Tag Archives: West Sussex

Captain, Commonwealth War Graves, France, Great War, history, illness, Jersey, Lieutenant, Major, Middlesex, photography, story, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, war

Major Alexander Leslie

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Major Alexander Leslie

Alexander Augustus Maurice Leslie was born in France in 1852. One of five children, his parents were Government Secretary of State Francis Leslie and his French wife, Josephine.

Alexander’s mother died when he was 8 years old, by which point the family had moved back to Britain. Francis had set up home in Ealing, Middlesex, and they were living at 15 Castlebar Road, a Victorian villa.

When he completed his schooling, Alexander sought out a military life. The 1881 census recorded him as a Lieutenant in the Suffolk Regiment, living in St Helier, Jersey. He had married the year before, to Louisa Cumming, a surgeon’s daughter from Devon. They had a son, Maurice, by this point, and a daughter, Ida, was born the following year.

Lieutenant Leslie’s service records are sparse, but a later newspaper report fills in some of the gaps: “Leslie’s military experience, which extended… over a period of about 25 years, included participation in the Egyptian campaign in 1884, and service on the West Coast of Africa, in Jamaica, and in India.” [Worthing Gazette: Wednesday 30th April 1919]

During her husband’s time overseas, Louisa raised the children back home in Devon. She passed away in 1901, but which point, Alexander had retired with the rank of Captain. That year’s census found him living with Maurice and Ida at 14 Spencer Hill in Wimbledon, Surrey, a large detached villa. Maurice, now 20 years of age, was working as an accountant’s clerk, and the family had a live-in servant called Rose.

The next census record, from 1911, recorded Alexander living in rooms at 46 Leinster Gardens, Paddington. A substantial Georgian property, his landlady was Eveline Giradet, whose other residents included a barrister and a banker. Alexander’s occupation was now noted as Retired Major in the British Army.

From this point, Alexander’s trail grows cold. It is likely that he was called upon to play a part in the global conflict that broke out in 1914, though exactly when and how he did so is unclear. Records suggest he was admitted to Queen Alexandra’s Military Hospital on Millbank, Middlesex on 28th September 1916, suffering from syphilis. He only remained there for a couple of days, and his increasing age and health may have led to his retirement from duty.

For the past four years Major Alexander Maurice Leslie, who was for a period of a quarter of a century connected with the Royal Sussex Regiment, had been a resident of Worthing, and a brief intimation was given in the last issue… that he had died suddenly.

The circumstances were duly investigated by… the Deputy Coroner for West Sussex, on Wednesday afternoon, the inquiry taking place at the Central Fire Station, in High-street.

Evidence of identification was given by Colonel Francis Seymour Leslie… late of the Royal Engineers, who stated that the deceased, who was his brother, had lived at Worthing for the past four years, more or less all the time, though he had no permanent address…

Mrs Ethel William, a widow, at whose house… Major Leslie had lodged, stated that he had complained of indigestion and ate light food. On Monday evening he had his supper at half-past seven o’clock, going upstairs about half an hour later. About nine o’clock witness went to his room and found him lying in bed in great agony, and he exclaimed: “Oh, my poor heart!” Witness gave him some hot water to drink and sent for a doctor.

Dr Bernard Lees stated that he was sent for, but he found Major Leslie was dead when he got to the house. He had since made a post-mortem examination, which showed that the stomach and intestines were much distended, and there were signs of chronic gastric catarrh. The heart was fatty, but the valves were healthy. Death was due to syncope, the result of acute indigestion and the fatty condition of the heart.

A verdict of “Death from natural causes” was recorded.

[Worthing Gazette: Wednesday 30th April 1919]

[It should be noted that Alexander had been attached to the Suffolk Regiment throughout his military career. The error in the newspaper report is likely because of the Sussex town he had moved to in the mid-1910s.]

Alexander Augustus Maurice Leslie was 67 years of age when he passed away on 21st April 1919. His body was laid to rest in Broadwater Cemetery, to the north of the town he had called his home for more than four years.

