The East Sussex WW1 website was launched at 11am on 4 August 2014, to coincide with the day in 1914 that Britain declared war on Germany. The original aim of the project was to firstly record and document the experiences of those in East Sussex during the war and also to help assist and facilitate ongoing projects in the county to mark the centenary. From this starting point the project would rapidly grow beyond all expectations.

The project was largely run by the Project Officer Chris Kempshall, the Project Manager Lee Banner before his departure in October 2017, and the Policy Development Officer Indea Cadman-Rivers before she departed and Policy Officer Beth McGhee joined in November 2015.

In the earliest weeks and months of the project an additional publication board met regularly, composed of members of The Keep archives, Sophie Unger of the Historical Environment Record and our sister project Recording Remembrance, along with Madeleine Whitty and Lesley Fairbairn from East Sussex County Council’s Communications and Graphic Design Teams.

Partners and networks

Before the website launched, our Project Manager began the process of liaising with museums and projects in the East Sussex area. During this period of time they visited museums in Newhaven, Eastbourne, Brighton and Seaford and also formed relationships with ongoing projects such as Brighton and Hove Black History, Gateways to the First World War, and the Sussex Archaeological Society.

As the project grew year on year we built new relationships with more organisations and museums.

Through this network we would be able to advertise ongoing events in East Sussex during the centenary and also source information and topics for new stories on our website.

Stories and events

At launch, the website had over 20 stories split across several initial categories: ‘East Sussex Soldiers’, ‘East Sussex Front’, ‘East Sussex & Beyond’, ‘East Sussex & the Sea’, and ‘Did you know?’. In the following years, as the number of stories on the website grew new categories would be added such as: ‘East Sussex Medical’, ‘The Wider War’, ‘East Sussex Remembers’ and ‘Our Project’. The existing category ‘East Sussex & the Sea’ was expanded to become ‘East Sussex Air & Sea’.

When it came to content on our project website, the aim was always that the majority of it should come from public submissions and these would be the articles given preference.

In addition to public submissions, the Project Officer and others working on the project would also produce further articles and content on areas of the war in East Sussex that were yet to be featured and also on wider moments in the war that could provide context to ongoing activity.

Alongside story submissions, the project also regularly received event listings through our submission system. These events were then added to the database of Culture24 and advertised across the county.

What resulted from this policy was a continually growing number of stories and events year on year. By our 1st anniversary on 4 August 2015, our website had hosted over 130 stories and events. A further 35 stories and events were added to the website at the end of the project’s 2nd year. Our 3rd year saw another 41 stories and events displayed on the website and at the end of our 4th year on 4 August 2018, another 29 had been published.

As our project now comes to an end, in total we have published 175 stories and 81 events on the website. Of these, 65% came from the general public. Of all the stories on our website the most viewed has been Food during the First World War, viewed 37,000 times.

However, as our project evolved we soon decided that stories and events were not the only content we wished to offer.

Expanded content

For each year of our project we aimed to introduce some new form of content that would be useful for the years of the centenary but that also might have a legacy beyond 2018.

Eastbourne Chronicle – 1914

During the first year of our project we began to explore the possibility of utilising the microreels of newspapers held at The Keep archives and also within East Sussex Libraries. Our belief was that whilst our ongoing story articles were providing an important insight into wartime experience, we could also provide newspaper coverage for every week of the war. This undertaking proved to be much larger than we’d originally expected.

Having initially selected the Eastbourne Gazette, Eastbourne Chronicle, Hasting & St Leonards Observer and the Hastings & St Leonards Pictorial Advertiser as our four newspapers, we sent them away for digitisation and then, once that was completed, began assembling them into readable and searchable pdf copies. We also began digitisation of a 5th newspaper by ourselves; the Sussex Daily News. This latter newspaper would be published online at the end of our 2nd year.

Together these newspapers meant that our users could follow the ongoing details of the war and its impact in East Sussex on an almost daily basis.

This entire process was hugely ambitious for a project like ours; such attempts are normally reserved for organisations and institutions such as the British Library, the National Newspaper Archive, and the National Library of Wales. As a result we were the first project of our kind to offer such a large and varied collection of newspapers online.

In our 2nd year we began converting existing stories on our website into educational resources that could be downloaded and used by both teachers and school students. One of the long-running desires of the project was to ensure that the work done in collecting information about East Sussex during the First World War could then serve an educational value.

Educational Resources

In consultation with several teachers and Isilda Almeida-Harvey, the Outreach and Learning Officer at The Keep, we produced an initial three categories of educational resource; Soldiers, Women, and Children. Each of these categories had three stories within them but they were then further divided in two, with material suitable for teachers and a version for students.

After the initial success of these resources, in February 2017 we returned to our resources to create two further categories; Places and Empire. Like the existing categories these each featured three stories with versions for teachers and students.

Our final large piece of new content was of a visual nature. Early on in the project we had digitised a collection of original First World War recruitment and propaganda posters. For our 3rd anniversary we collected these 42 posters into four different categories; ‘Soldiers, Service and Recruitment’, ‘Women’, ‘Economy’ and ‘Food’. All of them were made available for downloading.

Paving Stone Ceremonies

In August 2013, as part of the preparations for the centenary commemorations for the First World War, the then Department for Communities and Local Government announced a memorial paving stone design to commemorate recipients of the Victoria Cross during the First World War in their home towns.

There were four eligible men who were born or lived in East Sussex that then received VC Paving Stones during the First World War centenary: Sidney Woodroffe, Cuthbert Bromley, Nelson Carter, and Claude Nunney.

A major part of the East Sussex WW1 project has been coordinating and organising the installation and unveiling of these new war memorials with the relevant local councils. The creation of new war memorials is extremely rare. Additionally, these memorials in particular were not just a record of the actions of these soldiers during the war, but also a record of how the centenary itself was marked.

The creation and installation of these memorials was important for the community today and will be important for them in the future as well, as permanent reminders of these men and the centenary.

Reach and statistics

Since the day of our website’s launch, the reach of our project has been extraordinary.

A world map showing ‘sessions’ for our website

By our 2nd anniversary the website had been viewed over 100,000 times and the views consistently rose month on month and year on year. Shortly after our 3rd anniversary our total website views passed 200,000.

Now, at the end of our project, the website has been viewed 375,000 times in total by 188,000 users.

Over the duration of the project our website has been viewed on every continent.

The busiest days over the centenary for our website were 30 June 2016, the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Boar’s Head also known as ‘the day that Sussex died‘ and the centenary of the end of the First World War when the website was viewed thousands of times.

Over the duration of the project our material has been used for school projects in the Netherlands and to inform discussions about First World War computer games. Our material and activities have been covered locally and nationally by radio, newspaper and television.

People have used our newspapers to discover obituaries of their relatives. Through the publication of stories on our website we have put long-lost relatives in touch with each other.

Testimony

Below are testimonies from those that have engaged with and provided invaluable support to our project.

The East Sussex First World War project has been a valuable regional partner to the Gateways to the First World War public engagement centre. We have enjoyed working with the project team on events and following the local stories that have been shared on the East Sussex FWW website and social media. The website has provided interesting, well-researched content presented in a very accessible way and is a great resource which we have recommended to local community project researchers. Dr Chris Kempshall, the East Sussex FWW Project Officer, has given talks at a number of our events in the region and his expert knowledge of the period and engaging presentation style have contributed to their success. The project has uncovered fascinating insights into wartime lives in East Sussex between 1914 and 1918 and has played an important role in the commemoration of the First World War centenary in the South East.

Dr Zoë Denness – Gateways to the First World War public engagement centre, University of Kent

It has been a privilege to be able to contribute towards this excellent project. Not only does it underline the importance of commemorating the fallen, in a way in which they are no longer just names on a memorial, but it has opened a window giving us a glimpse into their lives and the lives of the people and communities of East Sussex at one of the most significant times in modern history. By giving the opportunity for the public to contribute, personal stories often known only to families, have also been shared and recorded. These stories paint a picture of heroism, tragedy, yet, determination and resilience. Stories which were perhaps forgotten or untold, will now provide an invaluable permanent resource in our County for future generations alongside the official histories of WW1. Congratulations and thanks to all those who masterminded and organised this WW1 project.

