The 5th Leicesters learn bomb throwing

Back in the early 1980s, having recently lost my grandfather and regretting that I'd never spoken to him properly about his own First World War experiences, I decided to set out and interview as many surviving veterans as I could find. My introduction to Chailey happened at this time when I was loaned an autograph album kept by a VAD nurse who'd worked with Sussex 54 VAD in Chailey and Newick. But I was principally interested in meeting the old soldiers and over the next ten years or so I probably interviewed or corresponded with about 100 Great War veterans - mostly in the Chelmsford area where I grew up, and at Loughborough where I went to university. I've recently started re-transcribing these tape-recorded interviews and I'll publish extracts here. As far as Chailey goes, it's slightly off tangent, but it is still WW1 and the old soldier tales are too good not to be shared.

So I'll start with Private Harold Shephard of the 5th Leicesters whom I interviewed in Loughborough in June 1984 when he was 88 years old. Mr Shephard joined the TF in 1911 and by 1915 he was in France. Here he is describing a Mills' bomb training course:

"Before we went to Egypt we had reinforcements come up to us at Marseilles. Now we’d been using the Mills bomb for twelve months near enough in the trenches and all the instructions we’d got were pull the pin out, count three and throw it.

Now in the reinforcements that come out we’d got an instructor as had been instructing on this bomb in England and had never thrown one - not the live thing - he’d thrown the dummy. And he come out to us in Marseilles and he says, I’ve come out from England to give you instructions on this bomb. So we all said, well what instructions are there? So he said, I’m coming to that in a minute, let me describe what I’ve come out here for, I’m stationed with the regiment now.

So he says, this is a Number 5 Mills’ Bomb. He says, you unscrew the bottom like this and take it off and at the top of that there’s a little detonator - and it’s only like a bit of electric wire and it’s about an inch long like that and curled up and then goes into the bomb. Now he took it out – we didn’t know nowt about this – he took it out and he says, now look, I’m going to tell you what not to do. So I says, he's pulling us bloody leg, you know, and all this that and the other. He gets this detonator out - and it weren’t only about that high - and he gets a little pocket knife and he says, now this is what I don’t want you soldiers to do. And he just touched the top of it and off went three of his fingers.

He’d been using the dummies in England but as soon as he got out here he was playing with the live stuff. We all said, fancy a bloody man coming out like that and telling us this when we’d been using them for twelve months.

Harold Shephard died in Loughborough in 1988 at the age of 92.

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.

Arthur Hamilton Boyd

The image above was sent to me this morning and shows a slightly blurred Reverend Arthur Hamilton Boyd in 1948. His medal ribbons can clearly be seen.

Medal cards on-line

I noticed today that Ancestry have put the WW1 medal cards on-line. This will be an enormous boon to WW1 researchers not only because the information becomes far more easily accessible, searchable and ultimately cheaper than the information you get direct from the National Archives, but also because the Ancestry photographer has helpfully taken a shot of the back of the card as well. In most instances the back will be blank, but some, like the attached card for my great uncle, Alfred Arthur Nixon, show an address and details of correspondence.

All images are Crown copyright of course, but as this is a non commercial blog and this post is written with the intention of informing and educating, I hope HM will forgive me and not send me to the Tower on this occasion.

69th and 84th Garo Labour Companies

This is most definitely off-topic as far as Chailey is concerned, but in a shining example of shameless self-promotion (aimed as much at search engines as humans), I am flagging up another WW1 website which I have just launched.

The 69th and 84th Garo Labour Companies website is a small Freewebs site which commemorates the men of these two north east Indian labour corps companies during the First World War. A memorial in Tura, (then in the state of Assam, now in Meghalaya), commemorates the 55 labourers who did not return.

As far as Chailey is concerned, I hope to be able to correct the record of another of Chailey's men very soon. I have been in touch with a relative and all being well will be updating the relevant page during the coming week.

