Category Archives: Sussex

Able Seaman, Boy, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Hampshire, history, illness, Kent, Leading Seaman, Ordinary Seaman, Petty Officer, photography, Royal Navy, story, Sussex, war

Petty Officer William Dale

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Petty Officer William Dale

William Edmund Dale was born in Worthing, West Sussex on 25th November 1886 and was the older of six children. His father, also called William, was a carman, and he and William’s mother, Eliza, brought the family up in the Sussex town.

William Jr seems to have had a number of jobs, working as a draper’s errand boy, a milkman’s assistant and a gardener. He found his true calling at the age of 12, however, when he enlisted in the Royal Navy.

Initially acting as a Boy 2nd Class, over his initial twelve years’ employ he served on eleven vessels, and rose through the ranks to Boy, Ordinary Seaman and Able Seaman.

It was while serving on HMS Blake in 1910, that he married Mary Williams. The couple went on to have two children, William, born in 1910, and Harry, born the following year. The family set up home in Portsmouth, where the sailor was based.

With his initial service complete in 1916, William’s term of duty was extended until the end of hostilities. A promotion to Leading Seaman followed, and he was assigned to HMS Attentive, part of the Dover Patrol guard.

In 1917, William was promoted again, this time to the role of Petty Officer, and was assigned to HMS Royal Sovereign, the Navy’s new battleship. He served on the vessel for the remainder of the way, and through into the summer of 1919.

It was in the last month of his service, that Petty Officer Dale fell ill. He was taken ashore, and sent to the Royal Naval Hospital in Chatham, Kent. He had contracted meningitis, and sadly succumbed to it within days of being admitted. He died on 4th August 1919, at the age of just 32 years old.

William Edmund Dale was brought back to the town of his birth; he lies at rest in a quiet corner of the Broadwater Cemetery in Worthing, West Sussex.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, photography, Private, Royal Sussex Regiment, story, Sussex, war

Private Frederick Willmer

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Private Frederick Wilmer

Frederick Ernest Potter Willmer was born in Worthing in 1878 and was the oldest of five children to Eliza Emma Willmer. She married Charles William Sparks Green in December 1880, and the couple went on to have four children – Frederick’s half-siblings.

Frederick falls off the radar for a number of years, only reappearing in 1898 when, on 26th October, he married Gertrude Boote. The couple would go on to have two children, Maude and Leslie.

By 1901, the young family were living near Tunbridge Wells in Kent, where Frederick was working as a coachman and groom. Sussex was calling, however, and, by the time of the census ten years later, the family had returned to Worthing. Frederick was now working as a gardener, and the family were living in two rooms in a house near the centre of the town.

With war calling, Frederick signed up to do his bit. His full service records no longer exist, but it is clear that he joined the Royal Sussex Regiment, and, as a Private, was assigned to the 72nd Provisional Battalion.

It seems that Private Willmer was part of the territorial force, serving instead on home soil, rather than overseas. The next record available for him – his pension record – confirms that he died on 12th December 1915 as a result of a cerebral haemorrhage following an illness. He was just 37 years old.

Brought home to Worthing, Frederick Ernest Potter Willmer was laid to rest in the Broadwater Cemetery in the town.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, injury, photography, Private, Royal Sussex Regiment, story, Sussex, unknown, war

Private John Blake

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Private John Blake

John George Blake was born early in 1878, and was the oldest of seven children. His father, Job, was a general labourer, and, with Eliza, John’s mother, brought the young family up in the West Sussex town of Worthing.

Job died in 1898, ages just 36 years old; Eliza found work as a housekeeper, while John was employed as a carter for the railway. By the 1901 census, the family were living in a terraced house near the centre of town, Eliza living there with her three sons, two daughters, son-in-law and granddaughter.

In October 1904, John married Alice Attwater, a labourer’s daughter from mid-Sussex. The couple moved into a house close to the station and went on to have four children; John Jr, Ernest, Bertha and Dorothy. John was by now working as a porter for the railway, a role he continued through to the outbreak of war.

John enlisted in November 1914; he joined the Royal Sussex Regiment, working as a member of the depot staff. Private Blake was shipped overseas, arriving in France in March 1916.