Canada, Canadian Infantry, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, injury, Kent, photography, Private, story, Surrey, Sussex, war, Wiltshire

Private Archibald Leal

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Private Archibald Leal

Archibald Edmund Leal was born in Tinwood, West Sussex on 13th September 1894. The youngest of six children, his parents were George and Clara Leal. George was a dairyman, and, by the time of the 1901 census, the family had moved to a terraced cottage at 66 Newland Road in Worthing.

Clara died in 1906, and Archibald – who was better known as Archie – and two of his siblings took the opportunity to seek a better life across the Atlantic. In 1910, the three of them – Archie, brother Phillip and sister Winifred – emigrated to Canada, settling in Breakeyville, to the south of Quebec.

Archie found work as a chauffeur, but when war was declared, he was quick to step up and serve his King and Empire. He enlisted on 10th September 1914, joining the Canadian Expeditionary Force as a Private. His service records show that he was 5ft 6in (1.67m) tall, with fair hair, brown eyes and a dark complexion. He was also noted as having “very many [acne] scars over [his] chest and back.”

Assigned to the 15th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry, Private Leal sailed to Britain, arriving at Tidworth Camp in Wiltshire on 12th February 1915. By April he was in France, and, on 28th July he was in a front line trench near the town of Ypres. A shell exploded nearby and, in seeking shelter, he badly twisted his ankle and back. Medically evacuated to Britain, Archie spent a month recuperating at the Royal Herbert Hospital in Woolwich, Kent, before returning to his unit in Wiltshire.

By December 1915, Private Leal was back on the Western Front and remained there for the next five months. In April his unit was on the front line, and he was injured in his right leg when a rifle grenade exploded. Archie was initially treated by a field ambulance, but his injury was such that evacuation to Britain was again necessary. He was admitted to the County of London War Hospital in Epsom, Surrey, but had contracted tetanus by this point. This was to prove fatal, and his body succumbed on 10th May 1916: he was 21 years of age.

The body of Archibald Edmund Leal was taken back to Worthing for burial. He was laid to rest with full military honours in the town’s Broadwater Cemetery. A local newspaper reported that “Private Leal, although not a Canadian, was possessed of true Colonial grit, and had had his full share of active service.” [Sussex Daily News: Wednesday 17th May 1916]

Private Archibald Leal
(from ancestry.co.uk)
Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Hampshire, history, illness, Ireland, Kent, Lancashire, Lieutenant, Midshipman, Pembrokeshire, photography, Royal Naval Reserve, story, Sub Lieutenant, Sussex, war

Lieutenant Allan Furlong

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Lieutenant Allan Furlong

Allan Hyde Furlong was born the autumn of 1874, and was the oldest of seven children to Joseph and Adelaide Furlong. The place of his birth varies depending on which document you’re looking at, with census records suggesting he was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, or Aldershot, Hampshire. His birth was registered in Eastry, Kent, however, so it is possible that this is where the family were based at the time.

Joseph was an officer in the North Lancashire Regiment, and his work meant the family moved time and time again. Allan’s younger siblings were born in Hampshire, Pembrokeshire and Athlone, Ireland. By the early 1880s, they had settled in Lancashire, the 1891 census recording them as living in the Fulwood Barracks in Preston.

Given his father’s military background, it is not surprising that Allan was drawn to follow suit. He took a different route, however, and enlisted in the Royal Naval Reserve. Midshipman Furlong took a commission on 27th August 1892, and would make a career out of the navy.

By the time war broke out, Allan was serving on board the SS Burma. In May 1915 he was promoted to Sub Lieutenant, and a further rise in rank – to full Lieutenant – followed in January 1918. He survived the war, and remained at sea through to the start of the new decade.

In March 1920, Lieutenant Furlong was admitted to the Royal Marine Infirmary in Deal, Kent, suffering from a combination of influenza and pneumonia. The conditions would get the better of Allan, and he passed away from them on 14th March 1920: he was 45 years of age.