William Horace Simmons

William Horace Simmons was another old Chailey soldier overlooked by the Reverend Jellicoe in his monthly roll call of serving parishioners. He originally attested with the 21st Hussars in 1893 and his early service record makes fascinating reading.

Despite brushes with authority, William saw a good deal of service abroad. He was in the “East Indies” (India) between 8th March 1894 and 23rd October 1896 and then went straight to Egypt until 11th November 1899. He was home in England briefly between November 1899 and February 1900 but then sailed for South Africa on 13th March that year to fight the Boers. He returned home on 15th July 1900 (presumably as a result of sickness or wounds) and was discharged in 1901. He was entitled to the Queen’s South Africa Medal.

He enlisted for a second time on 22nd October 1914, this time signing up with the Military Mounted Police at Aldershot and served with this regiment until his discharge from the army on 15th August 1917.

I am surmising that the reason for William’s omission in Chailey Parish Magazine was due to him having moved out of the immediate area many years before. I am happy to remember him at last on the Chailey website.

Fletching British Legion - women's section

Thanks to Geoff Isted in Sussex I've been able to add tiny snippets to two more records. James Brazier and Percy Ireland both served their King and Country during WW1. James was killed in action in March 1918 whilst serving with the Royal Garrison Artillery but Percy survived (albeit with a head wound) and returned to his wife and children in Fletching.

In 1926, James's sister and Percy's wife both joined the women's branch of Fletching British Legion (the Royal had not been added at this point in time), and I am grateful to Geoff for digging out this additional information.

Victor George Ashford - a brief war

Victor George Ashford was born about 1900 in Newick. He appears on the 1901 census as the youngest child of James Thomas Ashford (a fishmonger) and his wife Jane. Three other children are also noted.

Victor's service record more rightly belongs on a Newick commemoration site as he lived at Colonels Bank, Newick. However, his service record notes Colonels Bank as being in Chailey and so I am more than happy to add his name to the Chailey parish roll call.

Chailey 1914-1918 - two years old

This time two years ago, with the first fireworks bursting outside my flat in India, I was struggling to publish my Chailey 1914-1918 commemoration site. I'd set myself the goal to get it published in 2005 and I made it with a few hours to spare. Publishing my research on-line was the best thing I ever did. Although I had a lot of information, there were - and still are - huge gaps which I hoped that visitors to my site would help fill. They have and they continue to do so.

So again, thank you to everybody who has helped me over the past 24 months. Just today, as a result of information receive from a distant relative, I have been able to update the page for Frederick Sweetman, a Wivelsfield man who joined the Royal Sussex Regiment Special Reserve in September 1914, served overseas twice and was then discharged on a pension of ten shillings a week in 1916. Frederick was a widower when war was declared yet, with two young daughters to support, that didn't stop him from volunteering to serve his King and Country.

Tonight I shall raise a glass to the men and women of Chailey and indeed to all our country's servicemen and women (past and present) whose sacrifices allow us to enjoy the freedoms we so happily take for granted.

Happy New Year to you all.

Frederick Ernest Sweetman

I've updated the page for Frederick Ernest Sweetman thanks to additional information contained in his surviving service record (and a prompt from a distant relative). Frederick's service record indicates that he was a regular soldier and I think it likely that he was also a Boer War veteran, although if he was, the papers aren't with his WW1 papers in the WO 364 series. Frederick was also the brother-in-law of George Kenward, another Chailey man who served his King and Country.

Ernest Arthur Malins

I've added a photograph of Ernest Arthur Malins (standing left), along with his brother Sidney Howard Williams Malins. Both men wear the cap badge of the Royal West Kent Regiment. The photograph was taken in England with the men's parents.

Ernest was a patient at Hickwells in Chailey and would later be killed on the Somme in July 1916. Sidney would survive the war, attaining the rank of warrant officer class 2 with the Northumberland Fusiliers.

Ivan Duffield corrected

Thanks to Eleanor Manvell, I've corrected Ivan Duffield's record. I had recorded this man as having been born in Slinfold, Sussex when in fact the man recorded in Reverend Jellicoe's monthly parish returns had been born at Ringmer.

