War Stories Archives - WW1 Roll Of Honour

Hankey, Arthur

13th June 202025th March 2023
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Arthur Hankey

Rank: Private

Regiment: 11th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers

Wife: Mrs Susannah Hankey

Home Address: 22 Cross Street, Waterloo, Liverpool

Other Info: Arthur Hankey died aged 33 on 3rd December 1914. He is buried at Hastings Cemetery. He served in the South African Campaign with the 5th Dragoon Guards. The inscription on his grave reads “In the midst of life, we’re still in death”.

An article published in the Hastings and St Leonards Observer dated 5th December 1914 reads; “On Thursday the sad news that two soldiers of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, who arrived in the town on the previous day with the troops, had been accidentally asphyxiated, was received with universal regret.

The two soldiers were Private Arthur Hankey and Joseph Thomas Evans. They were billeted at a house in Silchester Road, St Leonards.

The Deputy Coroner (Mr H. Davenport-Jones) held the inquest at West St Leonards Council Schools yesterday (Friday evening).

Harold Evans, of Swansea, brother of Private Evans, said that Evans was single, and was in good health. He had no trouble. He wrote home every week.

Sergeant Wait, ‘B’ Company, 11th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, said that Arthur Hankey was 33 years of age, and was a strong, healthy man, with no trouble, and of a happy disposition. Hankey, Evans, witness and Sergeant Ellis were billeted at the same house in Silchester Road. Sergeant Ellis and witness were in one room, and Hankey and Evans with in another. Evans went to bed before Hankey. Both men were perfectly sober. Witness said “Goodnight” to Hankey. Hankey afterwards shut the door.

The light was then burning in the bedroom of the deceased. Witness heard nothing of them in the night. About 7.20 next morning witness, not having heard anything of the two, knocked at the door. He asked the landlady if they had gone out and she said “no”. Sergeant Ellis and witness went to their room and found the door locked. They smelt gas.

They forced the door open, and found the room full of gas, and the window closed. The men lay apparently dead. A doctor was sent for. The room was a small one, and had no fireplace. The gas was full on and unlit. The constable (the police had been sent for) turned it off. In camp they did not have gas, and they had been in the habit of blowing out candles.

They were tired that night, and witness thought they blew out the gas without thinking, unless one of them turned on the burner again with his sleeve. The burner was in working order, and had a catch to prevent it going right round.

One of the two jurymen said it would not be possible to blow gas out unless it was a very small jet, but another said he had done so. Harold Evans, replying to a juror, said his brother understood gas very well. With regard to Hankey, Mr. Davenport said he came from Chester and Chester was not a village.

P.S. Bristow said the gas burner was not any too loose. It was a small room, with no ventilation, and a narrow window. The two occupied one bed. Witness tried the gas and found the pressure great; he did not think it was possible to blow it out. He thought that in moving his had away after turning it off one of the soldiers accidently turned it on again.

Mrs Watson, the landlady of the house, said she saw the men before they went to bed. They were perfectly sober, and appeared quite happy. By the Jury – The first man might have been asleep when the other man went to bed. They were very quiet. She offered to show them the gas and they told her they quite understood it and would be careful.

Dr H. Stanley said the cause of death was poisoning by gas. They had been dead not less than three or four hours.

The Deputy Coroner expressed sympathy on behalf of the Jury and himself. The men had been accustomed to blowing out candles in camp – he had done it himself – and it might be that one simply blew the gas out. The other theory, which he was more inclined to consider, was that one turned the turned the gas off, and then caught his sleeve in the tap. They had been told by the landlady to be careful, and the man probably felt the tap again, and caught his sleeve in it. At any rate, it was clear that it was a clear case of misadventure.

The Jury returned the verdict of ‘Death by Misadventure’. A juror suggested that the room should be better ventilated before it was again occupied.

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Mepham, Thomas

27th January 201828th November 2022
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Thomas Mepham

Rank: Private

Regiment: 2nd Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment

Address: 3 Mann Street, Hastings

Other Info: Wounded at the Aisne on 14th September 1914. The first wounded soldier received at East Sussex Hospital. Additional name information from the Lives of the First World War website.

An article in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer dated 3rd October 1914 reads: “Private T. Mepham, 2nd Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, writing home says: I will try and write a few of my experiences since I left Hastings. As you know I went to Preston and there we got allocated and equipped and ready for the front. We then went to Aldershot where we did some stiff route marching. After three or four days of this we went to the Front (I don’t mean at Hastings) embarking at Southampton and arriving at Le Harvre the following day, where we idled the day away on the quay side and in the evening we were marched to our camp where we remained until the next afternoon, then we entrained and took a journey in some cattle trucks to a place named Louvain, about 36 hours ride.

