Driver C Barker, Royal Engineers

I know precious little about this man.  Barker, Sapper C, RE first appears in Chailey Parish Magazine in December 1916.  In December 1917 his rank is changed to Driver and it is Barker, Driver C, RE that then appears continuously until July 1919.

He is possibly Charles Barker who appears as a thirteen-year-old on the 1911 census, living with his parents and older brother Ernest Barker (aged 23) at Stanley Cottages, Sheffield Park Station. If it is this man, an enlistment in 1916 for an eighteen-year fits in well with him being called up when he reached the age of eighteen. Unfortunately though, no service record appears to survive for this man and there are too many possibilities on medal index cards to be certain of a positive match with the right man.

Charles Craddock - twenty one years a soldier

Charles Craddock's service record survives at the National Archives; so does that of his brother Walter. Both men were regular soldiers who enlisted in the army long before the First World War was declared.

I see that my web hosts are closed for the weekend for essential maintenance. Therefore, as a stop-gap measure until I am able to update his page entry on the site, I am pasting his service history here:

Charles Stephen Craddock, first noted by Chailey Parish Magazine in October 1914 as serving his King and Country, was born in Lewes, Sussex in 1879; his birth registered in the September quarter of that year. He appears on the 1881 census of England and Wales as a one year old infant living at North Place, Lewes, Sussex. Also noted at the household are Elizabeth Craddock (head of the household, married, aged 23 and noted as a general labourer’s wife) and her eldest son William G Craddock.

Ten years later, by the time the 1891 census was taken, Elizabeth is still noted as the head of the household (and now living at No 6, Cliffe Square, Lewes) but is recorded as being a widow earning her living as a washerwoman. William, aged 13 is working as a farm boy and Charles (12) is recorded as a scholar. However, there are two more mouths to feed: Walter Craddock (aged ten) and Annie Craddock (aged four).

Charles does not appear on the 1901 census because he’d enlisted in the army in 1898 and was fighting the Boers in South Africa. His brother Walter was also in uniform and appears on the census as a 19 year old soldier stationed at Grand Redoubt, Eastbourne.

Charles’s army service record survives in the WO364 Army Pension series at the National Archives in Kew, and it makes fascinating reading. He joined the Royal Sussex Regiment at Chichester on 10th January 1898 and was given the service number 5510. He was already serving part time with the 3rd (Volunteer) Battalion of the Sussex Regiment when he joined the regular army, his stated trade or calling being labourer. He was aged 18 and 11 months, stood five feet, five and a half inches tall and weighed 122lbs.

On 22nd February 1898 Charles was posted to the 1st Battalion and appears to have served with this unit until 1st March 1902 when he was posted to the 2nd Battalion. He had originally joined up to serve seven years with the colours and five on the reserve but he extended his period of service to eight years (on 1st April 1904) and then again to twelve years on 26th January 1906. In common with many army service records of the time, Charles’s record is full of entries granting, and then forfeiting, good conduct pay or badges. Between 1900 and 1907 there are no less than fourteen entries as he was first awarded a good conduct badge or pay and then lost it again due to some minor misdemeanour.

Charles was stationed in England until September 1899 and then five months in Malta. He was then sent out to South Africa in February 1900 and remained there for just over two years. His next posting was to India in March 1902 and he spent eight months there before returning to England. He was at “Home” between December 1902 and June 1904 and was then posted out to Malta again, remaining there for eleven months. He then spent 22 months in Crete before returning to England in March 1907 where he then remained until discharged to the Army Reserve on 9th January 1910; exactly twelve years after he first enlisted.

At some point during his service, his mother Elizabeth, noted as his next of kin, moved from Cliffe Square in Lewes to Sheffield Park which falls within Chailey Parish.

On 25th January 1910, Charles married Elizabeth Burns (spinster) at the register office in Maresfield, Sussex and July the following year, their daughter Lily Elizabeth was born. Three years later in March 1914 the couple would have a son, Charles Joseph Craddock, who much later, would serve as a regular soldier with the Grenadier Guards.

Charles senior however, was not yet finished with military life. In October 1911 he attested for service with section D of the Army Reserve. His previous period of service on the Reserve had expired on 9th January 1910 and his re-enlistment into Section D effectively meant that if required, he could be recalled to the colours. He was then aged 32 years and appeared to have grown two and a half inches as his height is given as five feet, eight. He had a dark complexion, brown eyes and dark brown hair. He was tattooed on both arms and on his chest. Charles gave his trade as railway labourer and his address as 2 Market Lane, Lewes.