Joseph and Adelaide were living in Worthing, West Sussex, by this point. Keen to bring their son home, the body of Allan Hyde Furlong was laid to rest in the town’s Broadwater Cemetery.

Bedfordshire, Captain, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, India, Isle of Wight, Lieutenant, photography, Royal Marines, story, suicide, Sussex, war

Captain Guye Lushington

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Captain Guye Lushington

Guye Wellesley Lushington was born in India on 6th November 1880. The oldest of four children, his parents were James and Bessie Lushington. James was a worked in the Bombay Uncovenanted Civil Service and, while it’s not possible to track his location through census records, by the time of the 1891 census, Bessie had returned to Britain with the children. The document found them living at 31 Clarendon Street in Bedford, Bedfordshire.

Guye’s background stood him in good stead when it came to building a career. His chosen profession was the army and, by January 1898 he had landed a commission in the Royal Marine Artillery. Lieutenant Lushington continued to do well and, on 13th March 1908, he received a promotion to Captain.

Full details of Guye’s military service have been lost to time, but by the time war broke out, he was attached to the dreadnought battleship HMS Bellerophon. The stress of the Great War was to take its toll, however, and he was diagnosed with neurasthenia. In 1916, he was admitted to the King Edward Convalescent Home at Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight. Captain Lushington’s condition, however, was to worsen.

The Isle of Wight Coroner yesterday held an inquest respecting the death of Captain George [sic] Wellesley Lushington, 35, of the Royal Marine Artillery, sone of Mr James Law Lushington, of Briar Bank, Grove-road, Worthing [West Sussex], who was found dead… on Tuesday, having apparently thrown himself over an iron staircase fire escape into the courtyard.

Colonel Douglas Wardrop, house governor and medical superintendent, said the deceased arrived at Osborne House from Haslar on the 5th inst… He was rather depressed and worried about his loss of will power. He had been four years on the “Bellerophon” and on active service with the Grand Fleet. There was nothing in the deceased’s manner to suggest suicide. He slept on the top floor of the south wing. At two o’clock on Tuesday morning, the night nurse reported that the deceased had not slept in his room. Search was made, and the deceased was found lying in the courtyard between the kitchen and the south wing. He must have jumped from the fire escape – which was an iron staircase with platforms outside each landing – onto the flag stones below, a distance of 45 feet. His skull was smashed to pieces. There was a railing 3 feet 6 inches high round the staircase, and deceased could not have accidentally fallen over.

Two letters were found in deceased’s room, one addressed to his father and the other to his sister. His father identified the writing. The letter to the deceased’s father was as follows:

“Osborne House, Sunday.

“My dear pater, Since I broke down a month ago, I feel I shall never pick up again. I am afraid this will rather surprise you, but I cannot stand the tension any longer. I am always wondering what is going to happen to me. Give my love to Daisy. If one has to die, it is better quickly than slowly. With lots of love – GUYE”

Nursing sister Arkins, who had charge of the deceased, said he was quiet, bur showed no suicidal tendency.

Lieutenant George Stewart Manisty, of the Indian Army Reserve, attached to the 7th Bengal Lancers, said he played bridge with the deceased up till 10:30 on Monday night, and for three nights running. Deceased seemed quite friendly and in good spirits.

A verdict of “Suicide while of unsound mind” was returned.

The Coroner said that was the third suicide within a week on the Isle of Wight, either directly or indirectly due to the war.

[Sussex Daily News: Thursday 11th May 1916]

Captain Lushington’s full state of mind on the night he took his life will never be know. The family had suffered three early deaths in a matter of years: Guye’s oldest sister, Violet, had died in 1899, at the age of 18; his brother Hubert had died in 1905 at the age of 19; his mother Bessie passed away in 1911 at the age of 58. Guye had taken his life on 8th May 1916, aged 35 years old.