Thomas Jesse Woodhams

I knew from a previous contact that Thomas Woodhams emigrated to the US some time before 1915. Now, thanks to Dennis Savage in Australia, I've been able to pinpoint that date (as well as the name of the ship on which he sailed) and I've consequently updated Thomas's page with this information. He served with the RFA during the First World War.

259027 Pte Roland Gilbert, Labour Corps

The undated photo above, sent to me by Mike Gilbert, features his grandfather Roland Gilbert (seated third from left) when he was serving in the Royal Sussex Regiment. The reverse of the card, sent to his three children, simply reads, love to you all, Daddy.

In March 1915, Chailey Parish Magazine had noted that Roland Gilbert was serving his King and Country.  In October 1915 it reported, Gilbert, Private R, 10th Royal Sussex, France. 

Ten months later in August 1916 the parish magazine noted that Private Gilbert has been wounded and was in England.  His final entry in the parish magazine appears in September 1917 which simply states, Gilbert, Private R, 10th Royal Sussex.  Wounded.

It seems likely that Roland Gilbert was 4469 Private Roland Gilbert.  His medal index card has two numbers and two regiments for him, the second being 259027, a Labour Corps number.  It would seem to fit the information contained in the parish magazine that Private Gilbert was wounded with the 10th Royal Sussex Regiment, returned to England to recuperate and then transferred to the Labour Corps.

Roland Gilbert was born in Burwash, Sussex in 1880, his birth registered in the Ticehurst district in March of that year.  He was the son of William and Ann Gilbert and appears on the 1881 census for Burwash as a one year old infant.  The family was living at Toll Gate Cottage and comprised William Gilbert (aged 23), an agricultural Labourer, his wife Ann (aged 27), Roland and the couple's one month old daughter (un-named on the census return).  All four family members are noted as having been born in Burwash.  They also shared the house with another family: Harry Kemp (aged 71) and his two daughters: Sarah Kemp (aged 40) and Hannah Kemp (aged 38 and bed-ridden).

I have been unable to locate the family on the census returns for 1891 and 1901 but thanks to Roland's grandson, Mike Gilbert, who contacted me as a result of finding this website,  Iam able to fill in further details post 1901.

In 1902 Roland married Mabel Day, their marriage registered in the Brighton district in the December quarter of that year.  Four children followed quickly: Percy Gilbert (born in 1903), Dorothy Gilbert (born in 1904), Ella Gilbert (born in 1905) and Kathleen Gilbert (born in 1907).  The family lived in Lower Station Road, Chailey, next door to Mabel's parents William and Emma who let rooms and had a small market garden.  Mike Gilbert thinks that the properties were called The Pines and Fernside (one of these now re-named Wray Lodge).  This ties in with Kelly's Directory for 1915 which notes William as being the owner of Pines Apartments.  Logic suggests therefore that Roland and his family lived at Fernside.

In 1909, Mabel Gilbert died at the young age of 30 and her sister became a surrogate mother to the four young Gilbert children. 

 

 

It is clear from the entry in Chailey Parish Magazine that, despite being the breadwinner for four children, Roland Gilbert voluntarily enlisted in the army.  He would have been 35 years old by then.  Mike Gilbert remembers his father saying that he had to leave school in 1915 to help in the market garden as his father had joined the army. Fortunately, as mentioned above, Roland survived the war and came home to Chailey to continue bringing up his family.

My thanks to Mike Gilbert for the wonderful photos of his grandfather, father and aunts.

Much to add

Although I've not updated this page for a while, there is a lot to add to the site, both as a result of contact from relatives and also thanks to service records A-C (the burnt documents) now available on-line.

The reason for not updating the site is as a result of work commitments, other WW1 projects, family matters and my site hosts experiencing a security threat which has led to them changing all the passwords. Once I fathom out how to re-instate everything, normal service will be resumed.

