Alice Pointing and Ernest Stevens

Thanks to correspondence from a relative I've been able to fill in additional detail for Alice Pointing and Ernest Stevens (who has languished on my site as E F Stevens for the past two years).

I had always assumed that the Alice Pointing noted as serving as a cook with Sussex 54 VAD was the sister of Frank, George, James and William Pointing. In all likelihood however, it appears that it was in fact their mother. I have made this point on Alice's page.

Alice junior however, married Ernest Frank Stevens in December 1915 and so I am pleased, finally, to be able to reproduce his name in full and also to add additional detail to his page. Two years after initially publishing my research on-line, these small titbits coming through continue to fascinate as well, of course, as building a greater picture of Chailey's protagonists during those Great war years.

Richard William Gibson

I've updated the page for Richard Gibson and added him as another Great War fatality. Chailey Parish Magazine doesn't have an awful lot to say about him. He's mentioned as serving his King and Country in 1914 but by December 1916 he disappears altogether.

Whilst I can't be sure, I feel fairly confident that this man is the same Richard William Gibson who lost his life in September 1916 whilst serving with the 2nd Royal Sussex Regiment. He was a regular soldier (enlisting circa 1904) and an Old Contemptible, having arrived in France at the end of August 1914.

Richard has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial on the Somme. His name does not appear on the Chailey War Memorial or on the memorial at Hailsham where he was born.