The body of Guy Wellesley Lushington was taken to Worthing, West Sussex, for burial. He was laid to rest in the town’s Broadwater Cemetery.

accident, Army Pay Corps, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, Lieutenant, photography, Royal Air Force, story, Sussex, war, Warwickshire

Lieutenant Frederick Bravery

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Lieutenant Frederick Bravery

DISASTROUS FLYING ACCIDENT

Seven Airmen Killed

Lieutenant FJ Bravery’s “Great Skill and Fearlessness”

A sad bereavement has just been sustained by Mr & Mrs T Bravery, of 83, Chapel-road, in the death of one of their soldier sons, Lieutenant FJ Bravery, of the Royal Air Force, as the result of a flying accident near Birmingham in the early part of last week.

Together with a young Canadian Officer, Lieutenant Macbeth, of Toronto, and five air mechanics, Lieutenant Bravery was testing a large aeroplane, when, according to a farmer who was an eye-witness of the accident, the machine was seen to come nose down out of a cloud at great height.

The machine then righted itself and went about a mile, when it turned over while flying at a comparatively low altitude, and fell straight to earth, all seven occupants being instantaneously killed.

An inquest was held at a small town in the vicinity of the accident on Thursday afternoon, when evidence was given that both Lieutenant Macbeth (who was in charge of the machine) and Lieutenant Bravery were experienced pilots and accustomed to the type of machine they were flying, and that tests made with the machine before the flight was started were all satisfactory.

The Jury, in returning their verdict of “Accidental death” were unable to state the specific cause of the accident.

Lieutenant Bravery, who was only twenty-two years of age, joined the Army Pay Corps at the end of 1914, bur subsequently transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, where he had been engaged in flying for a little more than a year. A capable and experienced pilot, he had latterly been attached to the Central Dispatch Pool, where his duties mainly consisted of ferrying machines over to France; and his Commanding Officer, in a letter of sympathy to the bereaved parents, wrote that “he had done excellent work by his great skill and fearlessness. He was always popular and loved in his mess; and was absolutely unselfish, and a very brave gentleman.”

The funeral of the other victims of the tragedy took place on Friday near the scene of the accident: but the body of Lieutenant Bravery was brought home to Worthing, and was buried yesterday afternoon, at Broadwater Cemetery, with full Military honours.

[Worthing Gazette: Wednesday 28th August 1918]

Frederick James Bravery was born on 4th January 1896 in Brighton, Sussex. One of seven children, his parents were Thomas and Eugenie Bravery. Thomas was a pork butcher, and the 1901 census found the family lived at 3 Grenville Street in the centre of the town. Frederick and two of his sisters, meanwhile, were staying with their paternal grandparents on New Church Road in Aldrington.

By the time of the 1911 census, the Bravery family had taken a massive step up. They were now living in a 10-roomed Victorian villa at 15 Clermont Terrace in the Preston area of Brighton. Thomas was noted as having no occupation, and while three of Frederick’s older sibling were working – one as a milliner’s assistant, one as a chemist’s cashier and one as a clerk for a piano shop – their salaries would not have been enough to support such a change in status.

There is little that can be added to the newspaper’s account of Frederick’s military service. He seemed keen to enlist, and what remains of his army and air force documentation suggests that he added two years to his age. He was, therefore, just 22 years of age when he died, on 19th August 1918.

The body of Frederick James Bravery was laid to rest in Broadwater Cemetery, Worthing, Sussex, just a short walk from where his parents were now living in Chapel Road (Thomas now listed as being a sauce maker and pork butcher).

The newspaper report only highlighted the deaths of the two Lieutenants killed in the fatal accident. Alongside Lieutenant Bravery, the full list of crew lost were Air Mechanic 3rd Class George Greenland (buried at Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, London); Air Mechanic 1st Class James May (buried in Basford Cemetery, Nottinghamshire); Air Mechanic 3rd Class Charles Offord (buried in Acton Cemetery, Middlesex); and Aircraftman 2nd Class Horrace Simmonds. Simmonds and Lieutenant Robert Macbeth were both laid to rest in St Michael’s Churchyard, Maxstoke, not far from the site of the crash.

Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, Hampshire, Hampshire Regiment, history, illness, India, Lance Corporal, photography, Private, story, Sussex, war

Private Joseph Walls

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Private Joseph Walls

Joseph Walls was born in Tortington, near Arundel, in West Sussex, on 13th November 1880. The youngest of four children, his parents were gamekeeper James Walls and his wife Annie. James moved the family to where his work took him and, by the time of the 1891 census, they had settled in the New Forest village of Sway, Hampshire.

When Joseph finished his schooling, he found work as a horseman and groom. The 1901 census found him living with his parents and older sister in a house in Brockenhurst. He seems to have taken his work seriously, and soon found himself a position as a chauffeur. The next census, taken in 1911, recorded him as working for Ann Libbey and her family in the village of Boldre.

On 18th February 1914, Joseph married Edith Perry. A carpenter’s daughter, she was working as a domestic servant when the couple exchanged vows. Their wedding certificate confirms that Joseph was ten years his new wife’s senior, and that they ceremony was witnessed by his older brother Frederick and her younger sister, Esther.

Joseph and Edith would go on to have two children: Vera was born in 1915, while Daphne came along three years later. During this time, however, war was raging across Europe, and Joseph had stepped up to play his part.

Private Walls enlisted within weeks of war being declared, on 10th December 1914. His service papers show that he was living at Hospital Cottage in Lyndhurst when he joined up. He was 5ft 8ins (1.72m) tall, with black hair, grey eyes and a dark complexion. He was also noted as being asthmatic since he was a child.

Assigned to the 1st/4th Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment, over the next few years, Private Wallis would see the world. Within days of enlisting, he was shipped out to India, where he would spend nearly three years (apart from the in the summer of 1917, when he served as part of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force). During this time, Joseph was promoted to Lance Corporal, although by the time he left the army, he had returned to the tank of Private.

By the beginning of September 1917, Joseph was back on home soil. A spell of malaria that spring had impacted his asthma, and at the end of November, he was deemed no longer fit for war service. Private Walls was medically discharged from the army on 29th November 1917.

At this point, Joseph’s trail goes cold. He definitely returned home – Daphne was born just a few days after the Armistice – but it is unclear whether he was it enough to work.

Joseph Walls died on 14th February 1919: he was 38 years of age. He was laid to rest in Lyndhurst Cemetery, not far from where Edith and their children lived.

Private Joseph Walls
(from ancestry.co.uk)
Canada, Canadian Army Veterinary Corps, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Kent, photography, Private, story, Sussex, war, Wiltshire

Private John McKinnon, aka James Chalk

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Private John McKinnon, aka James Chalk

In Mere Cemetery, Wiltshire, is a headstone dedicated to JE Chalk, who served as Private J McKinnon in the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps. He died on 25th June 1920, and gives his age as 53 years old.

Private McKinnon’s service records suggest, however, that he was born on 14th October 1874 in Inverness, Scotland, and give his army name as John. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission give his other name as James Edward Chalk. James seems to have been keen to disguise his background, and it is only with some digging that the real story comes out.

James was the youngest of five children to Edward and Mary Chalk. Edward was a carpenter from Mere, and this is where the family were born and raised.

When he finished his schooling, James found work as a booking clerk. Edward died in the 1880s, and the 1891 census found James living at home with his mother, who had taken on laundry work to help with their finances.

By 1901, Mary and James were living on Water Street, to the south of the town centre. There’s was now an extended household, and included James’ sister Olive. James is noted as being married, and while no marriage records exist, it would seem that his wife, Mary, and their daughter, Ivy, were also living there.

The next census, taken in 1911, suggests James’ life had taken a different turn. Employed as a railway foreman, he was now living with his older sister, Olive, in her home. He is noted as being married with a child, but neither Mary nor Ivy appear in the same census.

