Remembering Worthing’s fallen

Ernest Knight was born in West Tarring in 1891 and baptised at West Tarring Church, the third son in a family of eight children born to Stephen Knight and his wife Harriett, née Goatcher.
Stephen Knight worked as a jobbing gardener and lived with his family at 33 St Dunstan’s Road.
In the 1911 census Ernest, aged 19, was living at home and working as a gardener.
Ernest enlisted at Worthing with the Royal Sussex Regiment as no. G/3750 and was later transferred to the Royal West Kent Regiment.
He was killed at Arras April 2, 1917.
Ernest was about a mile away from the front line when he was hit by a stray bullet.
A simple wooden cross was erected at the time to mark his grave in Bully-Grenay Communal Cemetery, British Extension, just behind the front line.
This cemetery, ten miles north of Arras, contains 623 British casualties.
The Baptist Herald paid tribute to Ernest, who had been a scholar at the Baptist Sunday School, West Worthing, from its commencement.
He is remembered on the war memorial at West Tarring Church.

Arthur Charrington was born in 1890 at St Ives, Huntingdonshire.
His father died on December 4, 1889, before the birth of his son.
His mother, Eliza Charlotte, married Dennis Thirlwell in 1890 at St George’s, Hanover Square, London.
In 1891 Eliza and Dennis were living at Sydney Lodge, Farncombe Road, Worthing, with Eliza’s one-year-old son Arthur. They went on to have a daughter in 1891 and a son in 1902.
Later they moved to Nepcote Lodge, Findon, where Dennis Thirlwell trained race horses.
Arthur was educated at Wykeham House School in Wykeham Road, Worthing, and by private tutor.
He became a keen sportsman, excelling at golf.
In the 1911 census Arthur, aged 21, was visiting St Ives and was described as of “private means”.
Arthur married Augusta Beatrice Pacy, of New Street, Worthing, on January 4, 1915, at Christ Church.
On November 17, 1915, he enlisted at Armoury House, London, into the Honourable Artillery Company.
His address at the time was Arundel House, Liverpool Gardens, Worthing.
On October 1, 1916, he went to France and was wounded in action at Ecoust on April 1, 1917.
He died two days later and was buried in Euston Road Cemetery, Colincamps, France.
Arthur is remembered on the war memorial at Christ Church where he was married, and on the memorial at St Andrew’s, Worthing.

Herbert Sewell was born in Goring in 1899, the youngest son in a family of five children born to Herbert and Martha Sewell.
In the 1901 census they were living at Station House, Cheam Road, Lingfield, Surrey, where Herbert senior was employed as station master.
Soon after, Herbert died and Martha moved with her children to Worthing, where Herbert was a pupil at Sussex Road School.
The 1911 census shows that the family briefly split up – Martha took work as a cook for a draper’s family in Chapel Road, and Herbert, now aged 11, spent time in the National Children’s Home at Bethnal Green.
Herbert joined the Army on March 20, 1915, and was assigned to the Middlesex Regiment.
His attestation papers show his age as 19 years, when he was not yet 16.
He gave his occupation as a shorthand typist and his mother’s address as 5 Bath Place, Worthing.
After a year at Chatham he was posted to France on April 16, 1916.
In August of that year, near Loos, he was wounded slightly in the neck and right leg and received hospital treatment.
In October 1916 he was just 17 when he was appointed Sergeant.
He was then offered a commission but he would not accept it on account of his age.
Herbert was killed in action just before his 18th birthday and is buried in the Fosse No. 10 Cemetery Extension, Sains-En-Gohelle, and remembered on the Sussex Road School war memorial.
Martha Sewell, who received the news of her son’s death at her home at 21 Warwick Road, had two more sons serving in the military.