We were told off billets (lodgings) about 20 of us in a hay loft. At this place we stopped four days, doing route marching the best part of the time, one day was allotted to rest, which consisted of washing our underwear, as we had no change it was necessary. We waited until the sun dried our sheets before we could put our equipment on. So the officers had us on parade with rifles only for fire discipline.

Four days ended we made tracts to where ?. Well, when we found at at last our destination it was Mons. We had just marched on to the outskirts of Mons and as we thought billeted for the night footsore and weary, but not downhearted.

After an hour we head the road of Artillery guns; and looking to see the meaning we could just see the Germans’ Artillery under our Artillery fire. For about an hour we watched an Artillery duel, and then our order came, move on, and we moved on, closer to our enemy. We laid alongside a road all night (about 4 hours). Just before it became daylight we altered our position and got in front of the Germans where we dug ourselves in.

I have very little to say about Mons and we were continually changing our positions owing to German aeroplanes. Then we got the order to retire and we retired for days until we we within 50 miles of Paris. We had a few scraps on the way and narrow shaves (but only one worthy of note).

My Company was ordered to guard the cross roads (about one mile from our Battalion) until the Guards Brigade relieved us, but we were too late. The Munsters were there before us. In the morning we heard that they had been cut up, leaving about 100 to tell the tale. We should not have known that we were again advancing but for the mile stones. Then trouble started, fighting every day. Of these little scraps I could tell you every one if my chum was here with his diary. If he comes out all right I shall get a copy from him.

This game was carried on until the 10th when we got fairly in with the Germans. It was about 10 o’clock am. that we advanced under fire until we got about 200 yards from them and then we had to go a bit cautious up to a ridge about 50 yards. Then we got it hot (by a grave mistake), it was raining, not unusually, and we had our oil sheets out to cover us, to keep us as dry as possible, but we very soon cast them off as it had drawn our own Artillery and the French’s fire on us. Well, we were in the mess for two hours, rifle bullets dropping like rain and three Artillery fires directed on us.

It was only Providence that brought us out alive and a number was wounded and several killed. Our commanding officer got hit and died a few hours after. By this time the Germans were off again and Tommy chasing them as usual until we came to the Aisne where the big battle is being fought now. As it was late in the evening we rested for the night and about 3 am. we went to a hill just by and we were on here the whole of the day fighting.

Next day we advanced and on this occasion it was more than hot. The Germans put in some good Artillery fire and made us very cautious as we may but you cannot prevent them from hitting. This is where I got caught. My chum who happened to be next to me helped me out of the firing line which was very difficult work dodging shot and shell. Eventually we go back to the village and there he left me to rejoin. We were not in this house more than 15 minutes before the Germans started shelling it. Out we go the best way we could and find another shelter. We found one and got nicely settled in when the Germans again drove us out.

We then got into a temporary hospital, Union Jack and Red Cross flying. Here we thought we were safe – we were till the morning and then, while waiting for the ambulance, shells came first and then the ambulance arrived but there was not enough room for the all so we had to wait for the second ambulance. As the first ambulance was being loaded shells became more frequent and one knocked the Orderly’s head off as he was lifting a fellow into the ambulance and one knocked another one low.

Left in the hospital were about six of us and about four officers, not one of us could help ourselves bar crawling. It got so hot it was like a living hell; shots and shells. Shots came through the windows and the roof tumbling in on us through shells. Eventually we got the ambulance and were taken about four miles away where we stayed another night in an open shed.

We left there the next day in motor wagons, a nasty jolting ride about six hours, where we got into the ambulance train and went onto St. Avare. There we got the boat ‘Carisbrooke Castle’ and we were not sorry to have our wounds dressed and a comfortable bed to lie on.

All though this six or seven weeks we did not get a square meal, in fact, we often had to go without rations and live on the fruit the Germans did not have time to have. Now I am lying on a nice hard bed trying to think of the best plan to get home and have a little comfort or to get into one of the hospitals there in Hastings and be somewhere near those I hold most dear. God bless us”.