At some point in the next five years, James took the decision to move overseas, and create himself a new identity.

John McKinnon was living in Montreal when the call came to join up. He enlisted on 29th April 1916, by which point he was 41 years of age. Assigned to the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps, his service records confirm that he was 5ft 9ins (1.75m) tall, with greying brown hair, grey eyes and a sallow complexion. He was noted as having scars on both legs, and another on the second toe of his right foot.

Private McKinnon’s unit were quick to be dispatched to Britain, and he arrived in Shornecliffe, Kent, on 29th June. He spent the next five months at the army base, and had two spells of a month each in hospital during that time: the first for asthma, the second for bronchitis.

In November 1916, John moved along the coast to Shoreham, West Sussex. His health was badly impacted, though, the medical report stating that ‘his chest is of the emphysematous type but at present free from bronchitis. He will not do well in England.’ John was formally discharged from the army on 15th November 1916.

At this point, John’s already sparse trail goes cold once more. It is possible that he moved to Wiltshire to be nearer to family, although nothing can be confirmed.

James Edward Chalk, who serves as Private John McKinnon, died on 26th June 1920: His service records suggest that he was 45, but he was, in fact, 53 years of age. He was laid to rest in Mere Cemetery, on the outskirts of the town he had called home for so long.

Able Seaman, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Ordinary Seaman, photography, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, story, Surrey, Sussex, war

Able Seaman Christopher Spratt

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Able Seaman Christopher Spratt

Christopher Templar Spratt was born on 23rd August 1889 in Streatham, Surrey. The youngest of three children, his parents were James and Elizabeth. James was an electrician by trade, and the 1891 census recorded the family as living at 58 Limes Road, between Selhurst and West Croydon.

The Spratts seem to have been a divided family. By the time of the 1901 census, James appears to have emigrated to Australia, presumably to earn money in the burgeoning country. Elizabeth and their younger two children were visiting Worthing, West Sussex.

At this point, and the decision seems to have been made for them to move to Sussex permanently, as the 1911 census found her and Christopher living at 87 Westcourt Road, Worthing. Elizabeth was noted as living on her own means; Christopher was working as a solicitor’s clerk, and they had a boarder, governess Nettie Buckler, to help bring in some additional money.

In January 1912, Christopher married Edith Green, a dressmaker from just along the coast in Goring-by-Sea. The couple moved in with Elizabeth, and went on to have two children: Florence, who was born that June; and Christopher Jr, who was born in November 1916.

By this point, war was raging across Europe, and Christopher stepped up to serve his King and Country. He had enlisted the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on 9th December 1915, but was not formally mobilised until the following June. Given the rank of Ordinary Seaman, Christopher’s service records note that he was 5ft 9ins (1.75m) tall, with dark brown hair, grey eyes and a fair complexion. He was also noted as having a mole on his left thigh.

Christopher was assigned to the Nelson Battalion of the Royal Naval Division, and sent to Dorset for training. While details of his service as more haphazard than usual, it seems that he served time overseas, and was promoted to Able Seaman on 1st October 1916. He became unwell in February 1917, as was admitted to the 18th General Hospital in Dannes-Camiers, on the French coast.

Suffering from cellulitis, Able Seaman Spratt was medically evacuated to Britain for treatment, and ended up as a patient in the 2nd Western General Hospital in Manchester. The condition was to prove fatal: he passed away on 12th February 1917, at the age of 27 years old.

The body of Christopher Templar Spratt was brought back to Sussex for burial. He was laid to rest in the churchyard of St Mary’s in Goring-by-Sea.

Elizabeth went on to re-marry and, by the time of the 1921 census, was living in East Preston, Sussex, with her new husband, Edward Neal, Christopher Jr and her new daughter, Enid. There is no evidence of Elizabeth’s older daughter, Christopher, although there is a Florence Spratt recorded as a patient in White Oak Schools (Homes for Ophthalmic Children) in Swanley, Kent.