Reggie, as he was known, was born in East Grinstead in April 1898, to Henry, a carpenter, and Emily, née Simmons.
The 1901 census shows the family living in London Road, East Grinstead.
Sadly, Emily died in 1907, and soon after this Henry and the four children moved to Worthing.
Later the family emigrated to Australia, settling in Victoria state.
Reggie found work, like his father, as a carpenter.
With his older brother Henry, Reggie joined the Australian Infantry in 1915.
He is recorded as being 5ft 8in tall and weighing 143lbs.
The 49th battalion landed in Marseille, France, on June 12, 1916 and moved to the trenches on June 21.
Just a month later Reggie was charged with being absent without leave and was ordered to lose two days’ pay.
On September 6, 1916, he was promoted to Lance Corporal.
On April 2, 1917, the battalion took part in the advance that followed the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, supporting the attack at Noreuil.
He was wounded on April 3, 1917, and, after treatment at the casualty clearing station, was sent to Wimereux Hospital, where he died on April 7, suffering from gunshot wounds to his left knee.
He was buried in the Wimereux Communal Cemetery.
Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, author of the poem In Flanders Fields, is also buried in the cemetery.
The headstones in this cemetery are unusually laid flat on top of the graves, not upright, because the soil there is very sandy and unstable.
Reggie is remembered on the West Tarring Church war memorial.
His brother, Henry, was killed on the Somme in August 1916, and is also remembered on the West Tarring Church memorial.

Frank Waller was born in Worthing in 1899 to Frank and Elizabeth, née Bishop, who married at Worthing in 1896.
His father was a builder’s labourer, born in Strood, Kent, and in 1901 the family was living at 41 Market Street, Worthing.
By 1911 Frank and his mother Elizabeth had moved to 27 Brighton Road, Godalming, Surrey, where Elizabeth was employed as a housekeeper.
Meanwhile his father remained in Worthing, living at 15 Gloucester Place with a brother and not in employment.
Frank enlisted with the Royal Sussex Regiment at Hove.
On April 9, 1917, which was Easter Sunday, he was in action at Arras where his battalion was ordered to take a trench 800 yards away.
At 5.30am the action started with a tremendous barrage which succeeded in destroying the enemy’s wire and causing them to retreat.
However, having taken the trench, and while waiting for re-enforcements, the Royal Sussex came under heavy fire and sustained casualties.
It was in this action that Frank lost his life.
He was buried in St Catherine’s British Cemetery, and is remembered on the war memorial at St Paul’s Church, Worthing.
His next of kin was an uncle, James Waller, of 47 North Street, Worthing, who was in receipt of a pension of 10/- a week for him.

Roland Peerless was born on August 24, 1888, at Laughton, East Sussex, to Thomas Peerless, a wheelwright, and Caroline, daughter of Worthing wheelwright John Boon, who were married on January 9, 1877, at Broadwater Church.
Roland was the seventh child in a family of five sons and five daughters.
By 1901 the family had moved to 96 Becket Road, Worthing.
In 1908 Roland emigrated to Canada, where he worked as a decorator – he left from the port of Liverpool and landed in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Roland heard that his youngest brother Ernest had been killed on May 9, 1915, while serving with the Royal Sussex Regiment.
This led to his enlisting the following month with the Winnipeg Grenadiers, the 34th Fort Garry Horse, later the Manitoba Regiment of the Canadian Infantry, which brought him to France.
On April 9, 1917, Roland was in action on the first day of the battle of Arras.
The Canadians succeeded in capturing the 60m high Vimy Ridge, and it was in this action that Roland was killed.
Back in Worthing tributes were paid to Roland in the Baptist Herald – he was one of the first scholars at the Tarring Baptist Church and a member of the choir at the Christchurch Road Baptist Church.
Before his death he had applied for a commission; his service and ability had been excellent.
Roland is remembered on the Vimy Ridge memorial and on the West Tarring Church memorial, as well as the grave of his parents in Broadwater Cemetery.

Charles was born in 1886 at Shipley, West Sussex, to parents William, a farm waggoner and Eliza Coote.
In 1891 and 1901 the family were living at ‘Perrylands’, Shipley.
In 1901, 14-year-old Charles was working as a stockman on a farm.
In 1911 they were living at 59 Worthing Road, Shipley, and Charles, now 24, was employed as a gardener.
In 1913 Charles married Emily Miriam Cherriman at Horsham.
Charles enlisted in the Royal Sussex Regiment, joining the 7th Battalion, at the Worthing recruitment hall.
The battalion landed at Boulogne on June 1, 1915, and in 1916 they fought at the Battle of Loos and in 1917 saw action at Albert and Pozieres, losing hundreds of men.
In early April 1917 they were in action at the battle of Arras and April 9 went over the top.
The Allies’ artillery pounded the German trenches and at 5.30am on Easter Sunday, April 9, the battalion attacked the German trenches on a 250-yard front.
The artillery barrage had been successful in clearing most of the barbed wire in front of the German trenches and the trench was taken.
In this battle Charles was wounded and died the following day.
He was buried in the Duisans British Cemetery at Etrun.
Charles is remembered on the war memorial inside West Grinstead Church, as well as the ‘Old Comrades’ war memorial for Shipley and West Grinstead, situated on the B2135.
Charles’ wife was living at Bacon’s Farm, Shipley, when she received the news of his death.
His brother Frank was killed in action in 1918.

