During the First World War, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) first began operating in March 1917. As the First World War dragged on into 1917, ongoing shortages of men and soldiers began to impact Britain’s ability to continue the conflict. In the early years of the war, as men had left their civilian jobs to […]

Milton ‘petit’ Wood was the youngest brother of my great, great grandmother Alice Mary Eldridge (née Wood), making him my great, great grand uncle from my mother’s father’s mother’s side, and he served in the First World War. More than two-dozen young men were sent to fight for monarch and country from both my mother […]

During the First World War, Nelson Victor Carter exhibited tremendous bravery and heroism on ‘The Day that Sussex Died’ Nelson Victor Carter was born at 3 Hydridge Terrace, Latimer Road, Eastbourne, on 6 April 1887, one of nine children born to Richard and Harriet Carter (1). His father was a fisherman and his mother, a […]

This is an overview of the story of my maternal side of the family during the Great War, the 1st World War; the war to end all wars, if only that had been true. Similar stories could be told by nearly everyone in the country, as every family was affected in some way, such was […]

When William Henry Broad died in 1919 after his service in the First World War, debates over the circumstances of his death continued for nearly one hundred years. William Henry Broad was born in 1894 in Seaford, East Sussex to Mary and Henry Broad, though his father re-married in 1906 to Jessica Amelia Thornley. Following the outbreak of […]

John Kipling, son of Rudyard Kipling, was killed at the Battle of Loos in 1915. Born on the 17 August 1897, John was the only son of the famous British writer Rudyard Kipling and his wife Caroline “Carrie” Starr Balestier. John was born at the family’s residence in Rottingdean before they relocated to Batemans House, […]

On 1 July 1916, the British and French armies attacked the German lines around the River Somme. As that battle raged, an East Sussex filmmaker was in France to capture the footage and create one of the most important documentaries ever seen. During the First World War, the ability of the press to report on […]

Lewes resident Sidney Woodroffe was awarded the Victoria Cross for the heroism on the battlefield that cost him his life. Sidney Woodroffe was born in Lewes, East Sussex, on 17 December 1895. He was the fourth and youngest son to his parents, Henry and Clara. Sidney was educated at Marlborough College where he held the role of […]

Following their time at Gallipoli the Sussex Yeomanry were re-deployed to Egypt. The elation felt by the Regiment in February 1916 at the prospect of taking on a mounted role soon evaporated – it was not to be. What was worse was that the South East Mounted Brigade  S.E.M.B) was to be scrapped. The S.E.M.B. was amalgamated […]

Seaford resident Cuthbert Bromley distinguished himself during the Gallipoli landings on 25 April 1915. Cuthbert was born to his parents, John and Marie Louisa in Hammersmith, London before the family moved to live in Seaford. One of four brothers, Cuthbert had originally intended to enter either the medical profession or the civil service upon the […]