Cottingham and Kenward

As a result of information received from relatives I've updated the pages for the Cottingham brothers - Alfred Cottingham, Frederick Cottingham, George Cottingham, James Cottingham and William Cottingham - and also the page for John Walter Kenward.

Chailey National School 1899

The photo above shows pupils from Chailey National School and was taken in 1899.

The only child I've identified so far is five year old Frederick Bray who sits far right. I feel convinced though, that many of his classmates would also have gone on to serve their King and Country. For the time being though, they remain frozen in anonymity and the innocence that was society before the First World War.

Alfred Jenner & Douglas Uridge

I have updated the biographies for two more Chailey men: Alfred Jenner and Douglas Uridge. Both would have had interesting stories to tell.

Alfred joined the army as a regular soldier in 1915 and sustained a gunshot wound in 1917. It was a huge carbuncle on his shoulder however, which was to prove most troublesome to him and which would eventually lead to a sizeable army gratuity. Alfred's service record speaks volumes for the insanitary conditions in which men lived in the trenches. Besides his carbuncle, he was also hospitalised at various times as a result of conjunctivitis, trench fever and myalgia.

Douglas Uridge first joined the army on 1st August 1914. He was in Canada at the time but never sailed with his regiment. A kick in the head from a horse caused him to be discharged from the army. Undeterred, he sailed for England and finally succeeded in re-enlisting, this time with the Army Service Corps. Even so, he was discharged in 1917, a Medical Board noting that he was, "thin, weak. Slightly anaemic, narrow chest and poor physique generally."

769654 Pte Horace Raymond Martin, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry

Chailey Parish Magazine notes in September 1916 that H Martin is serving with the Grenadier Guards in England.  In December 1916 it notes that he is serving with the 13th Grenadier Guards and this information is then repeated up to and including December 1917.  After this, there are no further references to this man.

According to his attestation papers, Horace was born in Newick on 2nd June 1897.  I think that this is a soldier's "white lie" however and that he was really born in the second half of 1898, his birth registered at Lewes district in the September quarter of that year.  He appears on the 1901 census living at Church Road with his parents and seven siblings.  The household comprised, William John Martin (head, aged 47; a self employed builder), his wife Adela Martin (aged 42) and their eight children.  In age order they are: William Henry Martin (an 18 year old carpenter), Florence Kate Martin (aged 15), Mabel Grace Martin (aged 13), Edith Cicely Martin (aged 11), Alfred Geoffrey Martin (aged ten), John Sidney Martin (aged five), Daisy Evaline Martin (aged four) and Horace (aged two).

There was of course, no “13th Grenadier Guards” but with the wisdom of hindsight and due acknowledgement to Horace’s headmaster at Newick, John Oldaker, it is possible to see how this error arose.

Horace’s brother John served with the 10th Royal Grenadiers, CEF and it appears that the Reverend Jellicoe got this information slightly wrong and then attributed the incorrect regiment to Horace.  In all likelihood both the boys were in Canada when war was declared because both joined Canadian units. 

Horace, who would only have been about 16 when war was declared, enlisted at Toronto on the 4th January 1916 (still under age) and was posted to the 124th Battalion of the CEF.  He was given the number 269654. His attestation papers note that he was born in Newick, Sussex and give his address as 26 McRoberts Avenue, Toronto, Canada. His next of kin is noted as his mother, Adela Martin, also of the same address.  Horace's trade is given as machinist. He was five feet six and a half inches tall, had a fair complexion, blue eyes and black hair.  A scar on his right ankle is also noted.

On 1st January 1917 Horace transferred to Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI)  having already been in France with the 124th Bn CEF since 4th December 1916.  A note in the PPCLI roll of honour records that he was struck off strength on 7th February 1919.

The photograph that appears on this page, plus details of Horace’s enlistment are from John Oldaker’s collection of serving ex pupils from Newick School.  My thanks to Simon Stevens for this information.

Also see this post. Is it the same Horace Martin?