Bernard was born on May 22, 1891, at 6 George Street, Portslade, one of nine children born to parents Charles, a gardener, and Annette, née Wickham.
By 1911 Bernard had moved to Worthing and was working as milkman, lodging at 22 Cranworth Road with the Wye family.
Later that year he married one of the daughters, Caroline Isobel Wye.
The couple moved to 10 Field Row where their two sons, Reginald and Ronald, were born.
Bernard enlisted in the Royal Sussex at Haywards Heath, where his parents had been living for several years.
The battalion landed at Boulogne on June 1, 1915. They were in action at the Battle of Loos in 1916 and fought at the battles of Albert and Pozieres in 1917.
On the morning of April 9, 1917, the British artillery bombarded the German lines near Arras.
At 5.30am the 7th Battalion launched an attack on the German trenches on a 250-yard front.
The artillery pounding was successful and destroyed most of the barbed wire in front of the German trenches, making it easier for the battalion to gain the trenches.
During this fierce battle Bernard was wounded and treated at no.8 casualty clearing station, and died of wounds the following day.
He was buried, as were several other Worthing soldiers, in the Duisans British Cemetery at Etrun.
Bernard is remembered on the war memorials at Haywards Heath, Portslade and West Hove.

Ellen Foyster (Nellie) was born in 1881 at 7 Belsize Park Terrace, Hampstead, London, to Henry Foyster, a stationer and book seller, and his wife Rebecca.
Ellen’s mother was a widow with three children when she married Henry Foyster in 1880 and Ellen was their eldest daughter.
By 1883 the family had left London for Barnstable, Devon.
Ten years later Henry and Rebecca had moved to Worthing with their family of three sons and six daughters.
Their first home was at 1 Montpelier Terrace, North Street, and they later moved to 37 Madeira Avenue.
Henry Foyster entered into a short lived partnership trading as book sellers, stationers and librarians at 10 South Street.
He died in 1909, aged 52, and is buried in Broadwater Cemetery.
When Ellen was 20 she was working as a librarian.
Seven years later she started training to become a nurse at the Great Northern Central Hospital at Holloway Road, London.
In 1915 she successfully applied to join the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve (QAIMNSR).
It is thought that the first part of her service was in Egypt but in March 1917 she received orders to join HM Hospital Ship Salta.
On April 10, 1917, while returning to Le Havre to pick up the wounded, the ship struck a mine and sank within ten minutes. Ellen was one of the many people who lost their lives.
Her body was never recovered and she is remembered with honour on the Salta memorial in the St Marie Cemetery at Le Havre.
She is also remembered on a plaque at the hospital where she trained, and on her father’s grave in Broadwater Cemetery.
She is the only woman named on the Worthing War Memorial.

William Poore was born in Worthing in 1891, the fourth son in a family of eight children born to Harry and Clara Poore, of 46 London Street (since demolished).
Harry Poore was a bricklayer by trade and his wife, Clara Marian Grant, was born in Kensington and came to Worthing for work, where they married in 1881.
William was a pupil at Holy Trinity School, and in 1911, aged 20, he was working as a plumber.
On May 21, 1913, William left Liverpool on the Belgic, a steamship of the White Star Line, bound for Freemantle, Australia.
Later in the war he enlisted with the 13th Battalion of the Australian Infantry, New South Wales, 4th Brigade, the 4th Australian Division, and made the return journey to fight in France.
He was killed on April 11, 1917, near Bullecourt.
William has no known grave and is commemorated on the Villers Bretonneux Memorial, France, and the St Matthew’s Church war memorial in Worthing.
Two of his older brothers, Harry and Percy, also died in action.

