The biographies of 358 men connected with Chailey Parish, appear on my website. Sixty of these men were killed in action or died of wounds or sickness. They lie in cemeteries or are commemorated on memorials in Belgium, England, France, Iraq, Italy, Kenya and Turkey.
Of the 60 men who died, 49 appear on the war memorial on Chailey Village Green. Some are also mentioned on other local memorials. Of the eleven men who are not mentioned, eight would seem to have a reasonable claim to a place and one of these - Sigurd Macculloch - is recorded on the memorial tablet inside St Peter's Church.
Some families paid an extremely heavy price. The Plummer family lost three sons while the Smith family from neighbouring Newick, lost four sons. I have included George Spencer Smith and Frederick James Smith on my website although they were actually from Newick. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Debt of Honour Register records their address as Colonel's Bank, Chailey although it should be Cornwell's Bank, Newick. All four brothers are commemorated on the Newick War Memorial. Their parents had nine children, eight of them boys and, from 1915 until 1918, they lost one son every year to the First World War. Three of their sons have no known graves and are commemorated on the memorials at Tyne Cot (Belgium), Lone Pine (Gallipoli) and Arras (France).
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