Rosalind Hodge – Archivist, Willingdon Parish Church

The East Sussex in WWI project has not only been a fascinating resource for me as someone interested in Sussex Great War history, but as a professional, it’s really helped my organisation to create our own schemes about this period of time. This has been consistently with expert advice for the project manager Dr Chris Kempshall who has been an amazing and enthusiastic fount of knowledge. 

Key things that have helped us to deliver have been newly digitised local newspapers, new found photos, study resources, information on the contribution of Indian, African and Caribbean soldiers in the war as well as the role of women in service and on the home front.

As a result of East Sussex in WWI, we’ve been able to find new resources and develop information found on the site for the enriching the following four projects with a First World War focus –  The Orange Lilies: Brighton & Hove in the Somme, Trench Brothers (with HMDT Music), The Unremembered (with the Big Ideas Company) and Dr Blighty (with Nutkhut). Finally we most recently engaged with the project in September 2018 for advice on the Jewish Community in WWI in Sussex and have as a result submitted an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund. 

Nicola Benge, Strike a Light Arts and Heritage Project

Since moving to The Keep, we have really enjoyed the opportunities of contributing to some outreach projects that the East Sussex WW1 project has been involved in such as the Brighton’s Graphic War group visit. With that project we worked with East Sussex Records Office colleagues and East Sussex WW1 to promote and share the local history resources held here. Also we’ve been able to share updates and details with our users from your newly digitised resources.

Additionally other highlights have been the WW1 talks by the East Sussex WW1 Project Officer at The Keep. The three different talks were brilliant and really well attended. We were also very pleased to have the Project Officer as a speaker at this year’s Open Day, where the themes were the twin centenaries of the Armistice and female suffrage campaign.

Kate Elms – Royal Pavilion and Museums, The Keep

East Sussex WW1 – Four years of links and learnings.

I’ve visited many Western Front CWG sites from Australia. Originally, I was on the lookout for the graves of comrades of my grandfather (48th Btn, AIF). But the experiences broadened my appreciation of the sacrifice of so many soldiers and support workers, including the many British regiments, Commonwealth forces, Germans and others. So, the tweets from East Sussex WW1 was one of those sources during these four centenary years that have helped deepen that understanding. I am very proud of my grandfather and in awe of his generation’s sacrifices. Thank you for your tweets!

Jenny Gardiner, Australian Politician and Campaigner.

The First World War East Sussex project has been an important project, compiling all the information about events, stories and newspapers into one place and has allowed many individuals and groups to discover what’s happening in East Sussex to commemorate 100 years since World War One. The First World War East Sussex project has also been fundamental to the delivery of the Recording Remembrance project, a sister project to record all the known war memorials in the County of East Sussex and City of Brighton and Hove. It has been a hub of information and resources which has been pleasure to be involved with and watch grow over the four years.

Sophie Unger – Historic Environment Record Officer & Project Manager, Recording Remembrance

The End

With the conclusion of this project, the information contained within it is intended to be archived and remain accessible into the future.

Over the past four years everyone associated with the project has felt that we have made a crucial contribution to the understanding of the First World War in our county and also nationally.

We hope that everyone who has interacted with our website, read one of our articles, used our newspapers, viewed our posters or downloaded our educational resources has benefited from our efforts and been informed by the material we have collected and made available.

On our part, the project would not have been such a success without the regular interactions with the public, with museums and historical societies, and with various historical experts.

To all of you: thank you and goodbye.

The post East Sussex First World War – Project End appeared first on WW1 East Sussex.

Harry Streeter was born the son of Alfred Samuel and Harriet Streeter in Newick, East Sussex on 10 January, 1884. He was brought up in Newick, attending school there and becoming a baker.

At the age of 18, in 1901, he enlisted for 12 years’ service with the 1st Life Guards of the Household Cavalry, based out of Windsor. After just 8 years of home service, in 1909, he transferred to the Army Reserve, but re-joined the 1st Life Guards in August 1914 at the start of the 1st World War.

He was sent to France in October of that year as part of the British Expeditionary Force, in C Squadron, 1st Life Guards.

On 30 October 1914, the Regiment was in the trenches at Zanvoorde, and the Regiment’s War Diary describes what happened:

6 a.m. – Heavy bombardment of position opened. At 7.30 a.m. position was attacked by large force of infantry. This attack proved successful owing to greatly superior numbers. Regiment retired in good order about 10 a.m. except C Squadron on left flank from which only about ten men got back. Remainder of Squadron missing.

Nearly 300 men from the Household Cavalry were killed in the battle: C Squadron were overrun.

He was initially listed as ‘missing’. His family was told by a Trooper from A Squadron of the 1st Life Guards that he may have been wounded and taken prisoner at Zanvoorde, and they asked the International Committee of the Red Cross whether they had an information on his as a Prisoner of War.

On 3 January 1916, he was officially recorded by his Regiment as having been killed.

His death is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, the Household Cavalry Memorial at Zanvoorde, and on the memorial plaque at St Mary’s Church, Newick.

This story was submitted by Robert Streeter

The post Harry Streeter appeared first on WW1 East Sussex.

Walking inside the church you see the two war memorial plaques on the North wall to the men from the parish who fell in the First and Second World Wars. However there is another memorial in the church that cannot be seen.

St Mary’s Church, Westham – Image courtesy of Rosalind Hodge

Hanging in the large 14th century tower is a ring of six bells of which the largest, the tenor bell weighing ten and a half hundred weight, is a memorial to five local bell ringers who lost their lives in World War One. It is not uncommon to have memorial bells but the tenor at Westham appears, according to the Sussex County Association of Change Ringers, to be the only bell in the county of Sussex on which is recorded only the names of bell ringers who were killed in WW1.

At that time the parish of Westham consisted of the village and also the outlying districts of Hankham, Stone Cross, Friday Street and part of Langley.

Following the war, an inspection of the bells in 1919, revealed they were in too dangerous a condition to ring. The frame holding them was on the point of collapse and several of the bells were split and held together with iron straps. It was decided to raise the money for a new frame and to recast the six bells. As five local young ringers had been lost in the recent war it was agreed the Tenor Bell should bear their names: George Burgess, Harry Burgess, Albert Hazelden, William Hobden and Robert Marchant.

The bells were re-cast from the metal of the old ones at the Croydon bell foundry of Gillett & Johnston and dedicated by the Archdeacon of Hastings at a special service on Saturday 14th May 1921.

The first two men named on the bell are brothers George and Harry Burgess. They were the sons of Edwin Burgess and Sarah neé Tasker. Edwin was a carter/ Waggoner and the family lived at 1 Spring Cottages Westham.

Edward George Burgess – Gunner 906200 Royal Horse Artillery and 336th Bde Royal Field Artillery enlisted at Eastbourne

Known as George he was born at Westham in 1892 the 9th of the 12 children of Edwin and Sarah. He was baptised at St Mary’s Westham 21 August 1892. George attended the village school and became a stockman on a farm. He was killed in action 1 May 1918 at Mesopotamia aged 25. George has no known grave and is commemorated on panel 3 and 60 of the Basra Memorial, Al Basra’s, Basra, Iraq.

Thomas Henry Burgess – Pte SD/2864 13th Bn Royal Sussex Regt. enlisted at Hastings

Known as Harry he was born at Westham the 8th child of Edwin and Sarah and was baptised Thomas Henry at Westham parish church 26 April 1891. His occupation was a farm labourer. Harry was killed in action at the Battle of the Boar’s Head at Richebourg on 30 June 1916 aged 25. According to the records of the Sussex County Association of Bell Ringers he is the only Sussex bell ringer to have been killed at the Boar’s Head.