Felix, born in 1888, was one of a family of seven boys and a girl born to parents Edwin, a carpenter, and Annie, née Anderson.
In the 1891 and 1901 census the family home was 13 Newland Road, Worthing.
By 1911 Felix was stationed in India with the Army.
Annie died in 1901 and Edwin died in 1905, both being buried in Broadwater Cemetery.
On leaving school Felix worked as a carpenter for Mr George Steere, for whom his father also worked.
After Annie and Edwin died some of the brothers, including Felix, emigrated to Canada.
Felix returned to England in 1909 and joined the Royal Horse Artillery, enlisting at Brighton.
The Royal Horse Artillery used smaller, lighter guns, (usually 13-pounders), than the Royal Field Artillery, so that the guns could easily dismantled and transported by horses.
The following spring he was sent to India and served at Bangalore.
In 1911 he was presented with the King’s Delhi Durbar medal, which was to commemorate the coronation of King George V.
In 1915 they were sent to Mesopotamia, attached to the 6th Indian Cavalry Brigade.
Felix was killed in action here on April 11, 1917.
He has no known grave but is remembered on the Basra Memorial, the St Andrew’s Church war memorial and his parents’ grave in Broadwater Cemetery.

Harold Merrydew, known as Harry, was born in Tortington, near Arundel, in 1897, and baptised on October 10 that year at Arundel Parish Church.
Harry was one of 14 children born to Charles, a coachman, and Jane Merrydew, née Strood, who married at Fittleworth on June 8, 1879.
The family lived in Tortington, at Wood View, for some years before moving to Kirdford Road, Arundel.
Harry enlisted with the Royal Sussex Regiment at Arundel.
In early April 1917 he was on trench duty at Observatory Ridge, where heavy snow had fallen during the first week of the month.
Harry was killed in action on April 13, and is buried in the Vlamertinghe Military Cemetery, Belgium, and commemorated on the war memorial in Arundel.
He is also remembered on the war memorial at Broadwater Church, together with his brother Charles who also lost his life in the conflict.
The Autumn 2014 edition of the Arundel Church magazine The Parish Proclaimer lists the names of Harry and his brother among the Arundel war dead.
Their names also appear on the Carpet of Flowers in Arundel Cathedral.

Sydney was born at Croydon in 1891, one of six children born to Henry and Mary Lake.
Soon after Sydney’s birth the family moved to Worthing, living at 132 Tarring Road for many years.
Henry was a builder’s merchant and contractor and had a yard next door.
In 1911 Sydney, aged 20, is listed as a carpenter living with his family.
Two of his sisters were well-known local musicians.
Henry died in 1915 and is buried in Broadwater Cemetery.
In 1908 Sydney enlisted in the Sussex Yeomanry and served for six years, attaining the rank of Staff Sergeant.
He was called up for active service on August 15, 1914, and transferred to the Royal Sussex Regiment with the rank of Corporal.
He married Elsie Kathleen Smith at St Paul’s Church, Worthing, on November 1, 1916, and the couple made their home at 21 Shelley Road.
Sydney’s battalion was in action on April 12/13, 1917, when they were ordered to attack German positions near Bois-en-Hache.
The attack was launched in a blinding snowstorm across ground which was churned into mud.
The battle lasted two days and although the German first line trenches were taken, the battalion suffered 60 casualties.
Sydney was killed in this action and has no known grave.
He is remembered on the Menin Gate memorial at Ypres as well as the St Paul’s memorial in Worthing and the grave of his father in Broadwater Cemetery.
His probate of £2,060 17s 9d was granted to his wife.

William Short was born in Broadwater in 1891 and baptised at St Mary’s Church on August 9 of that year.
His parents, Henry and Deborah, née Lock, were married in Eastbourne in 1880.
William was one of four brothers and two sisters and he was known to everyone, including his school teachers, as Wink.
At the time of his birth the family were living at Maltsters Yard, Broadwater.
When he was only two years old, his mother died of typhoid on August 21, 1893, in the Broadwater Reading Room, which had been set up as a temporary fever hospital to care for the sick. She is buried in Broadwater Cemetery at A7.1.51.
William was a member of Broadwater Football Club when it was affiliated to the School League.
Playing at inside right he was selected to play for the town in the Sussex Schools’ Shield Competition.
In 1911 he and his widowed father were living with his married sister’s family at 3 Decoy Terrace, Ham Road (now Dominion Road), and William was employed as an oilman’s van man.
William served for two years with the East Yorkshire Regiment but was invalided out.
When war broke out he enlisted again at Worthing with the Royal Sussex Regiment.
He remained at home with the transport section when his battalion went to Gallipoli, but afterwards he was drafted to Egypt.
He was killed in action in Palestine on April 19, 1917, and is remembered on the Jerusalem War Memorial and his mother’s grave in Broadwater Cemetery.