Almost exactly a year after landing in France, John was injured in the line of duty. The medical report confirmed that a “scald on the left arm and neck [had] occurred while on duty on March 1st 1917, in France. He was preparing hot soup for his company in the front line at midnight. He was not to blame. Injury caused by enemy shelling the company kitchen“.

Private Blake was shipped back to England for treatment, and admitted to Netley Hospital near Southampton. While there, he contracted phthisis (tuberculosis), which left his totally incapacitated. He was medically discharged from military service in August 1917.

Further details of John’s life are scarce. He returned home to his family, although whether he took up his job again is unknown. He passed away on 22nd June 1919 at the age of 41. The cause of his death is unknown, although it seems likely to have been related to the tuberculosis.

John George Blake lies at rest in the Broadwater Cemetery of his home town, Worthing.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, photography, Private, Royal Sussex Regiment, story, Sussex, war

Private Raymond Champ

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Private Raymond Champ

Raymond Champ was born on 30th March 1880, one of eight children to coachman William Champ and his wife Eliza. While Raymond was born in the West Sussex village of Cowfold, within a year, the family had moved to Worthing, settling in the Broadwater area of the town.

The 1901 census gives more of an insight into Champ family life. William by now is listed as unable to work and gives his infirmity as paralysed. There are no newspaper records evident to highlight an accident of any sort, so the cause of his paralysis, and his inability to work, are destined to remain a mystery. The document does show, however, that the other members of the family stepped up to fill in the shortfall of money; Eliza was working as a laundress, Raymond was a bricklayer’s labourer, and his younger brother Francis (or Frank) was employed as a milk boy.

Fast forward ten years, and the next census give further information. It confirms that William was paralysed when he was 45 years old (in around 1894/1895). Raymond, now aged 30, was still working as a bricklayer, Frank was an iron founder, and the youngest brother, George, was a baker.

Raymond was a keen footballer, and went on to captain the Silverdale Football Club. By the time war broke out, he had found work at Wenban Smith, a renowned timber supplier in the town. The call to arms came, however, and, in September 1914, he enlisted.

Private Champ joined the Royal Sussex Regiment, and was assigned to the 2nd Battalion. Shipped overseas in February 1915, he served on the Western Front, but his time there was not to be a lengthy one. A local newspaper report picked up Raymond’s story:

The wretched conditions which our Troops had to contend with during February and March proved too much for his constitution, and having the misfortune to contract bronchitis, he was invalided home in April, being taken to one of the Military Hospitals in Manchester.

His recovery was regarded as hopeless from the first, but the careful nursing and attention which he received there brought about a temporary improvement, and he was eventually discharged in order that he might return to his home, where his death occurred on Sunday week.

The funeral on Thursday afternoon was of a very impressive character, and despite a heavy deluge of rain, there was a large number of sympathising friends at the Cemetery to pay the last tribute of respect.

Worthing Gazette: Wednesday 14th July 1915

Private Raymond Champ passed away on 4th July 1915 and just 35 years old. His body was laid to rest in Broadwater Cemetery, Worthing, not far from where his family were living.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Kent, photography, Private, Royal West Kent Regiment, story, Sussex, unknown, war

Private Sidney Ford

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Private Sidney Ford

Sidney Ford was born in Kent in 1896, the son of Stephen John Ford and his second wife, Elizabeth Ann (née Underdown). The couple had four children – Frederick, Sidney, Ethel and Alice – although it seems that Elizabeth brought them up almost singlehandedly. Sidney’s military records gives his father’s name, although simply notes that he was an imbecile, in the stark way that only Edwardian officials could.

Sadly, little of Sidney’s early life remains documented. By the time war broke out, he was working as a farm labourer in Yalding, close to where he was born. He enlisted at the end of October 1914, joining the Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), and was assigned to the 8th (Service) Battalion as a Private.

Joining up in Maidstone, by the end of the year, Private Ford’s battalion was soon billeted in Worthing, West Sussex. Tragically, his service was destined to be a short one, and he passed away after only a month in the town.