Published: October 1914

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Lynch, Charles W

21st January 201829th October 2022
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Charles W Lynch

Rank: Private

Regiment: 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment

Parents: Mr E C J & Mrs A C Lynch

Brother: Percy Alexander Lynch

Brother-in-Law: Thomas William Veness

Address: 95a Hughenden Road, Hastings

Other Info: Shot in the leg at the Battle of the Marne. (Oct 1917) In hospital suffering from shell shock.

An article in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer dated 10th October 1914 reports: “Private Percy A. Lynch, 5th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, writing from Dover, sends us an interesting letter from his brother, Private Charles W. Lynch, 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment. It is a strange coincidence that the latter was a dispatch rider abroad, while Private Percy Lynch was fulfilling the same duty at Dover.

Private Charles Lynch, writing from the Princess Christian Convalescent Home, Bisley, where he is recovering from a wound in the leg, describes the ‘dust up’ in which he received his wound.

He says: “It was almost day break when we advanced out of the village, easting our breakfast as we trudges along through heavy rain. We marched about two miles, when suddenly we were under rifle fire and machine gun fire. We immediately took cover and scouted for the foe and their position. Two of our cavalry scouts came down the road, one of whom was seriously wounded and the other trying to cheer him up.

Companies extended and advanced with fixed bayonets to the top of the hill and I, being with headquarters of the Battalion, followed on. After about an hour’s fighting I was sent back to the Brigadier-General with a message.

I had about one and a half miles to go, and I had no sooner started than I was under shell fire. I went about 400 yards down the road at breakneck speed on a Government cycle, when I could hear a German machine gun cracking away in the distance, and the shots flying over my head. I lowered my head to the handle bars, and said to myself, ‘Neck or nothing.’ I arrived safely in the village, where I lit up a fag, from the pipe of one of the Black Watch, and told him how I came through a rain of of shells and gun fire.

I had still another half mile or so to go, and with a couple more puffs of my rain sodden fag, I continued the ride. I was now under cover for a while, and I met the Coldstream Guards, and the Officer, see that I was in such a hurry, stopped me and asked me who I wanted, and did my Regiment want help. I said I wanted the General, for whom I had a message, but I could not give him any particulars of my Regiment. I told him they were in action, and that was all I knew. He directed me onto the General, and on I went, only to come under rifle fire again.

I had two or three narrow escapes. The wheels of my cycle were hit twice. At last I saw the General, and he smiled at me as I tried to read the rain sodden message. I waited a few minutes before returning to the firing line, and partook of biscuits and cheese. Shells were dropping close at hand, and I decided to get back if I could, so off I went. I sailed along lovely for about a mile, when I met a wounded man of the King’s Royal Rifles, and he said, ‘For God’s sake mate, don’t go up that road or you will meet with disaster’. I took his advice and waited for a few minutes, but still the shells were falling in the village close by.

I directed my wounded friend to the dressing ambulance and, with another smoke we parted. I took another road, only to find that it led into the same one that I left, but I decided to go on and chance it, which was the only thing I could do. I turned into the corner, and no sooner had I thrown my fag end away away than I was covered by shrapnel and machine gun fire.

I got off my bike, but I got on again, thinking it was best to keep moving. I pedalled about ten or fifteen yards, when I felt a stinger in my left leg, so I fell off the bike and lay still. They must have waited on me coming back, thinking I had a message of some importance.

After I was hit the fire seemed to slow down and I endeavoured to bandage my leg, but I could not. No one being about, I jumped on the bike and rode for all I was worth back to the field ambulance, and was dressed and bandaged, and had to wait two hours before the ambulance took me out of further danger, and during that time the German guns were shelling the village and trying to silence our heavy guns.

When we moved off we had about 4 miles to go, and had to cross over the River Marne by pontoon bridge. I arrived at a barn, and lay there for a day, and was then taken by motor for ten miles to a railway and sent down to base, and from there I was shipped home. Well, I really thought that day was the end of the world, and every night I dream of those shells.”

Published: October 1914, May 1917 & October 1917

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Hill, Unknown First Name

31st March 201618th February 2023
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Mr Hill

Rank: Corporal

Regiment: Coldstream Guards

Wife: Mrs Hill

Address: 15 Station Road, Hastings

Other Info: On active service.

An article printed in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer on 5th December 1914 states: “Corporal Hill, of the Coldstream Guards, in a letter from the Front to his wife, who resides at 15 Station Road, Hastings, under date of 25th November, says:-

‘We have come out of the firing line for 14 days rest, which I think our Battalion has earnt, for I do not believe another Battalion has done more than we have done. We had General French talking to us yesterday, and he said he felt proud to talk to a Battalion which had suffered hardships as we had done.