John Shaw was born in Brighton, about 1882, to Joseph Benjamin Shaw and his wife Jane, née Payne, the third child in a family of seven.
His mother died in 1896 and in the 1901 census, John, aged 19, was living with his grandmother in Newhaven and working as an engineer/fitter with the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.
John joined the Royal Naval Reserve on February 19, 1916, and served on the minesweeper Nepaulin.
The official request to households for details of those killed in the war was completed by his sister, giving his address as 16 Canterbury Road, Worthing.
It is possible that John had a career at sea before the war as his sister described him as late of Alberta (Belgian Congo).
In 1924 John’s father died in Worthing and is buried in Broadwater Cemetery.
The SS Neptune was a 314-ton paddle steamer built in Glasgow in 1892.
The ship was used by the Glasgow and South Western Railway Company to take train passengers from Glasgow to the islands offshore.
She was requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1915, renamed HMS Nepaulin, and converted into a minesweeper.
The ship struck a mine just off the French coast near the Dyck light vessel on April 20, 1917, and sank within two minutes with the loss of all 19 crew.
The mine had been laid by the German submarine UB 12, captained by Ernst Steindorff.
Although the ship was blown up just off Dunkirk, John’s body was not recovered until two months and ten days later off Calais.
John was buried in the Calais Southern Cemetery and is also remembered on the St Matthew’s Church war memorial at Worthing.

Henry Hosier, known as Harry, was born in Worthing in 1880, the third of nine surviving children of Charles Hosier, a carman, born Witney, Oxfordshire, and his wife Emma, née Leach.
His early home was at 3 Wenban Road, and the family later moved to 1 Ham Lane where Charles Hosier worked as a gardener.
In 1900 Harry married Elizabeth Jenkins and they went on to have five children and their home was at 2 Bartlett’s Cottages, Broadwater. Harry worked as a cab driver.
On June 6, 1916, Harry joined the Royal Navy.
He may have been influenced by the death of his youngest brother Ernest, who had lost his life in the Battle of Jutland while serving on HMS Invincible.
Harry was on board the destroyer HMS Broke off Dover when the ship ran into a flotilla of German warships.
The destroyer rammed an enemy vessel and German sailors poured onto the Broke. Harry lost his life in the fierce hand-to-hand fighting.
His body was returned to Worthing where he was buried with full naval and military honours in Broadwater Cemetery.
The cortege left from his parents’ home in Portland Road.
Huge crowds watched the procession on its way to the cemetery, where the coffin was lowered into the grave by coastguards, before three volleys were fired and the Last Post sounded.
Harry is remembered on the war memorial at St Mary’s Church, Broadwater.
His younger brother, Christopher, was also killed in action in November 1917 while serving with the Royal Sussex Regiment.

Thomas was born in 1895 in Rotherfield, Sussex, to parents George, a gardener, and Alice.
By 1901 the family had moved to Salvington Lodge, Worthing.
In 1904 Alice died and in 1906 Thomas married Ethel, who was 19 years younger than him.
In 1911 we find the family living back at Rotherfield.
Thomas, aged 15, was employed as a gardener’s boy.
Thomas enlisted in the Royal Sussex Regiment at Tunbridge Wells on September 7, 1914, aged 19.
He landed in France with his battalion on March 4, 1916.
In November 1916 he was promoted to Lance Corporal.
The battalion was holding the Observatory Ridge Trench in April 1917 and Thomas was killed there between April 22 to 24.
He is buried in the Vlamertinghe Military Cemetery in Belgium and is also remembered on the war memorial in West Tarring Church.
His father was living at 76 Lanfranc Road, Worthing, when the news of Thomas’s death was received.
In September 1917, his father received the personal possessions of his son, including a cigarette holder, letters, books and photographs.
In 1921 his father received his son’s medals.