The first death from the Red Cross Hospital, Cecil’s, at West Worthing, had to be recorded. Since it has been opened there have been a large number of cases, and many of them have been of a serious nature, but happily all except the one under notice have made progress, thanks to the skill of the Medical Officers and Nursing Staff of the institution.

The deceased in this instance was a Private of the Eighth Battalion of the West Kent Regiment, now stationed locally. His name was Sidney Ford, and he was twenty-five years of age. He died on Friday, and at the funeral, which took place on Monday, full Military honours were accorded him.

Colonel Vansittart (who commands the Eighth Battalion) and Major Bock-Hollinshead attended, as also did other members of the Staff of the Hospital. A large number of the public were also at the Cemetery to witness the last rites, the progress of so long and so imposing a procession through the streets attracting considerable attention.

Worthing Gazette: Wednesday 20th January 1915

Private Ford has died on 15th January 1915, and was actually just 20 years of age, not 25, as had been reported. The Worthing Gazette does not give no mention to Sidney’s family, so it can only be assumed that they were unable to make the journey from Kent to the funeral. I have been unable to uncover details of the cause of his death, but, given that there is no mention of the cause in the newspaper, it is likely to have been following an illness than anything more sensational or unusual.

Sidney Ford lies at rest in the Broadwater Cemetery in Worthing, one of the first in the town to have passed because of the Great War.

Sidney’s older brother, Frederick, was also involved in the Great War. While there is little specific information about his service, it is evident that he was a Private in the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment).

Unlike his younger brother, Frederick did see military action, but list his life on the Western Front on 4th November 1915, ten months after Sidney had passed in Worthing.

Frederick lies at rest in the Royal Irish Rifles Graveyard in Laventie, in Northern France.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Gunner, history, illness, photography, Royal Field Artillery, Somerset, story, Sussex, war, Wiltshire

Gunner Fred Ford

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Gunner Fred Ford

Fred Ford was born in the Wiltshire town of Mere in 1877. One of eight children to John and Charlotte, his father was an agricultural labourer from the village.

When he left school, Fred initially found work as an errand boy; he soon moved into labouring and, by the time of the 1901 census, was employed as a bricklayer.

In 1904, Fred married Florence Phillips; she was the daughter of an agricultural labour from Somerset. Fred, by this time, had found work as a coal miner in the county, and the young couple set up home in the village of Babington, near Frome. They went on to have four children.

Conflict was on the horizon and, while full details of his military service are not available, it’s clear that he enlisted as soon as he was able to, almost as was was declared. Gunner Ford joined the Royal Field Artillery, and was assigned to the 108th Brigade of the regiment’s Ammunition Corps.

Initially based in Taunton, Fred was soon moved to Portsmouth and then Worthing, and it was here, in the first winter of the war, that he contracted influenza and pneumonia. Admitted to St Cecil’s Red Cross Military Hospital in the Sussex town, sadly the condition proved too much for him. He passed away on 8th February 1915, tragically hours before Florence arrived from Somerset. Gunner Ford was just 37 years old.

Finances not enabling her to transport his remains back home, Florence Ford laid Fred’s body to rest in Broadwater Cemetery in Worthing, the town where he died.

Able Seaman, Boy, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Leading Seaman, London, Ordinary Seaman, Petty Officer, photography, Royal Navy, story, Sussex, unknown, war

Chief Petty Officer Charles Clarke

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Chief Petty Officer Charles Clarke

Charles Frederick Clarke was born on the 14th April 1869 to James and Jane Clarke. James was born in Suffolk, but moved to London, where he found work as a watchman (guarding the city streets at night). Jane was from Essex, and the couple went on to have five children, of whom Charles was the middle child.

Charles was set on a life of adventure, joining the Royal Navy in 1887, for a period of twelve years. During this time, he served on eleven vessels, working his way up through the ranks from Boy to Ordinary Seaman to Able Seaman, Leading Seaman and eventually Petty Officer.

In October 1895, he married Lydia Rogers, a sailor’s daughter from Portsmouth. The couple would go on to have nine children, eventually settling in Sussex.