Westham WW1 memorial – Image courtesy of Rosalind Hodge

He has no known grave and is commemorated on Panel 69 to 73 of the Loos Memorial Pas de Calais France. Although his birth registration and baptism record him as Thomas Henry Burgess, he enlisted using the name Henry Thomas and is recorded as Henry Thomas Burgess in Commonwealth War Grave Commission records and other military records. Harry is also commemorated on the Panel for the 13th Bn. in the Royal Sussex regimental chapel at Chichester Cathedral.

Albert Hazelden AKA Burgess – Pte. 12165 8th Coy Machine Gun Corps. (Infantry)

Albert was born at Cooks Town an area of Ashburnham on 19 June 1885. He was the third of eight children of Charles Burgess/ Hazelden, Haiselden and Mary Elizabeth neé Delves. His father was a miller’s carter and the family lived in Mill Cottage beside the windmill at Windmill Hill later moving to Reid’s Cottage Wartling Hill Pevensey.

In recent years the identity of Albert Hazelden was a mystery as although the name was recorded on the memorial bell it was not on either of the two Westham WW1 memorials. Albert Hazelden was recorded on the handwritten roll of Honour in St Luke’s Stone Cross. Eventually it was noticed that whenever the name Burgess is recorded the name Hazelden is not and vise versa and this after much research led to Albert’s identification.

His birth was registered using the surname Burgess although other than for legal purposes his family had consistently used the name Hazelden for two previous generations. Albert’s great grandfather Benjamin Haiselden had married his great grandmother Harriet Burgess a widow after their son was born. That son used the name Haiselden although his legal name was Burgess and this continued for two further generations.

Over the years some of Westham parish records were unfortunately destroyed and it was forgotten that the family used the two surnames. Albert Hazelden used his legal surname of Burgess when he enlisted in the 7th Bn. Royal Sussex Regiment G/7612 at Eastbourne in July 1915. By the end of that year he had been transferred to the 8th Coy Machine Gun Corps. He was wounded during the Battle of Albert the first of the battles of the Somme.

He was transferred to one of the military hospitals at Champ de Courses on the southern outskirts of Rouen where he died 22 July 1916 aged 32. He is buried in grave A.32.2. In St Sever Cemetery Rouen. No relationship between Albert and the Burgess brothers Harry and George has been found. As Albert was known locally by the surname Hazelden it was this name used on the tenor bell.

William James Hobden – Pte 229354 44th Bn. Canadian Infantry New Brunswick Regt

William was born 1 January 1889 at Plumpton, the 2nd of 8 children of William Hobden and Mary neé Finnis, their eldest son.

He was baptised at St Michael and All Angels Plumpton 25 January 1889. The family moved to Westham in 1891 where his father became foreman at Kemp’s brickyard. The family originally lived at the brickyard but by 1901 they had moved to ‘Geerings Cottage’ Langney Westham.

Shortly after leaving Westham school, his family moved to ‘Mapleton’ Westham and William became a domestic gardener. On 13 October 1910, aged 21, William sailed from Bristol bound for Quebec, Montreal on the Royal George of the Royal Canadian Northern Steamship line, master James Harrison. He arrived in Quebec on 19 October 1910.

Roll of Honour – Image courtesy of Rosalind Hodge

Following the outbreak of war William enlisted at Winnipeg on 10 June 1915 in 61st Oversees Bn. 460748. On 2 April 1916 he sailed from Halifax on SS Olympia arriving 11 April. By 12 May 1916 he had arrived at Shorncliffe Army Camp near Folkestone for training and by 16 May he was at Bramshott camp and had been transferred to the 44th Bn. Canadian Infantry.

He embarked for Le Havre France 10 August 1916. On 24 October he was reported evacuated wounded. He was again reported wounded on 9 November. A month later on 9 December it is recorded that although he was previously reported wounded he was now reported wounded and missing but on 16 April 1917 he was reported as having been killed in action.

By this date the family home was 3 Gordon Terrace and his parents stayed at this address until their deaths, his father in 1951 aged 92 and his mother in 1955 aged 91. William aged 27 was buried at Adanac Military Cemetery Miraumont in Grave V.G.19.

Thomas Robert Marchant – Pte G/27841 12th Bn Royal Fusiliers city of London Regt, transferring to the 24th Bn

Known as Robert he was the only child of Robert Marchant and Selina neé Wilmshurst. He was born in1895 at Westham where his father’s family had lived for several generations and was baptised at the parish church 9 May 1895.

The family lived in the High Street, his father being a grocer’s assistant and his mother a dressmaker. Robert attended the village school and when aged 18 enlisted in the 12th Bn Royal Fusiliers serving from 9th August 1916 to 21 August before being transferred to the 24th Bn in which he served from 22 August 1916 until he was killed in action on the Somme on 17 February 1917.

Westham Ringers commemorate the men on the memorial bell – Image courtesy of Rosalind Hodge

He was 19 years old, the youngest of the men commemorated on the bell. Robert was buried in grave I.E.19 at Regina Trench Cemetery Grandcourt, the Somme France. Robert’s parents are buried in Westham churchyard and his name is inscribed in their headstone.

These five men are commemorated on the WW1 Memorial in Westham Church and on the granite cross situated beside the cross roads outside St Luke’s Church Stone Cross. This cross was placed there as being at the centre of the parish of Westham before St Luke’s Church was built and the parish of Stone Cross was created. Albert Hazelden is recorded on both these memorials as Albert Burgess. Their names are recorded in the Rolls of Honour of the Sussex County Association of Change Ringers and the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers in St Paul’s Cathedral.

On the hundredth anniversary of each of their deaths the Westham bells have been rung in a Quarter Peal to Honour the memory of these former bell ringers. The exception was Albert Hazelden’s hundredth anniversary as he had not then been positively identified until early 2018. A Quarter Peal was rung in his memory on 22 July 2018, the 102nd anniversary of his death.

This story was submitted by Rosalind Hodge, Archivist, Willingdon Parish Church

The post Westham Memorial Bell appeared first on WW1 East Sussex.

In 1918, the Government found that it had amassed £6m from sales in military canteens so allocated £1.5m to a Welfare Fund for the benefit of returning soldiers. This worked out to be an award of 5 shillings (25p) per returnee – the average weekly wage in 1918 being 30 shillings.

Map of the trees

180 lucky Framfield soldiers returned and, after financial adjustments, £45 from the fund was granted, to be managed by soldiers and a local committee rather than individual donations. The committee decided they wanted to use the money to try and create a Recreation Ground – a park of peace far removed from the horrors of the Western Front.

A field behind the local school was thought to be ideal and the landowner, Mrs. Curteis, agreed to sell it to them for £385. The tenant farmer, Mr. Pratt, although having already planted the field, agreed to waive his rights for £5 compensation. Nevertheless they had to find more funds to complete the purchase so local fundraising began and £60 was raised. However, when they approached Mr. and Mrs. Eaton, of Thurston Hall, the couple said that they wished to pay the full amount in memory of the fallen of the Parish.

These hugely charitable and generous parishioners made no stipulation on their gift expressing only that all religions would be free to use the recreation ground, but Mr. Eaton hoped that no ‘conchy’ would ever step foot on it. In July 1921 it was duly opened.

In 1923, 60 trees of 20 varieties were planted around the perimeter of the ground each bearing a plaque at the foot of each trunk inscribed with the name of a soldier and his regiment.

Some of these soldiers commemorated were:

Lieutenant John de Carrick Cheape:

John de Carrick Cheape – Hornbeam tree. No. 33 on map

John de Carrick Cheape was born in Switzerland in January 1894 and lived with his mother Antoinette at Great Streele Farm, Framfield. From 1909-1913 he was at Clifton College and at war’s outbreak was studying at Cambridge University.