We have had it hard, I can tell you. We were in the trenches for 25 days, with the water just over a foot deep, and with snow and rain for about 8 days.

Then we had a big march from (blanked out) to (blanked out), about 220 miles, in just over 11 days; these are only just one or two little items.’

Further on in his letter the Corporal says: ‘Kiss my little children for me, and tell them I shall not be long before I am with them, for I think the German’s stomachs are nipping them.’

Published: December 1914

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Rummery, Charles

27th March 201611th February 2023
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Charles Rummery

Rank: Private

Regiment: King’s Own Scottish Borderers

Parents: Mr William & Caroline Rummery (nee Blackford)

Grandmother: Mrs Rummery

Address: 2 Albion Street, Halton, Hastings

Other Info: At the Front. According to CWGC, Charles later was promoted to Sergeant and he served in the 12th Battalion, Royal Scots Regiment. He died on 3rd May 1917 and is remembered at the Arras Memorial, Bay 1 & 2.

An article published in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer on 21st November 1914 reads “Mrs Rummery, of 2 Albion Street, Halton, has just received a letter from her nephew, Private C. Rummery, ‘A’ Company, K.S.O.B (13th Brigade), with the British Expeditionary Force. He says:

“We are getting plenty of cigarettes and tobacco now, but at one time we could not get a smoke at all, and I was longing for one. We have had a lot of hard fighting, but, thank God, I am still alive and well, although we never know the minute. I have been hit four times with shrapnel shell, one piece knocked a hole in my boot.

Our regiment has taken part in all the leading battles; we have ; we have always been in the thick of it. I have lost nearly all my chums, and we have lost some of our officers, whom we all like.

Our officers have shown great bravery, but, thank God, we can still keep up the reputation of our forefathers, and I am sure a gamer lot of lads never went into battle.

It is pitiful to see the poor people here, who are sometimes amongst the shot and shell, and driven from their houses. It is a funny thing, but most of our great battles take place on Sundays. We have a lot of hardships to endure, such as long marches and digging trenches, and sometimes laying in dirty, muddy trenches for a week”.

Published: November 1914 and December 1914

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Colbran, Thomas F

3rd March 201619th November 2022
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Thomas F Colbran

Rank: Bandsman

Regiment: Royal Lancaster Regiment (King’s Own)

Father: Mr J Colbran

Brothers: George F Colbran, Charles Colbran & J W Colbran

Address: Bulverhythe Road, St Leonards

Other Info: At the Front.

An article published in the Hastings and St Leonards Observer on 24th October 1914 reads: “Bandsman Thomas Colbran, the King’s Own Lancashire Regiment, who is well known at Bulverhythe, writing to his aunt Miss Hook, says of the fighting at Mons: ‘I reallt can’t describe it. It was something awful. The Germans let drive at us with their maxim guns off a ridge not 20 yards from us. Although they had the advantage of us and outnumbered us we stuck to them and opened fire straight away. I think was saved us was the bad shooting of the Germans. If we had been in their position and they in ours, I don’t think there would have been many of them left.

We were at it all day until 9.30 at night, and we made several bayonet charges, small parties of thirty and forty charging four times that number. One party met a company of Germans in the village and the German officer asked our Captain in the Kaiser’s name to surrender. Our Captain – a brave man he was – ordered his men to fix bayonets and charge. Just as he said that the Germans opened fire and killed our Captain, and wounded several of our men. All the same the remainder of our party carried out the charge.

You should have heard the Germans turn round and scream like babies. The Germans can’t bear the steel of the English, and they can’t understand our rapid firing with the rifle.’

The writer compares another fight in a village to the Sidney Street affair. He was with three more of his Company, and they got into a house and the first thing they saw was some eggs and bacon the Germans had left. They did not eat it from fear that the Germans might have poisoned it.

The town near the village had been ransacked, and there were hundreds of wine bottles in the road and Mr Colbran says he thinks the Germans must have been ‘absolutely drunk’. He adds ‘You might not believe it, but four Germans surrendered to one of our chaps, and they told us that they were very glad to be English prisoners. There has been a lot like that out here’.

Describing his subsequent experiences in the trenches, Mr Colbran says: ‘They are not starving us. We get plenty to eat, and an ounce of tobacco every week, and rum every night. The only fault is that it is getting rather cold here now night and morning. I am keeping splendid health and can say I’ve been through the worst part, and the hottest at Mons.’

Mr Colbran has a brother on HMS Bulwark and another in the Army in India.”