When his naval service ended in 1899, Charles enlisted again. Within six years, he had achieved the rank of Chief Petty Officer, and in March 1909, after 22 years’ service, retired from active duty. He was obviously well respected, however, and was selected to serve on the staff of the Royal Naval Recruiting Office in Portsmouth. His service records suggest that he resigned from this role on 14th April 1914.

It seems that Chief Petty Office Clarke took on a role on the vessel HMS Zaria. This was a ship that was requisitioned by the Royal Navy, which acted as a patrol ship, guarding the coastal waters around the UK. While details are scant, Charles certainly served on board for a couple of years, and he died on board, from causes undisclosed, on 16th December 1916, at the age of 47 years old.

Brought back to West Sussex, Charles Frederick Clarke was laid to rest in the Broadwater Cemetery in Worthing. This was where Lydia was now living; she was buried in the same grave, when she passed away eight years after her husband.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, injury, Lance Corporal, photography, Royal Sussex Regiment, story, Sussex, war

Lance Corporal Edgar Godden

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Lance Corporal Edgar Godden

Edgar Godden was born in the summer of 1892, one of eight children to John and Alice Godden. John came from Littlehampton, and Alice from Worthing, and this is where they raised their family.

John was a bricklayer, and it was this trade that Edgar went into when he left school. War was coming to Europe, however, and, within weeks of the conflict breaking out, he had volunteered his services.

Edgar joined the Royal Sussex Regiment, and was assigned to the 7th (Service) Battalion. Details of his military service are a little sketchy, but a newspaper article, written after his death, gives a hint about what happened to him.

Mr Edgar Godden… who was twenty-five years of age and leave a widow and a little child, enlisted on the 1st September 1914, and was wounded in the arm in September of the following year. In October 1916 he was blown up and buried by an enemy mine. Last February he was taken out of the trenches and sent to a hospital in France, and last April he came home to England and had an arm amputated. Since his discharge from the Seventh Royal Sussex Regiment, he had been a member of the staff of the Post Office, and was known as “The One-armed Postman”.

Worthing Gazette: Wednesday 10th January 1918.

In the autumn of 1916, and recovering from his injuries Lance Corporal Godden married Emily Owers. They lived with John and Alice, but I have been unable to find details of the child mentioned in the newspaper report.

It seems that his injuries had left Edgar in a weakened state, and, after a ‘short and painful illness’ [Worthing Gazette: 2nd January 1918], he passed away on 22nd December 1917. He was just 25 years of age.

Edgar Godden was laid to rest, finally at peace, in the Broadwater Cemetery in his home town of Worthing, West Sussex.

The newspaper report above gave a little more information about a couple of Edgar’s siblings.

Mr & Mrs [John] Godden had one son killed in action in November 1916; and still another – the eldest – is now in France, as a member of the Royal Engineers.

Worthing Gazette: Wednesday 10th January 1918

Edgar’s oldest brother – also called John – survived the war, but it was his younger brother, Charles, who was killed in action.

A Corporal in the 11th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment, Charles was caught up in the Battle of the Somme. It was while fighting in the Battle of the Ancre on 13th November 1916, that he was killed. He is remembered at the Thiepval Memorial in Northern France, and is also commemorated on Edgar’s own headstone.

One last aside to Edgar’s story is his address in the last few years of his life. John and Alice were living in Worthing, specifically at a house called “Chiswick” in Tarring Road, to the west of the town.

Coincidentally, when researching another soldier, Private Ernest Parsons, this turns out to be the address where he also died, just ten months later on 4th October 1918. There is no apparent other link between the two men.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, London, London Regiment, photography, Post Office Rifles, Rifleman, story, Sussex, war

Rifleman Ernest Parsons

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Rifleman Ernest Parsons

Ernest Charles Parsons was born in 1881, and was one of six children to bricklayer Robert Parsons and his wife Mary Ann. Robert was a labourer and bricklayer from Watford, while Mary Ann was born in Arundel, West Sussex. The couple moved to where his work was, having their first children in Hertfordshire and Sussex They finally settled in London, which was where Ernest was born.

Where he first left school, Ernest worked as a painter, but soon found a career as a postman., something he would continue to do through to the outbreak of war.

