James Richard Moody joined the British Army in Newhaven at the outbreak of the First World War. He would lose his life in the conflict. Levi and Annie Moody, residents of 1 Lansdowne Place, Lewes, had two sons in the years before the First World War; James and Boaz. After war was declared in 1914 […]
On 12th November 2017, flaming torches were carried through the streets of Lewes, East Sussex to commemorate the 236 from the town who died during the First World War and are recorded on the War Memorial. Brigitte Lardinois, (Senior Research Fellow at London College of Communication, University of Arts, London) has for the last five […]
In the years preceding the First World War many women in East Sussex were active in the Suffrage campaign, as explained by author and local historian Frances Stenlake. Women’s suffrage campaigners in the Crowborough, Uckfield and Heathfield area, as elsewhere in rural Sussex, were likely to be ‘suffragists’ rather than ‘suffragettes’, i.e. emphatically non-militant and law-abiding, and […]
On 21 March 1918, the German army launched an offensive on the Western Front designed to bring the First World War to a conclusion. Though it would push Britain and France to the brink of defeat it would eventually result in Germany losing the war. By the end of 1917 the situation on both Western […]
During the First World War, the ringing of bells was used to spread news of the end of the conflict. Now for the war’s centenary they are being used again. On 30th June 2016, bells rang out across Sussex from Chichester Cathedral and parish churches in towns and villages to commemorate the 100th anniversary of […]
The Downs were shrouded in thick low cloud on 20 December 2017 for the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Royal Navy Air Service Airship disaster. After meeting at noon on Butts Brow above the village of Willingdon, twenty-two people, including representatives of Willingdon & Jevington Parish Council, East Sussex County Council, the Willingdon […]
Flight Sub-Lieutenant Richard Swallow was tragically killed on the South Downs whilst on active service on 20 December 1917. Richard was born at 3, Fourth Street, Bensham, Gateshead, Durham on 1st March 1891, the son of John Hopper Swallow and Mary Agnes née Hunt. Richard was the fifth of their six children and the youngest […]
Muriel Matters was a strong supporter Women’s Suffrage and opponent of the First World War who came to live in Hastings, East Sussex. Born in Australia on 12 November 1877, Muriel took a keen interest in music. After studying the topic at the University of Adelaide she began giving public recitals and performances. However, in […]
Eric Edward Steere was a courageous young man determined to serve his country, enlisting when just 15 years old. He was born at 37 Gloucester Place, Worthing, Sussex on 22 February 1900. He was the sixth of eight children of James Blann Steere a carpenter and joiner, and Emily Alice nee Butcher. When he was […]
One of the oldest of the Sussex military units, the Sussex Yeomanry, served with distinction during the First World War. Yeomanry Regiments were composed of light cavalry soldiers and the Sussex Yeomanry was formed as a volunteer Cavalry Regiment in 1794 in response to the threat of invasion by Napoleon. The Regiment continued until 1848 […]