He then presumably settled down to civilian life for three years but was immediately recalled to the colours when Britain declared war on Germany, being mobilised on 5th August 1914.

Charles did not serve overseas with the Royal Sussex Regiment but instead remained at the regimental depot in Sussex. He was transferred, very briefly, to number 608 Home Service Employment Company of The Labour Corps in 1917 but then transferred back to The Royal Sussex Regiment on 30th November that year as “not suitable”. He was posted to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, on 2nd May 1918.

By this stage, according to his service record, he was living at Railway Cottages, Sheffield Park, Sussex. As Sheffield Park falls within Chailey Parish, this is why he appears on the Reverend Jellicoe’s list of Chailey serving parishioners. In October 1915, the parish magazine had noted that Pte C Craddock was serving with the 2nd Royal Sussex Regiment in England and had repeated this information every month up to and including the final published roll call in July 1919. He was certainly in England but with the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion rather than the 2nd. He was finally demobilised on 11th March 1919, his address now given as c/o Mrs Hobden, Plumpton Green, Plumpton, Sussex.

Charles Craddock died of TB at 40, Valence Road, Lewes on 13th March 1945. He was 65 years old and his profession noted as retired railway platelayer.

64128 Pte William Stevens, 8th MGC

William Stevens was born at Chailey and living at Hunts Cottage, Scaynes Hill when he attested at Hayward’s Heath on the 23rd February 1916.  His attestation was approved at Chichester on the 24th June 1916 and he was posted to the 28th (Reserve) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers three days later where he was given the regimental number 11275.  At the time of his attestation he was single, aged 20 years and 11 months and working as a steam thresher.  His father, John Stevens, was noted as William's next of kin and at some point during William's service the family moved from Hunts Cottage to Tunis House, The Green, Newick.

On 1st September 1916 William was transferred to the 104th Training Reserve Battalion and then transferred again, on the 12th October 1916, to the Machine Gun Corps where he was issued with a new regimental number, 64128.

Chailey Parish Magazine first notes him in November 1916 as Pte W Stevens, serving with the 104th Training Reserve Battalion, Royal Fusiliers in Scotland.  

William proceeded overseas on the 30th December 1916 and was posted to the 27th MGC on the 10th January 1917. He was admitted to hospital with trench fever on the 3rd March 1917 and was wounded by shrapnel in the head and right leg on the 31st May 1917. He spent five days at No 42 Casualty Clearing Station before being discharged to duty. 

William Stevens, by now serving with the 8th Battalion, MGC was reported missing on Monday 27th May 1918 and this was duly reported in Chailey Parish Magazine which noted him missing between August 1918 and July 1919. In fact, it was not until April 1919 that the War Office officially accepted that William had been killed on 27th May the previous year. His body was never found and he is commemorated on the Soissons memorial (below, courtesy of Colin Roberts) in France.

In June 1919, William's surviving family members were noted as his father, John Stevens; brothers Albert Stevens (aged 32) and George Stevens (aged 21, serving with the Army of Occupation) and sisters Clara Stevens (aged 24) and Margaret Moon (aged 27).

William Stevens is commemorated in two Sussex locations.  His name is on the war memorial on the village green at Chailey and also on a stone tablet and wooden shrine inside St Augustines Church, Scaynes Hill. The information contained at Scaynes Hill notes that he was a corporal (which is incorrect) and that he was killed on the Chemin des Dames.  His inclusion on the Chailey war memorial appears to have been an afterthought. His name appears at the bottom of the list of names as W Stevens and is out of alphabetical sequence.  It seems probable that, like Frederick Albert Jon Wood, his name was added at a later date. 

William Stevens appears on the 1901 census of England as the six year old son of John and Sarah Stevens of Wapsbourne Farm Cottage, Sheffield Park, Chailey.  His brothers Albert and George and his cousins William H Stevens, Frank Stevens and James Stevens (all mentioned in Chailey Parish Magazine) also served during the First World War.

 

 

Killed by a shell burst - James Brazier

William James Brazier was killed in action this day in 1918. The Kaiser's offensive, launched on a misty morning two days earlier, saw advances all along the front as land that had been fought over for nearly four years, was swallowed up by the advancing German armies.

Soldiers Died in The Great War notes that William James Brazier was born at Arundel in Sussex, enlisted at Newhaven and was living at Sheffield Park Station, north of Chailey.  I think he probably used his middle name, James, instead of William however, as this is how Chailey parish magazine refers to him. He was serving with the 81st Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery which formed part of the 48th Heavy Artillery Group.