Published: October 1914 & December 1914

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Burgess, Arthur

7th February 201629th October 2022
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Arthur Burgess

Regiment: 5th Dragoon Guards

Parents: Mr & Mrs Burgess

Brothers: William Burgess & Albert Victor Burgess

Cousins: Fred Humphrey & Harry Humphrey

Address: 10 Hurrell Road, Mount Pleasant, Hastings

Other Info: Wounded, now in Scotland.

An article published in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer on 10th August 1914 entitled ‘Wounded after firing the last shots in his locker!’ reads: “Priave A. J. Burgess, of the 5th Dragoon Guards, who has returned to Hastings after being wounded, told a representative of the Observer and interesting story of his experiences. Formerly employed at the Observer Office, he has been a soldier about two years. His experiences, from the time he left Aldershot, on 15th August, till he was safely back in a hospital at Plymouth, were full of incidents, but his whole story, interesting as it is to listen to, is too long for reproduction.

On his outward journey, after landing at Havre, his regiment had 22 hours in a train journey up country. At each stoppage the people showed their appreciation of the arrival of the English ‘Tommies’ by showering gifts of food, drink, tobacco and cigarettes. At the conclusion of the railway journey they pushed by road, and on arrival in the fighting zone, Burgess and others were detailed for outpost and reconnoitring duties.

They very soon got into touch with the enemy in woods and cornfields in the locality of Mons. A move forward of some 20 miles and they were on outpost duty all day on a Sunday. Nothing happened till late in the evening, when they were saluted by a shot, and found the enemy about 500 yards away.

At 10:30 an officer fetched them back to a town. They found their horses saddled in readiness, and they went off at a gallop till they reached a railway. Here they dug trenches and held on to cover the retirement of their infantry. Exiting incidents followed in quick succession. They charged the Germans, but at the sight of cold steel the latter turned and fled.

Burgess was constantly under fire but, fortunately, the Germans were not good marksmen, even at a distance of 120 yards. On the occasion when Burgess received his wound, he had had a lively time sniping the Germans. He had blazed away till his magazine was nearly exhausted, when the Sergeant came up with the order “Get back into the wood”. He said to the Sergeant, “I only have 5 rounds left, let me finish them”. The Sergeant assented, and stood by his side. The Germans were in a mass “like a brick wall” and he couldn’t miss them. He could see them struck and fall back.

Running back to the wood the Sergeant was struck by a shot, and exclaimed “I’ve got one”, and almost at the same instant Burgess received a shot in the thigh, and he replied “So have I”. They both fell together. They crawled about 100 yards and then rolled down a bank and waited events. Presently they had the good fortune to be picked up, and were put on horses and taken to an ambulance, where their wounds were roughly dressed. At a town they were put in a church with other wounded.

The German shells fell fast and presently the roof of the Church was blown off and there was an unceremonial exit. Burgess escaped with his shirt, boots and a pair of slit riding breeches. After other experiences he and other wounded were taken to a railway station in a waggon, and 19 of them were put in a cattle truck, and after a 22 hours journey, arrived safely in Rouen on a Friday, having received his wound on the previous Monday. Eventually he was put on a hospital ship and arrived at Southampton on 31st August.

Then he was taken to a hospital at Plymouth, where he remained for three weeks. His wound is progressing, but he will be out of harness for some time. At all events he will be remaining at his home, 10 Hurrell Road, Mount Pleasant Road for a month certain. Asked as to the conduct of the Germans in regard to their treatment of people he was unable to give any definite evidence, but he remarked that on one occasion he saw five villages on fire at the same time”.

Published: August 1914 & December 1914

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Clark, B C

5th February 201611th March 2023
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B C Clark

Regiment: 5th Dragoon Guards

Father: Mr F R Clark

Brother: Ernest James Clark

Address: 23 Bexhill Road, St Leonards

Other Info: At the Front.

An article published in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer dated 12th December 1914 reports: “Mr & Mrs F. R. Clark, of 23 Bexhill Road, St Leonards, have received from their son, Trooper B. C. Clark, 5th Dragoon Guards, an interesting letter, in the course of which he says: “The worst is over, but we still have to stop in case we are required. We are not doing so badly. We had a rough time in the retirement, ran into three Army Corps, and only us few, still we got out of it, although we lost a considerable number of the men at Mons.

We thought it was hot there, but its not a patch on Messines or Ypres, and the Boer Was was a picnic to this. We had to gallop for Messines, and we were there just in time to stop the Germans entering. Then there was a fight, but we managed to turn them back.