John enlisted immediately, joining the 8th Royal Sussex as a Private in September 1914. Having served in the Officer Training Corps at Clifton and Cambridge, he was soon promoted to Corporal and then recommended for a Commission. 2nd Lieutenant Cheape stayed with 8th Royal Sussex, who were tasked as Pioneers in 18th (Eastern) Division, and deployed to the Albert area of France with them in July 1915.

He was soon promoted to Lieutenant. Hard pioneering work in winter 1915-16 afflicted Lt Cheape, and he was hospitalised in Rouen and in the UK between Feb-June 1916. He returned to the Western Front in July, drafted to D Company, 13th Royal Sussex, who had been greatly depleted at the Battle of Boar’s Head. With his pioneer experience he soon became Field Works Officer. On 3rd September 1916, 13th Royal Sussex supported their sister battalion, 11th Royal Sussex’s attack on Beaucourt Ridge as part of the Battle of the Somme. Casualties were heavy and John took over and led A Company when their officer fell. At the end of the action Lt Cheape went out to recover the wounded with a stretcher party.

In so doing, he was shot and killed by an enemy sniper. Lieutenant Cheape is buried at Hamel Military Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel, France.

Private Ambrose Driver:

Ambrose Driver was born in Framfield in autumn 1885, third child of Thomas, an agricultural labourer, and Ellen Driver. Ambrose lived with his family at Hawkhurst Gate, Blackboys.

Ambrose Driver – Redwood Cedar Tree

By 1911 Ambrose worked as a farm labourer for Edward Brooker at Palehouse Farm in Framfield, and was still working there when war broke out. Ambrose was one of the first local men to join the 1st Southdown Battalion, in Lewes in early September 1914.

With his battalion, now embodied as the 11th Royal Sussex, Ambrose deployed to the Western Front in March 1916. April saw them in the trenches at Givenchy and conduct their first trench raid, and in May they performed fatigues for the Royal Engineers and served in the trenches at Festubert, where Framfield resident and war-poet 2nd Lt. Edmund Blunden joined them.

In preparation for the upcoming Somme Offensive, 116th Brigade was tasked with a diversionary ‘holding action’ in the Richebourg area to prevent the Germans from sending reinforcements south to the Somme. 12th and 13th Royal Sussex were tasked to assault the German salient known as the ‘Boar’s Head’, with the 11th Battalion providing support. They all went ‘over-the-top’ at 3.05am on 30th June 1916, but the Germans expected the attack, which proved a massacre.

Over 1,100 men of 116th Brigade became casualties on the 30th June, 15 officers and 364 Other Ranks were killed or died from wounds. Ambrose was one of the wounded. He was first treated by 132nd Field Ambulance RAMC and then moved likely to 33rd Casualty Clearing Station RAMC in Bethune, where he succumbed to his injuries the following day. Ambrose was buried in what became the Bethune Town Cemetery.

Acting/Farrier Sergeant William John Harland:

William John Harland – Ash Tree

William was born in spring 1872, eldest son to Sylvanus and Harriet Harland of Blackboys Lane. He started work as an agricultural labourer, but by 1897 was employed in a Denmark Hill veterinary institute as a blacksmith. In September 1899 he married Alice Relf in Lewes and moved to the Isle of White, five of his children being born there.

By the outbreak of war the family were in St Leonard’s, and William volunteered in November 1914, albeit it overage and under-height: the Army needed skilled blacksmiths. His family moved to Jubilee Cottage, Blackboys. William was assigned to the 22nd Division Signals Company, Royal Engineers, at Seaford, and deployed to Flesselles, France in September 1915. The 22nd Division was then immediately moved to the new Salonika Front.

In October 1916 William was promoted to Acting Farrier Sergeant, but was suffering acutely from sciatica. Salonika was a quiet front due to political expediency, but in April 1917 the British attacked in the Lake Dorian sector, 22nd Division being involved. The Salonika front became more renowned, due to its climate and conditions, for the casualties caused by malaria, dysentery and other such diseases. More men died from these there than in combat.

On the 28th November 1917 William was admitted to 28th General Hospital, having contracted malaria. He died there on 1st December 1917. William is buried at Salonika (Lembet Road) Military Cemetery, Greece.

Sergeant Herbert Hopkins:

Herbert Hopkins – Ash Tree

Herbert Hopkins was born in Framfield in Spring 1893, the fourth of eight children born to James, a farm steward, and Emily Hopkins, of Newlands, High Cross, Framfield. By 1911, Herbert worked as a gardener on the High Cross estate of the Thornton family.

By the outbreak of war, however, Herbert was in Welshpool, North Wales, and on the 28th August 1914, he enlisted in the local 7th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers (7th RWF). Herbert signed on for overseas service in September and in August 1915, newly promoted to Lance Corporal, he and 7th RWF were deployed to Suvla Bay as part of the Gallipoli expedition. The 53rd Division attack on Anafarta Ridge was a shambles and 7th RWF suffer heavily from casualties and disease throughout the campaign.

By November 1915, Herbert was a Sergeant. In December 1915, 53rd Div were withdrawn to Egypt. In January 1917, 7th RWF were part of the ‘Desert Column’ invading Turkish Sinai & Palestine. The first major battle was at Gaza on 26th March and 7th RWF were tasked to take the strategic 300′ knoll to the southeast of the city. 1,500 yards of the 7th RWF’s advance was in full view of the Turks and they were hit with artillery and machine gun fire.

They only got to within 500yds of the Turkish positions before forced to withdraw. Herbert was killed in the assault and his body sadly not recovered. With no known grave, Herbert is remembered to this day on the Jerusalem Memorial.

Private Ernest George Staplehurst:

Ernest George Staplehurst – Chestnut Tree

Ernest was born in Laughton to Henry and Ruth Staplehurst in early 1888, and he spent his youth at Peckham Farm in Framfield. By 1911 Ernest was a cowman in Palehouse Common, living with his widowed mother.

Ernest joined the 1st Southdown Battalion, alongside other Parish men and his brother Fred, in Lewes in September 1914 and, as the 11th (1st Southdown) Battalion Royal Sussex, went to the Western Front with them in March 1916. He participated in his first attack, at Beaucourt Ridge, Somme, on 3rd September, and at the notorious Schwaben Redoubt and ‘Stuff Trench’ in the October. 11th Sussex moved up to Ypres and on 31st July attacked at Pilkem Ridge to commence the 3rd Battle of Ypres (“Passchendaele”).

Ernest was severely wounded here, and on recovery was posted to the 7th Royal Sussex. By September 1918, 7th Royal Sussex, with Ernest, were engaging the German Army on their Hindenburg Line, as part of the ‘Hundred Days to Victory‘. On the misty dawn of 18th September 1918, 7th Royal Sussex, led by Ernest’s A Company, attacked the German Alpine Korps positions south of the fortress village of Epehy. As 35th Brigade failed to secure Epehy itself, 7th Sussex came under machine gun fire from German positions on their exposed right flank as they advanced towards Malassise Farm.

Ernest was one of those wounded. Although evacuated to a Casualty Clearing Station, he succumbed to his wounds and was buried in what became Doingt Communal Cemetery Extension near Peronne.

In 1935, The Royal British Legion offered to help with the management of the trees and in that same year a Wellingtonia tree was planted to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V.

The ground was acquired for war use in WW2 and rented to the Observer Corps for the princely sum of £1 a year. Many locals still remember trenches being dug on it and the Home Guard using it for training. Framfield was in ‘bomb alley’ and suffered many V1 ‘doodlebug’ hits and plane crashes and at one point 5 German airmen were buried in the local church cemetery to be later exhumed and re-interred in Germany after hostilities.

By 1945 the ground was pretty churned up but was flattened out for public use again by farmers’ rollers and in the late 1950s responsibility and ownership was transferred to the Parish Council.

