12419 Pte Charles Chambers, 7th Norfolk Regt

Charles Chambers was a patient at Hickwells some time between September 1915 and April 1916.  His entry in Nurse Oliver’s album reads:

All honour to our soldiers true
Who fight in honour’s name
And honour to their dead chums too
For they shall share their fame

Pte C Chambers
12419 Norfolk Reg

He shares this page with SR/7386 Private William Haydon of the 1st Royal Fusiliers.

Charles Robert H Chambers was born at Morningthorpe, Norfolk on 29th March 1894. He was the son of Charles and Caroline Chambers and he appears on the 1901 census living with them and his two sisters at Hall Road, Morningthorpe. The household comprised: Charles (head, married, aged 37, working as a cowman on a farm), Caroline (aged 30), Edith M Chambers (aged 11), Ellen M Chambers (aged nine) and Charles Robert Chambers (aged seven).

By the time the 1911 census was taken, Charles was living with his parents and older sister, Edith, at The Vineyards, Bracon Ash, Norfolk. Charles, aged 17, is recorded as a farm labourer, and his father, Charles senior, as a farm bailiff.

Charles attested with the Norfolk Regiment at Norwich on 27th August 1914, enlisting for the duration of the war. He gave his occupation as farm labourer. He was given the army service number 12419 and posted to the 7th Battalion.

The 7th Norfolks, formed part of the 35th Brigade of the 12th (Eastern) Division. Although when Charles enlisted, the division was incomplete, training in the form of drill and route marching began immediately, the men drilling with wooden rifles in the absence of the real thing. By the end of May 1915, having re-located from Hythe to Aldershot (where four other K1 Divisions were also going through their final paces), the men were ready to embark for France. Divisional advance parties left on the 25th followed by the men, artillery, horses and transport. By 4th June, all units of the 12th Division had reached their concentration area. The following day the Division joined III Corps.

Charles arrived in France on 30th May 1915 and served with the battalion until wounded by a shell on 8th August that year. That month, the battalion was in trenches at Ploegsteert. The diary entry for the period 5th - 9th August reads:

“These days were spent furnishing working parties. Norfolk Avenue trench is well on the way to completion. Gaps in the wire entanglement, every 40 yards, in front of subsidiary line constructed. Nothing of importance happened during these days.”

At the end of the month the diarist details, in chronological order, the number of casualties sustained. Charles appears on the 9th August as: “12479 Pte C R Chambers. B Coy. Severely wounded.” The date in the diary is incorrect as by the 9th Charles was already in a hospital bed at Le Treport.

Charles was wounded in the feet and left arm and was taken first to number 88 Field Ambulance at Pont de Nieppe and then to the Number 2 Casualty Clearing Station at Bailleul. The following day he was taken to the 2nd Canadian General Hospital at Le Treport where he remained until 2nd September. He was then transported back to England aboard the Hospital Ship Newhaven.

The next entry on his service papers is for 9th April 1916, when he was posted to the 3rd Battalion. In the preceding months it is reasonable to assume that Charles would have been transported first to the 2nd Eastern General Hospital at Brighton and then to Hickwells. His wound had been severe enough to keep him in a Canadian hospital on French soil for three weeks and then kept him in English hospitals for a further seven months. He was discharged from the army on 13th September 1916 as no longer physically fit for war service. He had served his King and Country for over two years, of which a little over three months (95 days) had been served abroad.

On 23rd October that year, Charles wrote to the military authorities form his home address at Brockdish, Eccles, Norfolk, requesting his silver war badge. His character, noted on army documents, is recorded as “Very Good – honest and sober”.

39170 Private William Gaius Day, 3rd Norfolk Regt

William G Day is probably William Gaius Day who appears on the 1901 census of England and Wales (but is recorded on it only as William Day) as a twelve year old living at home with his family at South Street, Chailey and working as a shop assistant.  His birth was registered at Lewes, Sussex in the March quarter of 1889. 

In 1901, the family comprised Gaius Day (the head of the family, aged 34 and working as a farm labourer), his wife Ellen Day (also aged 34) and their five children: William,  Alfred Day (aged nine), Arthur Day (aged five), Edith Day (aged three) and Minnie Day (aged ten months).  Gaius had been born in West Hoathley, Sussex but his wife and their children, were all born in Chailey. 

In January 1916, William appears in a special list of attested men in Chailey Parish Magazine.  He does not reappear until November that year when Day, Private W, 3rd Norfolk Regiment is noted.  This information is then repeated up to and including the final published roll call in July 1919.