We are the Phantom Brigade, all over the show. We marched 160 miles in five days, then had a sudden order to gallop for it, and we had to stick there for 13 days. The shells were bursting in the Market Square, about 30 to a minute. It was hot. Anyhow they could not chase us.

They brought from Antwerp 15 Battalions of infantry and 14 siege guns (coal boxes). We kept them in check for two days, then had to retire. Well, we managed to get back about 9 a.m., but got chased out in the evening, and we had three infantry regiments to support us. We were like caged rats running all over the show.

We were visited by Sir J. French, and he praised us up wonderfully. I got mentioned for carrying and bandaging wounded. This is the second time.

We have been doing all infantry work as well as our own, so have been well on the move.”

The writer graphically describes getting in and out of Ypres, and adds “but we are still alive and kicking. We were also at Crevonne (Coalbox Corner). Don’t worry. Use Sunlight.”

Published: November 1914

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Stuteley, William P

29th January 201612th February 2023
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William P Stuteley

Rank: Private

Regiment: 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment

Address: 104 Milward Road, Hastings

Other Info: Wounded.

An article published in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer reads: “Private W. P. Stuteley, 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, is now at his home at 104 Milward Road, Hastings, recovering from a rifle shot in his right ankle, which severed a tendon, and may cause him to be permanently lame.

He is a nephew of the late Mr. Edward Stuteley, formerly bandmaster of the Hastings Town Band for a number of years and son of Mr & Mrs William Stuteley, now residing in Hastings. He served eleven years and seven months in the Regiment and then went on the Reserve, being called up for service with the Expeditionary Force.

Private Stuteley went through the Battles of Mons, the Marne, the Aisne, La Bassee and Ypres, receiving his injury on the second day of the latter battle. This was on October 30th, so that he had been fighting continuously from October 10th, escaping harm often in a miraculous manner, as some of the engagements were decidedly ‘hot’. When he was hit he was lying flat on his stomach, shooting at the Germans who were within 50 yards.

The shock was so great that he was turned right over on his back. He felt no pain for some time, but he found he was unable to walk, so had perforce to crawl two miles before he could find the first aid hospital.

The men he was then fighting with had a position about seven miles outside of Ypres, where he had to wait a day and a night in the station for a hospital train to take him to Boulogne, from whence he was sent on the Carisbrooke Castle to Southampton, and thence to Aldershot, where, after remaining nine days, he was allowed home on sick leave.

He speaks in the highest possible terms of the general management of the War on the English side so far as the comfort of the men is concerned. The food transport he regards as little short of marvellous. The supply is steady and ample, and when it comes to hot soup being served in the trenches there is need to say little more.

The work, nevertheless, from the soldiers’ standpoint is terribly hard, and there is very great privation to be suffered. It is not war in the ordinary sense. It is scientific slaughter.

He hopes that the War may be nearly over in January, and that the Germans will be then be well beaten. Large numbers of prisoners come in every day, men of 50 and boys of 15 together, and all say they have had enough.

Published: November 1914

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Morfee, Henry James

7th January 201618th February 2023
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Henry James Morfee

Rank: Private

Regiment: 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment

Mother: Fanny Hatch, of The Violet Nurseries, St Helens Woods, Hastings

Sisters: Mrs Clara Annie Trusler & Miss E Morfee

Brothers: William George Morfee & Albert Edward Morfee

Brothers-in-Law: Frank George Trusler, Harry Trusler & B Overington

Address: The Sycamore, 14 Hill Street, Hastings

Other Info: At the Front. Killed trying to save the life of an officer. According to CWGC, Henry died aged 21 on 9th May 1915. He is remembered at the Le Touret Memorial, panel 21a.

An article printed in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer on 5th December 1914 states: Private H. J. Morfee, ‘A’ Company, 2nd Royal Sussex Regiment, a native of Hastings, writing to the editor, says:-

‘Just a line to say I am doing well, having been out here, since 12th August, so you can guess I have had a warm time of it so far. I have received the ‘Advertiser’ every week bar once, and that was when I appeared in the Roll of Honour.

I can honestly say that there is a regular call in the trenches of ‘After you, Morfee, with the ‘Chopbacks’ paper, and you should see the boys smile. P.S. – German sausages will go well with Turkey at Christmas. Roll on, good old Hastings; it is better than France or Belgium.’

Published: November 1914, December 1914 & June 1915

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