figure that to me, still, is almost incomprehensible. Twenty thousand men. The equivalent of twenty British battalions give or take.

Horace recalled the Mellish brothers, the elder of whom was killed on 1st July, and I was delighted to receive an e-mail this morning from Sheila Jones whose great uncle, John Percival Turner, killed in action the same day, shares a grave with Alfred Mellish in Hawthorn Ridge cemetery. Sheila's son visited the Flanders battlefields earlier this year and took the two photos which are included here.

May John and Alfred rest in peace everlasting. Thank you Sheila for contacting me.

Service Records I-N

I see that Ancestry.co.uk has made more of the WW1 service records available on line. To my mind, Ancestry provides an excellent service and I shudder to think how many hours I spent trudging up to the National Archives in London; hours which are now spent tapping out names in the search boxes on Ancestry's website.

What this means for my Chailey site - all being well - is that I'll find more service records for Chailey men, and when I do, I'll update their pages on the website. Watch this space.

My great uncle's service record is also now easily accessible. John Frederick Nixon (Jack, to his family) was my grandfather's elder brother and was killed in action in October 1918. He is commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois memorial in France.