Ernest married Frances Olive Eynott on 28th February 1904; they went on to have a daughter, Doris, the following year. It seems, however, that their marriage was destined to be a short one; Frances passed away within a couple of years.

With a daughter to raise and a living to earn, Ernest married again. Elizabeth Kate Dew was born in Fulham in 1883, and the couple married in the spring of 1907. Again, however, their happiness was to be short; Elizabeth died eighteen months later.

Widowed twice, and with Doris now a toddler, Ernest moved back in with his parents in Chiswick. He continued his work as a postman, but alongside this had been an active volunteer in the London Regiment (Post Office Rifles) since early 1908.

Rifleman Parsons’ initial year’s service was extended and extended and, by the time of the outbreak of the First World War, had been serving for some six years.

By 1914, Ernest had found love for a third time, and married Lilian Frances Cromie on 25th March that year. With war imminent, his time was take up more with military duties; while part of the territorial force, Rifleman Parsons had been officially mobilised.

The sudden intermingling of men from different parts of the country in small, packed training camps made the perfect environment for illness and disease to circulate. Ernest had initially contracted bronchitis while on service in 1912; this had dogged him intermittently oved the next few years until, in March 1915, it was serious enough for the Medical Examination Board to declare him unfit for military service.

Ernest moved his family to Worthing, in West Sussex, presumably as the air was fresher there than in the bustling capital. He may also had had family in the area, as his mother had been born just up the road in Arundel. Sadly, though, it seems that his health was not to recover sufficiently, and he passed away on 4th October 1918, at the age of 37.

Ernest Charles Parsons was buried in the Broadwater Cemetery in the town, not far from where his widow and daughter were then living.

Coincidentally, when researching another soldier, Lance Corporal Edgar Godden, this turns out to be the address where he also died, just ten months earlier on 22nd December 1917. There is no apparent other link between the two men.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, Lance Corporal, London, photography, Royal Army Service Corps, South Africa, story, Sussex, war

Lance Corporal Thomas Marston

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Lance Corporal Thomas Marston

Thomas Henry Robert Marston was born on 12th February 1876, the son of Frederick and Elizabeth Marston. Frederick was a police constable who raised his family in the Paddington area of London.

Sadly, details of Thomas’ early life are tantalisingly scarce. He was not baptised until October 1881, on the same day as his brother, Frederick, who was four years younger.

Thomas seems to have had a sense of adventure; his Commonwealth War Graves Commission records confirm that he served in the South African Campaign – this would put him out of the country during the 1890s, and reinforce why documentation for that time is missing.

The next confirmed information for Thomas is his marriage record. He wed Bessie Ponder by banns in August 1909. The ceremony was at Christ Church in Marylebone, and the couple went on to have two children, Doris, born in 1911, and Hettie, born in 1912.

By the time of the 1911 census, with his military service by now complete, Thomas and Bessie were living on the Caledonian Road in Islington. Still childless at this point (although Bessie was undoubtedly pregnant), Thomas was working as a butcher.

The census gives their address as 54 Wallace Buildings, a Victorian tenement block, and the couple lived in two rooms. Their neighbours at No. 53 were fellow butcher Ralph Bonest, his wife Isabel and their three children, who also all lived in two rooms. On the other side newlywed cab driver William Barnes, lived with his wife Florence and her sister. The Barnes’ had the luxury of No. 55 being a three-roomed flat.

When the Great War broke out, it seems evident that the 38 year old Thomas was either re-mobilised or voluntarily re-enlisted. While the dates are not certain, he had joined the Army Service Corps by March 1917 and was assigned to the Remount Depot at Romsey in Hampshire. This section of the regiment was involved in the provision of horses and mules to other parts of the army.

No further details of Lance Corporal Marston’s military career remain. Sadly, the next record of his life confirm his death. He was admitted to the Hursley Camp Hospital with rupture of viscera (possibly an aneurysm), but died from his injury on 31st October 1917. He was 41 years old.

At some point after the 1911 census, the family had moved to Worthing in West Sussex. The body of Thomas Henry Robert Marston was brought back home, and he was laid to rest in the Broadwater Cemetery in the town.