The recreation ground was the site for a returning Framfield resident and hero, the transpolar explorer, Charlie Burton who, with Ranulph Fiennes, had completed a 3 year trek from pole to pole. When Charlie Burton came back to the village in 1982, he posed for photos and signed autographs but added that he wanted to escape from the memories of the freezing ice floes and biting polar winds and how glad he was to be able to return to the peace, green fields and tranquility of Framfield.

When our 180 men came back from the horror of WW1 they wanted the same – a place to spiritually unwind, reflect and, with the passing of the years, appreciate the calm and peaceful motion of the surrounding trees planted in remembrance of the fallen.

They were the lucky ones. 700,000 men from across the country were not so lucky.

We are today’s lucky ones because of those young men from Framfield and their dream of a peaceful remembrance park.

This was their gift to the future.

This story and all its images were submitted by Lisa Moore. It includes information from Paul Leader (Ref-Framfield & Blackboys Through the Ages by MI Green & PM Allsop – September 2016 ). Research and individual soldier’s stories were compiled by Jim Hastings and photos were contributed by Sam Weddell.

The post Framfield’s Memorial Trees appeared first on WW1 East Sussex.

Born in Hastings, at 42 Bexhill Road, on 19 July 1892 as Stephen Sargent Claude Nunney, he was generally referred to by his family as Claude. His father was William Percy Nunney, born in Burford, Oxfordshire, and his mother was Mary Nunney, formerly Sargent. Claude was the fourth of eight children.

The family left Hastings in 1895 and moved to Kentish Town, St Pancras, in London where his mother was to sadly die of food poisoning in February 1899. Two of Claude’s younger siblings died very young, and of the remaining six, five passed into the care of the Catholic Church. The three boys born in Hastings, Frederick George, Stephen Claude and Alfred Nunney all became “Home Children” in Canada. The term “Home Child” covered the young girls and boys sent as child emigrants by various agencies to Canada to start new lives.

Home children

Alfred and Claude Nunney travelled together aboard the SS Tunisian in October 1905 to Quebec and then on to St George’s Home at Hintonberg, Ottawa, Ontario. They were split up and sent to different families, Alfred moving to the Micksburg County, Renfrew, and Claude to North Lancaster. Alfred was just twelve and Claude thirteen when they went in their separate directions. Claude Nunney was placed with Mrs Donald Roy McDonald, where he lived and worked as a “Home Child”.

Claude Nunney – Image courtesy of Peter Silk

Unbeknown to Claude, his brother George, who travelled as a Home Child to Canada in October 1904, was drowned on 19 July 1908 in the Jock River, Jockvale. This is around 150 kilometres from North Lancaster. He was aged only 17. He had been placed with Patrick Houlahan, a local farmer.

Claude in the period 1913 and 1914 up to the outbreak of the First World War travelled to work in Trenton and St Catherine’s, Canada. He returned to the North Lancaster Township in early 1915.

At War

When Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, it was not a declaration limited just to the British Isles. All dominions and colonies of the British Empire were brought into the war as well; including Canada.

On the 8 February 1915, Claude Nunney attended the Drill Hall, Alexandria, Glengarry County. He was one of the very first to enlist into the newly authorised regiment in Ottawa, the Ottawa Overseas Battalion (Eastern Ontario Regiment), which was known as the 38th Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF). He re-attested in Ottawa on the 8 March 1915. Nunney claimed to have been born in Dublin. Claude had no previous military service.

He was five foot six inches tall with blue eyes and red hair. The colour of his hair led him to be known by his fellow soldiers as “Red Nunney”.

Claude Nunney (r) – Image courtesy of Peter Silk

The 38th CEF were sent overseas in August 1915, not to France as they wanted and anticipated, but to Bermuda, where they took over as the Garrison troops. Eventually in June 1916 the men of the 38th CEF landed at Plymouth and travelled to Aldershot. The 38th CEF joined the 12th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 4th Canadian Division. They underwent more training in preparation for the trench warfare across the Channel.

The 38th CEF embarked on 13 August 1916 to fight in France and Flanders, where they fought right through to the end of the war on 11 November 1918. The Ottawa regiment’s first large scale action was on the 18 November 1916 with the battle for the Ancre Heights, where they were involved in the fierce fighting for the Desire Trench, and had to attack across a sea of mud to get to their objectives.

Private Claude Nunney was involved in the heavy fighting to take the Vimy Ridge on 8 April 1917. He was sent with his Lewis Machine Gun crew to support Captain Thain McDowell. For the bravery shown that day Captain MacDowell was to be awarded the first Victoria Cross in the 38th CEF. Private Claude Nunney for his support of Captain MacDowell was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM).

Claude had been previously wounded in the left shoulder, before he went back into action with MacDowell. He received a second wound in his right leg. He was soon back with the 38th CEF by the 12 April. He was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in the weeks immediately after the Battle for Vimy.

Badge of the 38th Ottawa Overseas Battalion – Image from ‘Soldiers of the 38th‘

After Vimy the fighting took the 38th steadily northwards toward Lens. They were ordered to attack Avion on 26 June 1917. They were in the front line for the next four days attacking the buildings on the outskirts of Avion. On the 28 June Claude Nunney went over the top and before he reached the enemy trenches Lt MacLennan, his platoon officer, had been wounded and he found himself in charge as the platoon sergeant. He was to be awarded the Military Medal (MM) for these actions.

The citation records he displayed the greatest energy strength and courage, on that day and in the subsequent two days. Claude also had assisted in the treatment and rescue of a wounded soldier, Private William Murray, who had been shot in the head by a sniper, when there were no stretcher bearers available.

Claude Nunney was gassed during German shelling on the night of 28/29 July 1917 and spent two months in hospital. He returned to his unit at the end of September 1917. He was attached to the Canadian Corps School, and remained with them for the next few months. Nunney was not with the 38th CEF when they fought in the Third Battle of Ypres.

By mid-April 1918 the 38th CEF were back in the Vimy area. Claude was to face a field court martial for striking a superior officer. On the 25 April 1918 he was found guilty. Whilst waiting to be transported to prison, he attempted with several other soldiers to rescue the pilot and observer from a German aeroplane that had been shot down nearby. He was to suffer burns to his face and hands. For his bravery he was to have his sentence suspended. But he did lose his Sergeant’s stripes, reverting to being a Private. Claude Nunney was able to re-join the 38th CEF on 18 August.

His brother Alfred Nunney was killed in action with the 44th CEF on the 10 August 1918 in their attack on Fouquestcourt.

Victoria Cross

The Canadian Army divisions were all heavily engaged in the heavy fighting that took place in the last 100 days of the war and the 38th CEF were as ever involved. Over the two days starting on the 1 September 1918, the Eastern Ontario Regiment attacked the well-constructed and heavily fortified defensive trench systems known as the Drocourt-Quéant Line at Dury.

Private Claude Nunney distinguished himself, as had been his habit throughout his time in France and Flanders, by visiting the various regimental outposts during the height of the fighting encouraging his fellow Canadian soldiers with his words as well as his example. His conduct was later described in the London Gazette on 13 December 1918:

Number 410935 Private Claude Joseph Patrick Nunney DCM MM, 38th Battalion, Eastern Ontario Regiment.

For most conspicuous bravery during the operations against the Drocourt-Queant line on the 1 and 2 September 1918.

On 1st September, when his battalion was in the vicinity of Vis-en-Artois, preparatory to the advance, the enemy laid down a heavy barrage and counter-attacked. Pte Nunney, who was at this time at company headquarters, immediately on his own initiative proceeded through the barrage to the company outpost lines, going from post to post and encouraging the men by his own fearless example. The enemy were repulsed and a critical situation was saved.

During the attack on September 2nd, his dash continually placed him in advance of his companions, and his fearless example undoubtedly helped greatly to carry the company forward to its objectives. He displayed throughout the highest degree of valour until severely wounded

Claude Nunney’s headstone – Image courtesy of Peter Silk

On the 9 September 1918, Nunney was recommended by the British First Army for the award of the Victoria Cross for conspicuous gallantry during the operations to capture the German fortified trenches forming the Drocourt-Quéant Line.

