SD/3427 Lance Corporal Albert Plummer, 13th Royal Sussex Regt

Albert Plummer was a baby of four months old when the 1881 census was taken. His father, Charles Plummer (29) was an agricultural labourer living at 2 Adams Cottages, South Street, Chailey with his 28 year old wife Caroline Elizabeth Plummer (nee Martin) and their six children. Charles had been born in Fletching, Sussex and his wife in Wivelsfield (also in Sussex). It is possible that the family had also lived in Wivelsfield earlier because the two older children, Clement (aged nine) and Charles William (aged seven) had also been born there.

Albert appears on the 1891 census, living with his family at South Street, Chailey. The family comprised Charles Plummer (now noted as 37 years old and an agricultural labourer), his 36 year old wife Caroline and their eight children: Clement Martin Plummer (aged 19, an agricultural labourer), Ebenezer Plummer (aged 14), Emily Plummer (aged 12), Albert Plummer (aged ten), Owen Plummer (aged eight), Alexander Plummer (aged five), Annie Plummer (aged three) and Laura Plummer (aged five months). Another son, 17 year old Charles William Plummer, was working as a cow lad and domestic servant for Thomas Farrant at Weavel’s Den, Chailey.

Ten years later, most of the family is still living at South Street (although some of the ages do not tally with the information given on the previous census return and there are some name variations). The family comprised Charles Plummer (aged 49 and now working as carter on a farm), his wife Caroline (whose age is given as 57) and seven children: [Charles] William Plummer (a 27 year old farm labourer), Albert Plummer (a 20 year old gardener), Owen Plummer (an eighteen year old brickyards labourer), Annie Plummer (aged 12), Laura N Plummer (aged 11), Dora Louisa Plummer (aged six) and Kate Elizabeth Plummer (aged three). Clement Martin Plummer, oldest of the Plummer children, was married with two children, living at 45 Church Street, Brighton and working as brewer’s labourer. Ebenezer Plummer had moved out of the family home and was living at 77 South Common with his wife Edith Mary (nee Jenner) and her 88 year old grandfather John Jenner. Fifteen year old Alexander was still in Chailey but not at South Street. He was working as a page at The Hooke, Chailey.

Chailey Parish Magazine first mentions Albert serving his King and Country in November 1915 when it notes him as a Private with the Royal Sussex Regiment in England. According to Soldiers Died in The Great War, Albert enlisted at Eastbourne. He was given the number SD/3427 with the 13th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment. The SD part of Albert Plummer’s number refers to South Downs. The 11th, 12th and 13th Royal Sussex Regiment were also known as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd South Downs; Pals-type battalions which in time would find themselves assigned to a division (the 39th), with other Pals’ battalions. Chailey Parish Magazine first records Albert’s connection with the 13th Royal Sussex in December 1915, noting that he was in England.

By July 1916 it reported that he was in France and that same month, on Friday 14th July, The East Sussex News also reported that he was missing in France. Soldiers Died and The Commonwealth War Graves’ Commission’s (CWGC) Roll of Honour show that Lance-Corporal Albert Plummer died of wounds on 2nd July 1916. He is buried in Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery Souchez. Albert's name is recorded on Chailey’s war memorial and on the wooden panel inside St Peter’s Church. His name is also recorded on the stone tablet inside St Mary The Virgin Church, Westham, Sussex. The CWGC roll of honour notes that Albert Plummer was the son of the late Charles and Caroline Plummer (although they were still alive when he was reported missing) and the husband of Esther Plummer of 3 Andros Close, Chailey. Two of Albert’s brothers, Alexander Plummer and Owen Plummer, were also killed during the First World War; all three brothers being commemorated together on Chailey’s war memorial.

Medal index card courtesy of Ancestry.

Chailey's Somme - 1916

Remembering today, the men of Sussex who laid down their lives in a diversionary attack at Richebourg L'Avoue on the Somme on the 30th June 1916.

The three South Down battalions took part in the attack by the 39th Division and by the end of the day had sustained over a thousand casualties, roughly one third of their combined strength. I have written about this on the Chailey 1914-1918 website in a chapter I called, Chailey's Somme.

Sydney Arthur Brooks, brother of William Jared Brooks of Newick, was killed on this day and Albert Plummer of South Common, Chailey was severely wounded. He would die of his wounds on 2nd July.

The 30th June 1916 was, as some have said, the day that Sussex died, and 93 years on, almost to the hour that the men of Sussex rose from their trenches and walked into well-directed German machine-gun fire, I remember them.

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

A heavy sacrifice

On 23rd April 1918, Alexander Plummer, serving with the 19th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry, was killed in action. He was the youngest of six boys and one of three brothers to be killed during the First World War. His brother Albert Plummer had been killed in action on 2nd July 1916 whilst a third brother, Owen Plummer, had been killed on 5th April the previous year. Alexander has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres memorial. All three brothers are also commemorated on the Chailey war memorial.

Also mourning two sons in April, were James and Margaret Smith of Yew Tree Cottage, Cornwell's Bank, Newick. Their son Frederick James Smith had been killed on 17th April 1917 at Arras and now, on 26th April 1918, another son, George Spencer Smith, was killed in Belgium whilst serving with the 13th Royal Sussex Regiment. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial. Tragically, James and Margaret also lost two other sons to the Great War: Septimus Sydney Smith at Gallipoli on 19th August 1915 and Edward George Smith on the Somme on 26th July 1916. All four brothers are remembered on the war memorial at Newick.

Thus between them, the Plummer family of Chailey and the Smith family of Newick lost seven sons, holding the unenviable distinction of being the two families from those two villages who made the greatest sacrifices.

April is the cruellest month

On 5th April 1917, Chailey born Private Owen Plummer of the Army Service Corps, was killed in action. Exactly one year later, Private Edward Wells who, at the time of his enlistment, was living in Chailey, was killed in action whilst serving with the 9th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers.

Owen is buried in Douchy-les-Ayette British Cemetery in France and commemorated on Chailey's memorial along with two of his brothers, Albert Plummer and Alexander Plummer. Edward Wells has no known grave but is commemorated on the Pozieres memorial in France. He is not named on the Chailey parish memorial.