Christopher Jr went on to marry Phyllis Bennett in the autumn of 1946. They remained in the Worthing area until his death in March 1993: he was laid to rest alongside the father he would not have remembered, in St Mary’s Churchyard. When Phyllis died seven years later, she was buried alongside her husband and father-in-law.

Cardiganshire, Commonwealth War Graves, Great War, history, illness, Pembrokeshire, photography, Private, Royal Army Service Corps, story, Sussex, Wales, war

Private William Thomas

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Private William Thomas

William James Thomas was born in Manordeifi, Pembrokeshire, in 1894. The older to two children his parents were Benjamin and Ellen Thomas. Benjamin was a groom, and, at the time of the 1891 census, the family were living at Cilwendeg Lodge at the entrance to the Welsh estate.

The family moved to Aberporth on the Cardigan coast by the 1901 census. Benjamin had become a farmer, and William, now 17 years of age, was helping out.

Something changed dramatically for William, however, and by 1914, he was living in the West Sussex village of Ferring, some 200 miles (320km) from his birthplace. By this point he was working as a motor driver and, on 25h March, he married Winifred May Knight at St Mary’s Church in Goring-by-Sea.

William stepped up to serve his country when war broke out, enlisting on 18th February 1915. His service records show that he was 5ft 4ins (1.63m) tall, and weighed 138lbs (62.6kg). He was noted as having a mole on his right cheek, and that several teeth were missing. The document confirms his marriage to Winifred, but also gives details of a child, Evelyne Winifred, who had been born in 1905: there is nothing to confirm whether she was his, or was born to Winifred before the couple met.

Private Thomas was assigned to the Army Service Corps Mechanical Transport Division, and sent to nearby Worthing for his training. His time in the army was to be tragically brief, as within a fortnight he had been admitted to the town’s Red Cross Hospital, suffering from cerebrospinal fever.

On 23rd March, William was transferred to Worthing Civil Infections Hospital, but any treatment he was receiving was to prove ineffective. He passed away on 31st March 1915, at the age of 31 years old.

The body of William James Thomas was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church, Goring, where just over a year before he and Winifred had been married.

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

Private Ernest Pointing

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Private Ernest Pointing

Ernest Arthur Pointing was born on 21st March 1896 in Goring-by-Sea, Sussex. The second-to-last of thirteen children, his parents were William and Kate. William was a baker from Brighton, but by the time of the 1901 census, the family were living at The Cottage, next to Goring Hall.

When Ernest left school, he found work as a stable boy. The next census, taken in 1911, found him and his parents – William now having retired – living at 1 Elm Tree Cottages in the centre of Goring itself. The three of them shared the house with Ernest’s older sister, Louisa, and his nephew, seven-year-old Herbert.

Alongside his paid work, Ernest also volunteered for the Royal Sussex Regiment and, within a week of turning eighteen, he stepped up to enlist with them. His medical report, undertaken on 18th March 1914, show that he was 5ft 4.5ins (1.64m) tall, and weighed 112lbs (50.8kg). He had dark brown hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion. He as noted as having two scars on his left thumb, and two more on his right knee.

Assigned to the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment, Private Pointing would spend the next nine months training on home soil. By the middle of January 1915, however, he was sent to France. Intriguingly, he was to spend only two months overseas, before returning to home soil. There is no evidence of him being injured, but it would not be until September 1915 that he returned to the fray.

In January 1916, Private Pointing transferred to the Machine Gun Corps. He remained overseas until March 1916, at which point his health seemed to have become affected. Ernest returned to Britain, and was ultimately discharged from military on 28th March 1917. He was suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, the condition that would ultimately take his life less than six months later.

Ernest Arthur Pointing died on 5th October 1917. He was just 21 years of age. He was back in Sussex by this point, and he was laid to rest in the family plot in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church in Goring. He was buried alongside his father, William, who had died two years earlier.