Claude Nunney’s wounds proved to be fatal and he died on 18 September 1918. He is buried in the Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension. Claude Nunney was one of seven Canadian soldiers to be awarded the Victoria Cross for the successful attacks on the Drocourt-Quéant Line.

Private Nunney was the mostly highly decorated other rank in the Canadian Army in the First World War, being the only Canadian soldier of the war to be awarded the Victoria Cross, Distinguished Conduct Medal, and Military Medal.

He was to be the 38th CEF second and final VC recipient. Claude Nunney was the only man born in Hastings to be awarded the Victoria Cross in the First World War.

Commemoration

On Sunday 2 September, Claude Nunney’s actions that led to him receiving the Victoria Cross were commemorated by the unveiling of a memorial paving stone in Alexandra Park, Hastings.

In attendance were the Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex, the High Sheriff of East Sussex, the Mayor of Hastings, the Chief of Staff of the Canadian Defence Liaison Staff, and Claude’s Great Grand Nephew Tim Nunney.

The Paving Stone was placed in front of the existing war memorial in Alexandra Park. The memorial was dedicated in 1922 and, to mark the commemoration for Claude Nunney, Kieron Pelling has created a stunning ‘then and now‘ photograph showing the memorial’s dedication and the site today.

After the ceremony, attendees gave the following responses.

Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex

I think everyone was moved by the organisation, dignity and poignancy of the occasion.

I know I speak for everyone who attended, and indeed the public in East Sussex in saying it was a great occasion and very fitting for Claude and his family.

Mayor of Hastings

I felt honoured to play a part in this event. Soldiers like Claude Nunney made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and its allies in the First World War, and it was right and fitting that we recognised this ‘son of Hastings’ with a permanent memorial in the town.

Captain Yvan Shank

This was a very touching service. It was the first paving stone ceremony of three that I am attending on behalf of the Canadian High Commission and it is very special this close to the 100th anniversary of the armistice to recognise these heroes that were awarded the VC.

Master Corporal Matty Ford

It was a very moving ceremony, particularly in the final year of the centenary and 100 years since the end of the war. It was a privilege to meet the family and a very powerful feeling to be speaking during the ceremony. This was not ‘just another speech’.

Tim Nunney

The Nunney family are all very proud and it has been a great honour to take part in such a moving ceremony.

As part of the commemoration of Claude Nunney’s life, Glenna Smith-Walkden from the Home Children Association produced the following poem, inspired by Claude Nunney’s life and his sacrifice for two nations:

British Home Children

We were British Home Children
Our families in Britain torn apart
Send them to Canada they said
for a brand new start
Canada needs help on their farms
We all benefit, what’s the harm?

We went to work as indentured labour
Most of us young chidren
Our employers did us no favour

We were housed and fed
Worked hard each day
Dreaming of Britain and our home far away

When our contracts ended we travelled to find work
Then the Great War came to the world
Thousands of us home boys bravely enlisted
Many saw it as a ticket home
And once there we would never again roam
Many died on the battlefields
To ensure freedom for you

Peace was once more with us
England it seemed no longer our home
Back to Canada we went without a fuss
To live our lives in our adopted new Land
But we are always British Home Children
Please remember us.

This story was submitted by Peter Silk who has extensively researched Claude Nunney’s life.

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Having driven the Russians from the war in 1917 and fearing the arrival of thousands of American soldiers in the coming years, Germany had decided to try and force a military conclusion to the war in the spring of 1918.

General Erich Ludendorff – George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress

On 21st March 1918, the German army launched its Spring Offensives with the original aim of splitting the British and French armies apart and then seeing how the situation developed from there. However, whilst the German army was able to force the two allied armies back, the commanding officer General Erich Ludendorff became distracted by temporary gains and the possibility of capturing Paris.

As a result he redirected his attacks and allowed the allies to regroup and his own momentum to be lost. What had begun as a dramatic and devastating series of offensives in March became a panicked retreat in July when the German army realised it was at risk of being surrounded.

With the German army no longer able to maintain their assault, the allies took the chance to launch counter-attacks.

The Black Day

Throughout their Spring Offensives the Germans had aimed to capture the strategically significant city of Amiens. Their failure had allowed the allies to make use of the railway junctions in the area to resupply their own armies. At the beginning of August the allies would make this advantage count.

Following the final German offensive in July and their subsequent retreat, the allied Supreme Commander Ferdinand Foch devised an allied attack on enemy positions.

On 8 August 1918, a mixture of British, French, Australian, and Canadian forces attacked the Germans near Amiens. The attack was initially led by over 500 tanks from the British armies, and caught the German opposition almost completely by surprise as they attacked through thick fog at 4:20am. To ensure that the Germans could not organise further resistance, the allied armies targeted their enemy’s lines of communication to leave the defenders isolated.

Battle of Amiens. German prisoners arriving at a temporary POW camp near Amiens, 9 August 1918. © IWM (Q 9193)

Within a few hours allied armies had breached German trench lines and begun breaking through to the countryside behind. By the end of the day some allied forces had advanced by over 8 miles and carved a hole 13 miles wide in the German lines. German losses for just the 8th August numbered over 30,000.

By the conclusion of the offensive on 12th August the allies had advanced by over a dozen more miles and Germany had lost over 75,000 men with 50,000 of those being taken prisoner.

General Ludendorff would look back on the 8th August and describe it as ‘the black day of the German army’ not simply because of the losses sustained but because of what the day represented. The use of massed allied tanks, the surprise nature of the attack, the distance they had covered, the collapse of German moral and the high numbers of their soldiers surrendering or being captured all indicated one undeniable fact; Germany was now decisively losing the war.

The Hindenburg Line

German soldiers had begun 1918 within the formidable defenses of the Hindenburg Line, named after General Ludendorff’s commanding officer; Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg. The series of fortifications had been constructed at the end of 1916 and the beginning of 1917. Following their heavy losses at the Battles of Verdun and the Somme, the German army had withdrawn to these new positions in order to solidify their hold on the French territory they had already gained.

Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, 1914

Having abandoned these defenses to go on the attack in March the German army that returned to them in August was but a shadow of its former self.

With the Germans forced back into their original defensive positions, the allies began a series of attacks around the Hindenburg Line with a view to capturing or breaching the last serious fortifications on the Western Front. If they were successful the ground behind these fortifications would lie open to them; the remainder of occupied France and Belgium could be liberated and there would even be a route open into Germany itself.

Allied operations against the Hindenburg Line began with a joint American and French attack near the River Meuse and the Argonne Forest on 26th September. Though the Franco-American forces would eventually force German soldiers from the forest, the attack would be hampered by the difficult terrain and the tactics of the American armies who had not yet adapted to the warfare in Europe.

Meanwhile, on 29th September the British army using, Australian and American forces under their command, had reach the strongest fortifications of the Hindenburg Line and launched their attack through a tunnel near Bellicourt and at the final remaining bridge of the St Quentin Canal at Riqueval.

As American soldiers stormed the tunnel at Bellicourt, Captain A. H. Carlton of the North Staffordshire Regiment reached the top of the Riqueval Bridge where he, and a small contingent of his men, discovered a small German detachment priming the bridge to be destroyed. If the Germans could successful detonate their explosives and destroy the bridge the allied offensive would be temporarily checked. Both groups of men stared at each other for a moment, before charging.

When the smoke cleared the German soldiers were gone and the bridge was captured.

By 5th October the allies had opened a gap through the defenses of the Hindenburg Line across a 15 mile front.

On the 8th October, at the Second Battle of Cambrai, the British army decisively broke through the Hindenburg Line and effectively destroyed the last serious German defenses remaining on the Western Front.

The end

Following the successful attack on the Hindenburg Line on 29th September 1918, General Ludendorff and his senior Field Marshal von Hindenburg informed the German Kaiser that the war had been lost and an immediate peace must be sought.