Godfrey was born at 14 Garden Street, Camden, on August 16, 1880, to Joseph, a business agent and auctioneer, and Rosa Haines.
In 1891 the family was living at 33 Montague Place, Bloomsbury, with several boarders and servants.
Later, Godfrey was a science master at Warminster.
By 1911 Godfrey had moved to Worthing and was living at Charlecote School, in Byron Road, where he was a tutor.
Mr Lewis Head is recorded as the principal and Godfrey is listed as a partner.
According to the Worthing Gazette, at the outbreak of war Godfrey offered his services to the Army and spent some time training men in England.
He was attached to the Sherwood Foresters and was keen to see action. In December 1916 he was sent to the Western Front.
In April 1917 the battalion was attacking the Germans on the Hindenburgh Line when Godfrey was fatally wounded.
A report on his death states: “He was leaving the hut, where he and other officers had retired for a rest, when a stray high explosive shell burst in their midst. Godfrey was too badly hurt to be moved and he died the following morning.”
Godfrey was buried in the Vermand Communal Cemetery at Aisne, France, and is also remembered on the war memorial inside Heene Church, Worthing.

Charles was born in Newhaven on April 4, 1884, the only child of Henry and Susan Curd.
The 1891 census shows the family living at Newhaven. Soon after, they moved to Worthing.
Henry, who worked as railway platelayer, died in 1898 and was buried in Tarring Churchyard.
In 1901, Charles and his mother were living at 26 Gordon Road.
Charles went to Tarring National School and in 1893 attended the Ackerman Road School in Hammersmith.
In 1912 his mother took the licence of The North Star Inn, in Littlehampton Road, which she held for a number of years.
On April 27, 1912, Charles married Gladys Charlotte Funnell at Worthing, and they made their home at 39 Kingsland Road.
They had one daughter, Gladys Elizabeth, born August 14, 1915.
On December 8, 1915, Charles enlisted at Brighton in the Royal Marines. His occupation was given as a carpenter.
He sailed from Folkestone to Boulogne on September 24, 1916, and, on January 31, 1917, he transferred to the Royal Engineers.
Charles was killed in action near Arras on April 24, 1917.
He has no known grave but is remembered on the Arras memorial, his father’s headstone in Tarring Churchyard, and the St Paul’s Church war memorial in Worthing.
Gladys was awarded a pension of 18/9 a week for herself and daughter.
She died in 1923, and Charles is remembered on her headstone in Broadwater Cemetery.

William West was born in Worthing in 1881 to Thomas West, a general labourer, and his wife Ellen.
He was the eldest son, born after five daughters, and three more sons were born after William.
The family home was at 16 Gloucester Place.
In 1898 Thomas West died aged 58 and Ellen and her children moved to 15 Paragon Street where she took in three boarders. William was now working as a bricklayer.
In 1908 he married Ada May Curtis in Bedford, Ada’s birthplace.
She had come to Worthing as a 16-year-old to work as a servant for a Worthing doctor and his family.
The couple’s home was at 102 Newland Road, and two daughters were born to them.
Soon after the start of the war William enlisted in the Royal Sussex Regiment with the service number 4836.
In 1915 he transferred to the Machine Gun Corps.
At the beginning of the war each infantry battalion had a machine gun section of one officer and 12 men.
Each section had two machine guns, but as the war progressed this was increased to four guns.
A manufacturing problem meant only 200 guns a week could be produced at the Vickers factory in England.
After a contract was awarded to an American maker, output increased and it was decided to form a machine gun corps.
William died of wounds received in action at the Battle of Arras, which started on April 9, 1917.
He was buried in the Bethune Town Cemetery.

John Haigh was born in Colton, Yorkshire, about 1886.
In September 1915 John married Frances Louise Braden in Worthing, the daughter of James Braden, a butcher’s assistant, and his wife Fanny, of 2 Eastern Cottages, Broadwater Street, Worthing.
The couple made their home with Frances’ parents.
In October 1915 John enlisted at Worthing with the Sussex Yeomanry, attached to the 9th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment.
In early April 1917, the battalion was involved in an attack near Bois-en-Hache.
The attack was preceded by an artillery barrage and was launched in a blinding snow storm.
60 of the battalion were killed in the opening few minutes and many more were wounded.
John was wounded in this action and was first treated at the regimental aid post.
He was later transferred to the casual clearing station at Lilliers, where he died on April 26, 1917.
Frances Haigh died in 1939, aged 67, and is buried in Broadwater Cemetery together with her parents.
John Haigh is remembered with the words: “In proud and unfading memory of my beloved husband W.J. Haigh, Royal Sussex Regiment died 26th April 1917, interred at Lilliers cemetery, France.”