 

William’s younger brother Arthur Day also served his King and Country during the First World War

Private A Brown, Norfolk Regiment

I know very little about this man and Chailey Parish magazine only gives the briefest details, noting first in April 1917 that Private Brown, A is serving with the 25th Norfolk Regiment, and repeating this every month thereafter up to and including July 1919.

Of course, there was no such formation as the 25th Norfolk Regiment and so the 2/5th Norfolk Regiment seems more likely. There are though, too many candidates for this Territorial Force unit to make a positive connection to Chailey's Private A Brown and so for the moment, Private A Brown remains a mystery.

32967 Pte Harry Avery, 7th Norfolk Regiment

Harry Avery was born in Chailey around 1898.  When the 1901 census was taken, the family was living at 13 South Street, Chailey.  The family comprised Thomas Avery (head of the household, aged 48), his wife Caroline (42) and their seven children: Thomas (21), Edith (18), Rose (16), Frederick (13), Harriett (9), Arthur (6) and Harry (2).  Thomas senior worked as a carter on a farm.  His son Thomas was a brick-maker (presumably working at Norman’s, locally) and Edith worked as a general domestic servant.  The family also had a boarder, 22 year old Frank Funnell who worked as a labourer in at the local brickyard.

Harry Avery first appears in Chailey Parish Magazine in March 1916 where his name is one of several noted in a special list of attested men.  In April 1917 he appears again as Avery, Pte H, TR Batt.  In December 1917 he is noted as serving with the 3rd Norfolk Regiment and by January 1918 with the 7th Norfolk Regiment.  His last entry in the Parish Magazine appears in July 1919 where he is still noted as serving with the 7th Norfolk Regiment.  He was given the army number 32967.

The 7th Norfolk Regiment was a New Army Battalion formed at Lincoln in September 1914.  It formed part of the 51st Brigade in the 17th (Northern) Division throughout the war.

Chailey resident Reg Philpott remembered Harry Avery as Henry Avery.

Another Avery, J Avery, also served in the First World War and it is possible that Harry was related to him.  Like Harry, his brothers Thomas and Arthur both served in the army during World War 1 and both survived.

Albert Still - a Barcombe terrier and conscript

The images from Albert Still's service record that appear on this blog are Crown Copyright and are housed in WO 363 at The National Archives. They are badly water-damaged as can be seen. Nevertheless, what remains is more than what survives for a lot of soldiers and I'll do my best to pick out the key points from each of the surviving pages.

The front page of the four-page attestation form gives basic details and shows that Albert attested at Lewes on the 22nd May 1916 and was called up at Chichester on the 15th May 1917.  At the time of attestation he was nearly 29 years old, married, working as an insurance clerk and living at Barcombe.  The word Norfolk can be seen top right and partial numbers can be seen to the left.  By the time Albert attested, conscription had been introduced and he would have been obliged to attest when he did.  He would have had no choice in the regiment to which he was eventually posted.  It is noted on this form that Albert had no prior military service.

Page two shows details of his next of kin - his wife Mabel whom he had married on the 25th April 1909 at the parish church, Chailey - and two daughters born in June 1914 and April 1916. The campaigns' section of this side shows that he spent his entire service between 15th May 1917 and 6th March 1919, at home in the UK. He would therefore not have been entitled to receive any medals.

Page three is a listing of Albert's army career: the 4th Royal Sussex (15th May 1917) Regiment, followed by an immediate transfer to the the 11th Norfolk Regiment on the same day. On the 20th October 1917 he was transferred to No 684 Agricultural Labour Company, then to 695 Company on the 15th December that year. Subsequent postings are blurred but we can see that he was discharged, no longer physically fit for war service, on the 6th March 1919. Defective vision and vertigo are noted as the disability. Albert's character is noted as good and his home address is recorded as 1 Munster Cottage, Barcombe, Sussex.

A blemish-free service is recorded and there's also a couple of numbers visible top left: 291117 and 429342. We can also see that Albert served with D Company of the 11th Norfolk Regiment.

The letter from the Ministry of Pensions notes that 429342 was Albert's number with the Labour Corps and that he had claimed a pension as a result of a heart condition aggravated by war service, and rheumatism attributable to war service.  He was awarded a weekly pension of five shillings and sixpence for 52 weeks from 7th March 1919 and a weekly allowance of two shillings and fourpence for his two children, effective from the 24th March 1919.  His case was to be reviewed after one year.

Army Form B178 notes that Albert's number with the 4th Royal Sussex Regiment was 1560 and that he had originally joined the Territorial Force on the 16th January 1913.  He was presumably discharged then, as a Time expired Territorial and was subsequently conscripted.  This Army Form also notes service in the Machine Gun Corps and a number 49461.