Kaiser Wilhelm in exile, 1933

The newly chosen German Chancellor Prince Maximilian of Bader attempted to open negotiations with the American President Woodrow Wilson, only to be informed that America would only enter negotiations with a democratic Germany. If the Kaiser would not step down there would be no peace. As details of the planned terms of surrender began to filter through to the German military Ludendorff changed his mind and claimed that peace on these terms was unacceptable and that the war must continue.

In response Prince Maximilian told the Kaiser that he would resign if Ludendorff was not dismissed. General von Hindenburg himself was viewed as too important a military figurehead to remove from power. Ludendorff offered his resignation as did Hindenburg. The Kaiser berated Ludendorff in front of the rest of the German command and then accepted his resignation and refused  Hindenburg’s.

Ludendorff’s replacement, General Groener immediately informed the Kaiser that if a peace could not be quickly secured he could not guarantee the future existence of the German army should allied attacks continue.

Facing imminent revolutions on the home front and an unmitigated military collapse at the front lines, the Germans began peace negotiations with the allies and, within days, the Kaiser himself had abdicated and fled to the Netherlands. These negotiations would bring the fighting to an end.

The armistice terms came into effect at 11am on 11th November 1918. They did not signal the complete end of the fighting, however. Word had not reached all the forces arrayed around the Western Front and some men continued to die up to and beyond the 11am deadline. 10,944 men became casualties on the war’s final day; 2,738 of them were fatalities in a war that had already been decided.

Armistice Day in London, 1918© IWM (Q 47852)

It had taken four years and three months, some 1,568 days, and cost 41 million casualties; 18 million of them were dead.

But it was now over. However, whilst the fighting on the Western Front had ceased, conflicts emerging out of the First World War in Germany, Russia, the middle-east and across the world would continue for years in some cases. Decades in others.

As the dust settled, Britain, France, America, and their allies would begin the plans for peace talks with Germany in Paris the following year. The agreement they drew up, the Treaty of Versailles remains one of the most controversial and misunderstood documents in modern history.

The ‘guilt clause’ of the Treaty that specified that Germany, and Germany alone, bore responsibility for the conflict has often been viewed as a key factor in the build up to the Second World War. German anger at shouldering all of the culpability alongside enforced financial reparations was seen as a crushing dual burden that lay the foundations for the rise of fascism and the Nazi Party.

However, the Treaty itself was never fully accepted by all of the allied combatants. America would not ratify it and eventually made their own peace terms with the new Weimar Republic. France had wanted a far more punitive treaty to discourage future German aggression, whilst the British had hoped to rebuild Germany as a future trading partner. In the end not only did the Treaty disappoint all involved, many of its clauses and aspects were never fully enforced.

As the inter-war years proceeded the previously victorious allies would drift apart through angry recriminations over the failure to secure a Treaty which fulfilled their desires.

Through a mixture of financial crises following the Great Depression, rising fascism in Europe, and a constructed notion in Germany that their army had not been defeated in battle but rather had been betrayed by politicians and ethnic and religious minorities on the home front, resentment bubbled.

Twenty years after the conclusion of the First World War, Europe would go to war again.

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We launched our website on 4 August 2014 (to coincide with the centenary of the start of the First World War) and, in the first, second, and third years of the East Sussex WW1 project we delivered substantial achievements. During the first three years of the project we published 218 stories and events. Of these 62% came from the general public. We released digitised copies of the local newspapers; Eastbourne Gazette, Eastbourne Chronicle, Hasting & St Leonards Observer, and the Hastings & St Leonards Pictorial Advertiser covering the First World War period. For our 2nd anniversary we followed this up with digitised copies of the Sussex Daily News. Alongside this we released a number educational resources for students and teachers, and, last year, newly digitised First World War posters that are all downloadable.

Barbara Bodichon portrait by Samuel Lawrence

We created and held ceremonies to unveil three new war memorials in honour of East Sussex soldiers (Cuthbert Bromley, Sidney Woodroffe, and Nelson Carter) who were awarded the Victoria Cross during the war.

For our fourth year, we aimed to continue the progress we had already made, introduce exciting new material, and also reflect on some of the stories we have featured in the past.

Stories, Events and Statistics

During the final year of our project we published 16 new stories and 13 new events to the website. 82% of this new content was submitted by members of the public. The project also chalked up a number of notable milestones regarding visitors to the website during our final year, receiving our 250,000th and 300,000th total views in this period. In total 68,191 number of users visited our website 114,002 times during the last year.

Encompassing much of the final year of the First World War, there were less key anniversaries to commemorate than there had been previously. However, there were a few notable centenary moments for both the home and war fronts during this time period. We marked the 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act with a week of engagement activity on our twitter account. We also nominated Barbara Bodichon a local suffrage campaigner as a Suffrage Pioneer to the Women’s Local Government Society. We published a story on Muriel Matters, a campaigner from Hastings who was also selected as a Pioneer, and another on the campaign for women’s suffrage in the Crowborough, Uckfield and Heathfield area

In March, we marked the beginning of the German Spring Offensives of 1918. These attacks by the German army on the Western Front nearly brought defeat to the allies but, once checked, would provide the opportunity for France, Britain, and America to counter-attack and eventually being the conflict to a conclusion.

Old Hastings House Entertainers – Image by Kieron Pelling

For experiences in East Sussex during the conflict, we published a story marking the 100th anniversary of the Willingdon Airship crash and another marking the life of Flight Sub-Lieutenant Richard Swallow who died in the disaster.

We also continued our quest to record any activities within the county to commemorate the centenary of the war. To this end we published stories on the torchlight procession through Lewes, the plan to mark the end of the centenary with bell ringing, and an exhibition by the Wadhurst History Society.

We were also able to publish two further collections of Kieron Pelling’s ‘Then and Now’ images, one on images from April – December 1917 and the other on July 1917 – February 1918.

Supporting projects and the community

One of the key aspects of our project has been our role of facilitating and supporting other ongoing projects around the First World War centenary. With this in mind over the last year we have acted to support ongoing centenary commemorations around the county.

Our Project Officer gave a talk on women’s experience of the war in East Sussex at the Bridge Cottage Museum in Uckfield. We have also written several letters of support for projects applying for money from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

On an individual level we have answered numerous requests on matters ranging from the location of soldiers’ obituaries in our digitised newspapers to providing advice on planned activities to mark the end of the centenary.

Whilst the end of the project and the centenary is now in sight we will continue our work until the end of November.

The future

With only a few months of the centenary and our project remaining we still have forthcoming plans.

There is one final Victoria Cross Paving Stone to be laid in East Sussex and it will commemorate Claude Nunney in Hastings. The ceremony to unveil this memorial will be held at Alexandra Park on Sunday 2nd September and will be open to the public.

As we know there has been a good deal of excitement and interest in the final months of the war, we have released all of our remaining historical newspapers online for the end of 1918. You can now read about how the local press covered the end of this conflict and its impact on the East Sussex front.

We also have a last few stories planned that will examine the conclusion of the First World War following the allied offensives during the summer and autumn of 1918, and we will continue to publish any stories submitted to us before the end of November.

We will also publish a final story looking back on the entirety of the project and our many achievements.

Our project will end in November 2018, and we are already exploring the options for the archiving of our website to ensure as much of its content as possible will remain as a resource for studying the First World War in East Sussex for years to come.

We’re very proud of all the achievements that this project has produced. We hope you will continue to participate in it up until the end of November.

The post East Sussex First World War – 4th Anniversary appeared first on WW1 East Sussex.

This year marks the Centenary of the end of the Great War (1914-1918) and the Crowborough Community Festival will be commemorating this moment in history with a week-long programme of events called Crowborough Remembers in October 2018.