On the day he was killed, the battery was situated west of Sapignies and William, working on number 3 gun, fell victim to a direct hit on the gun which exploded a fuzed shell. He was buried the same evening although his grave must have been lost in subsequent fighting. Today he is commemorated on the Arras memorial as W J Brazier.

I have been unable to find a convincing match for either James or William James Brazier on census returns.  There is only one Brazier (that I could find), born at Arundel listed on the 1901 census of England and Wales and that is 53 year old James Brazier, boarding at Headbourn Worthy, Hampshire.  There is a 30 year old William J Brazier born at Brighton and living at Brighton noted on the 1901 census but this does not solve the Arundel part of the jigsaw.  No ‘Brazier’ appears on the Arundel war memorial.

Chailey Parish Magazine notes in October 1914 that James Brazier is serving his King and Country and the following October, this is updated to include the information that he is a trumpeter with the Royal Garrison Artillery in France.  In December 1917, Chailey Parish Magazine notes that he is now a bombardier and this information is repeated up to and including the final entry in April 1918.

Both Soldiers Died in the Great War and The Commonwealth War Graves’ Commission’s Debt of Honour register note James Brazier’s rank at the time of his death, as corporal and this is confirmed on his medal index card held at The National Archives in London.  The card also notes that James arrived in France on 6th March 1915.  He served with the 81st Siege Battery, RGA and must have arrived in France as part of a small follow-up party to the Battery which had disembarked the previous day. 

The Battery formed part of the 48th Heavy Artillery Group and according to the latter's war diary, the day on which James was killed, 23rd March 1918, was a fine day which saw the Battery situated west of Sapignies. The history of the 81st Siege Battery gives further details:

“During the afternoon of Mar 23rd No 3 gun received a direct hit. This exploded a fuzed shell which killed Cpl. Brazier. He was buried the same evening and the funeral party was bombed by enemy aircraft at the graveside, but no casualties occurred”.

James Brazier's grave must have been lost in subsequent fighting as today he has no known grave and is commemorated on Bay 1 of the Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais under the name W J Brazier (above).  His army service number was 37224 (below, courtesy of Ancestry).

 

 

In May 1918, Chailey Parish Magazine added Corporal Brazier’s name to its roll of honour, albeit incorrectly noting his date of death as 24th March 1918.

It is possible that James Brazier was a pre-war regular soldier.  When war was declared, the 81st Siege Battery was stationed in India and arrived back in England on 23rd December 1914.  The photo included on this page is of a trumpeter with the 81st when the Battery was stationed at Roorkee, India in 1911.  It is possible that this is James Brazier although this needs to be confirmed. 

Remembering Frank Stevens

On this day, eighty eight years ago, and with the end of hostilities a little over two weeks away, Frank Stevens of Chailey lost his life. This is his story.

He appears on the 1901 census of England and Wales as a three year old living with his family at Wapsbourne Garden Cottage, Sheffield Park, Chailey. The family comprised: James Stevens (head, aged 45, working as a farm labourer), his wife Ellen Stevens (aged 40) and their four children: Alice Stevens (aged ten), William H Stevens (aged eight), James Stevens (aged five) and Frank. There were other children too. The 1891 census notes Annie K Stevens (aged six) and Emily J Stevens (aged four).

By-passing the next address on the 1901 census – Wapsbourne Gate Cottage – Wapsbourne Farm Cottage was home to John Stevens (brother of James Stevens senior) and his family. This household comprised: John Stevens (head, aged 40, working as a thrashing engine driver), his wife Sarah (aged 41) and their four children: Albert Stevens (aged 13, working as a stock boy on a farm), Margaret Stevens (aged 11), William Stevens (aged six) and George Stevens (aged two).

Soldiers Died in The Great War states that Frank Stevens was born in Chailey, was resident at Sheffield Park and enlisted at Brighton. Chailey Parish Magazine first mentions him in July 1918 noting that F Stevens is serving with the 4th East Surrey Regiment.

He was killed in action on 25th October 1918 whilst serving with the 8th East Surrey Regiment and is buried at Preux-au-Bois Communal Cemetery, France; reference: A.3. His name is recorded on the same headstone as that of 48218 Private E F Short, also of the 8th East Surreys and also killed on the same day.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Debt of Honour Register notes that he was the “Son of James and Ellen Stevens, of Wapsbourne, Sheffield Park Station, Lewes.” In January 1919, Chailey Parish Magazine added his name to its roll of honour.

The parish magazine notes nine men with the surname Stevens who served their King and Country and it seems likely that his brothers James and William H Stevens and his cousins Albert Stevens, George Stevens and William Stevens, also served during the First World War.