Did you know that millions of eggs were collected for wounded troops in a National Egg Collection scheme? The Willingdon parish magazine covering the years of WW1 show that the parishioners were involved in various activities to help our troops. Hospital Egg Collection Days for the local Princess Alice Memorial Hospital in Eastbourne had been […]
Three members of Tony Titchener’s family served in the army during the First World War. Andrew Doyle is one of three relatives who were killed in World War 1 and are commemorated on the war memorial on Rottingdean Village Green. He was a 31 year old former ship’s steward born in Belfast married to my […]
Charles Frederick Onslow Wickham was my great uncle on my mother’s side. He grew up at Witherenden Mill, the eldest son of the miller and farmer, Henry Charles Wickham. The family story is that Charles was sent to Australia before the First World War, having got a local girl pregnant – she subsequently called herself […]
Following their mobilisation in 1914 the Sussex Yeomanry was soon deployed to Gallipoli in 1915. The South-East Mounted Brigade (of which Sussex Yeomanry was a part) was attached to the 42nd Division, a Territorial Infantry Division from the Manchester area. This Division was very much the worse for wear from heavy fighting and dysentery. It […]
Did you know that the original Winnie the Pooh was a mascot for a Canadian Infantry Brigade during the First World War? When war broke out in August 1914 and Britain declared war on Germany, Canada, as the senior Dominion nation in the British Empire, automatically declared war as well. Having joined the Canadian Expeditionary […]
In the Spring of 1915 the Sussex Yeomanry were stationed at Canterbury and were part of the South-Eastern Mounted Brigade. Training was carried out at a Squadron, Regimental and Brigade level. The Regimental horse show was held in May and cricket was played regularly at the Canterbury Ground. The effect of the war however started […]
The Great War at Sea Poetry Project was established by Hove based researcher Michael Bully, and now has fellow researchers in the USA, Scotland and Australia. http://greatwaratseapoetry.weebly.com/ http://greatwaratsea.blogspot.co.uk/ The Great War at Sea Poetry aims to encourage research into the sea as a setting for war poetry of this era written by combatants and non-combatants […]
William Frederick Henshaw William Henshaw lived in Bexhill on Sea (Near Egerton Park) and worked as a Bricklayer. He was the son of George and Sarah Henshaw, of Crowborough; husband of Lilian Mary Henshaw, of 23, Cornwall Rd., Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex. He was killed by artillery fire in Ypres 1915, aged 40. His name appears on […]
During the First World War, Gertrude Coggins served as a ticket collector at Brighton Station. On Christmas day 1912, Gertrude received an autograph book. Through the entries in this book, we learn something of her life during the years of the First World War. Her mother worked as housekeeper to Lady Dunn whose properties included […]
During the First World War, Britain faced the risk of starvation. Huge numbers of men had joined the army and, as a result, farming and agriculture risked collapse. Meanwhile German U-Boats sank ships in the Atlantic in a bid to prevent food from reaching Britain. To keep Britain’s farmland productive, the Women’s Land Army stepped […]