Crowborough Camp – Image courtesy of Denis Hart

A major exhibition called Crowborough’s War 1914-1918 will be held at the Beacon Academy School from Monday 22 October until Thursday 25 October. The exhibition which will be opened by the Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex, will tell the story of the town and the thousands of soldiers who were based in the army training camps before being deployed to the front line. The students of Beacon Academy will create a striking poppy installation to be displayed as part of the exhibition in Beeches Main Hall. All Key Stage 3 students (Years 7, 8 and 9) will decorate a unique laser-cut poppy during Art and Technology lessons at the beginning of the academic year.

We are also making an appeal to local families who may have relatives who fought in the Great War to get in touch and share their stories, old photos or memorabilia with us and we will include in the exhibition.

The week will begin on Saturday 20 October with a special commemorative concert performed by Crowborough Choral Society held in the Main Hall, and the programme will feature an original score called This Human Shield, specially written for the occasion by local composer Simon Austin, and poet and writer Nick Nye.

As the festival takes place during half term week we will have lots of fun as well as educational activities for young people, including creative workshops called People & Poppies as well as a ‘Secret Stones Trail’ with a painted poppy for each of the names commemorated on Crowborough’s War Memorial. A series of talks from notable speakers on the subject of the Great War is also planned as is entertaining dramatic sketches featuring the Suffragette movement and an interlude with Rudyard Kipling. A mini film festival with screenings of classic WW1 films is also scheduled.

Local artists of all calibres are invited to submit artwork with a WW1 theme to participate in a Competition and exhibition to be held at Crowborough’s Community Centre from Thurs 1 November until 21 November. Artist materials to the value of £500 will be awarded to the first, second and third prize winners.

“This is such an important Centenary in world history and Crowborough should remember the part it played. I’d like to thank the British Legion, Beacon Academy, Crowborough Historical Society, Wealden WW1 Project and all the volunteers who are supporting this unique event”, says Festival Director Denis Hart.

More information about the festival programme will be found on www.crowboroughcommunityfestival.org or on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/CrowboroughFest.

This story was submitted by Denis Hart

The post Crowborough Remembers appeared first on WW1 East Sussex.

We also held a smaller exhibition of the Suffragette/Suffragist movement in Kent and East Sussex, plus some national media reports about Emily Davison and meetings held at the Albert Hall. We have not, as yet, found any names of ladies from Wadhurst who took part, despite contacting other well known groups who were documented as having taken part.

Wadhurst History Society Display – Image courtesy of Anthony Cosham

Our display included three boards about the movement and the same number of tables, which held further reading matter and one or two artefacts. It was rewarding to see how many people stood at the display boards, or sat at the tables, reading the material on them.

Afterwards it was most interesting to read the comments left in the visitors’ book.

This story was submitted by Rachel Ring with images provided by Anthony Cosham

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Albert Thomas Hendley was born in the village of Frant, East Sussex at the beginning of 1892. He was the youngest of William Richard Hendley and Annie Susanna née Flawn’s eight children. The Hendley family was from Mayfield and Rotherfield in East Sussex and the Flawn family were farmers in Withyham before living at ‘Stilehouse Farm’ Rotherfield.

Shortly after Albert was born his parents and the family moved to Eastbourne living at 18 Carlton Road, off the seafront. Albert and some of his siblings attended nearby Christ Church School. His mother Annie died in the summer of 1906 aged 54 when Albert was just 14. Albert, his father and a married sister Florence Rose Relf and husband Henry Relf then moved to a house named ‘Sea View’ in Red Lion Street Willingdon, now called Wish Hill. Opposite the house was the village post office housed in the bakery of John Roberts. Albert was apprenticed and trained there as a master baker and confectioner.

Willingdon bakery and Post Office – Image Courtesy of Rosalind Hodges

Almost opposite ‘Sea View’, in ‘Malthouse Cottages’, lived Elsie Wooller with her parents and two brothers Ernest and Harry. When war was declared in August 1914 many of the young men of Willingdon enlisted including Albert, his brother-in-law Henry Relf and Elsie’s two brothers, Ernest and Henry, all joining the Royal Sussex Regiment. Albert enlisted at the Eastbourne recruiting office in the 12th Battalion.  Henry Relf joined the 7th Battalion, Ernest Wooller the 12th and Henry Wooller the 9th. None of the four friends were to survive the fighting. Along with other recruits Albert marched through the town amid cheering crowds, leaving Eastbourne Railway Station to a great public send off, for Cooden Mount Camp near Bexhill, to commence training with the Southdowns Battalions. He remained here until July 1915 moving with his battalion firstly to Detling Camp in Kent, then on to Aldershot and finally Whitley Camp.

Albert and Elsie became engaged on Valentine’s Day 1916, seven weeks before the three Southdowns battalions embarked from Southampton for France on 4th April 1916, Sailing on the ‘Viper’ it was bitterly cold and snowing. They docked at Le Havre at 7am the following day, disembarked and boarded trains, travelling in goods wagons for some 22 hours to Steenbecque. Once off the train they marched a further 2 miles through the snow-covered countryside to the small town of Morbecque where Albert was billeted for 4 days in a barn on the outskirts. On 11 April the battalions moved forward from here approximately 18 miles and commenced preparations for what was to be the Battle of the Boar’s Head at Richebourg, the day preceding the Battle of the Somme.

At the beginning of June, Albert became severely ill with enteric fever, a disease similar to typhoid, which is caused by ingesting contaminated food or water. It was not an uncommon disease of the trenches with the obvious problems associated with hygiene and sanitation. Albert was hospitalised which meant he avoided the disastrous action on 30 June at the Battle of the Boar’s Head when so many of his comrades in the Southdowns battalions were killed, including his fiancée’s brother Ernest Wooller. At the beginning of August Albert was sent home to recuperate. He had lost weight and was still weak but improved considerably before returning in September to re-join his regiment in France. Whilst home he and Elsie planned to marry at Willingdon church in August 1917. Albert was to come home on leave once more during which time he made and iced his wedding cake, leaving it with Elsie.

Albert’s brother in law Henry Relf was killed on 25 July 1917 when 400 enemy made a surprise attack at approx. 3.00am, with mortars, gas and flame throwers, on the 7th Battalion trenches in the Wancourt-Feuchy lines.

Meanwhile Lowther’s Lambs, 11th, 12th and 13th battalions Royal Sussex Regiment were preparing for the Third Battle of Ypres, Passchendaele. They marched to Poperinghe on 16 July suffering daily shelling with casualties and were kept awake all one night by shells exploding at a British ammunition dump set alight at Vlamertinghe. On the evening of 28 July they were moved forward, relieving the 6th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment amid the incessant barrage of the British artillery. Once in place by midnight there they were given tea and hot meals. The following day things were comparatively quiet enabling the working parties to move supplies forward.

Enemy shelling increased during the night of 30 July as the battalion moved forward to the assembly trenches. At 3.50am on 31 July the battalion went over the top attacking the enemy front line, advancing at ‘Hill Top Farm’ some 2 miles north-east from the centre of Ypres. They succeeded in taking and consolidating all their objectives recording only slight casualties but Albert was one of the few killed in action. His sister Rose lost both her husband and youngest brother within six days.

Albert who was aged twenty-five was killed less than a month before his planned wedding at Willingdon to Elsie. His commanding officer wrote a ‘sympathetic’ letter to his father saying: “ Personally I look upon his death as promotion, for I feel he has passed into the presence of his Maker, and is at rest, and although the loss to us is great it is really his gain.” Albert was buried in Buffs Road Cemetery Ypres. He is commemorated on the Willingdon War Memorial in the parish church, the Roll of Honour in Willingdon Memorial Hall and on the panel of the 12th Battalion, in the Royal Sussex Regimental chapel at Chichester Cathedral.

Six years later Elsie married another Albert in Willingdon church. They were my grandparents and together they visited Albert’s grave at Buff’s Road in the 1950s and 60s.

This story was submitted by Rosalind Hodge, Archivist, Willingdon Parish Church

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