Navy
John Bray
Rank: Sub Lieutenant
Regiment: 5th Company, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
Father: Mr John Bray
Siblings: Cicely Evelyn Bray & Ethel Bray
Address: Collonade, St Leonards
Published: September 1914
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information
Other
Ethel Bray
Rank: Nurse
Father: Mr John Bray
Siblings: John Bray & Cicely Evelyn Bray
Address: Collonade, St Leonards
Other Info: With the British Army in France. Much more information about Ethel can be read here.
Published: September 1914
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information
Other
Cicely Evelyn Bray
Rank: Nurse
Father: Mr John Bray
Siblings: John Bray & Ethel Bray
Address: Collonade, St Leonards
Other Info: At the Royal Herbert Hospital, Woolwich. Much more information about Cicely can be read here.
Published: September 1914
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.
Army
James Larkin
Rank: Driver
Regiment: Royal Field Artillery
Parents: Mr & Mrs Larkin
Address: 37 Percy Road, Ore
Other Info: Wounded in October, now again at the Front
Published: October 1914 & March 1915
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.
Army
Edric Ernest Websdale
Rank: Rifleman
Regiment: E Company, 1st Battalion, Rifle Brigade
Mother: Mrs Alice Healsdown
Stepfather: William J Healsdown
Brothers: Charles Cecil Websdale, Herbert Stanley Websdale & G H Websdale
Address: 77a Clifton Road, Ore
More Info: Reported missing on 26th August. Prisoner of War.
Published: September 1914, October 1914 & September 1915
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.
Army
P F Holliwell
Rank: Bandsman
Regiment: 5th Royal Sussex Regiment
Address: 9 Lennox Street, Halton, Hastings
Published: September 1914
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.
Army
A Cruttenden
Rank: Gunner
Regiment: Royal Horse Artillery
Father: Mr T Cruttenden
Address: 44 St Paul’s Road, St Leonards
Other Info: In the fighting line
Published: September 1914
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.
Army
Ernest Penfold
Rank: Saddler
Regiment: 4th Dragoon Guards
Parents: Mr & Mrs Penfold
Brothers: Archibald Penfold, Arthur Penfold & Bert Penfold
Address: 34 Old London Road, Hastings
Other Info: A prisoner in Germany. Wounded.
Text from the top image reads: ‘This photograph was sent home by Ernest Penfold, a prisoner of war in Germany. It was forwarded to us by his Mother, Mrs Penfold, Mount House, Old London Road, Hastings. Penfold is the Englishman in the centre of the back row’.
Published: September 1914, August 1915 & November 1915
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.
Army
William John Elliot
Rank: Private
Regiment: 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment
Parents: Mr John Robert and Catherine Mrs (Kate) E Elliott (Nee Bolingbroke)
Parents-in-Law: Mr James William & Mrs Eunice Beney
Brothers-in-Law: James George Beney, Ernest Beney, Percy Beney, Arthur Beney, Frederick George Paine & George Holder
Wife: Mrs Eunice Elliot
Address: Old London Road, Ore
Other Info: Wounded.
An article published in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer dated 3rd October 1914 reads: “Private William Elliott, of the Royal Sussex, whose relatives are at Carlisle Villas, Hastings, has been shot in the knee, and is at present at Cambridge.
Private Elliott was about 12 yards away from Captain Slater when that popular officer was killed, and he was wounded in the same battle.
In a letter from the hospital at Trinity College, Cambridge, he says: “I am getting on a well as possible but am still very weak yet, after the terrible times I have been through. God only knows how I came through such an ordeal. A fortnight ago today I never thought I should get back to dear old England again.
I have got some awful news to tell you when I do meet you again, about those brutal Germans but, thank God, I have the pleasure, the honour, of killing at least ten of them with my dear old rifle. It did please me to see the drop dead shot by us British boys.”
Mr Elliott’s knee has been very painful, but is better. It will, however, be some little time before he is able to return to Hastings. In his previous letters he described is experiences in the field, and how often being picked up he and his wounded comrades were brought away from the front in trains that ‘nearly shook them to pieces’ which was unavoidable but very painful in their wounded state.
Mr Elliott is a reservist, who served three years with the Colours. He has only been away eight weeks.
Published: September 1914 & January 1915
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.
Army
Michael Pankhurst
Rank: Private
Regiment: 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment
Mother: Mrs Pankhurst
Brothers: T Pankhurst & J Pankhurst
Brother in Law: J Lee
Address: 47 Percy Road, Ore
Other Info: Wounded at the Battle of Aisne
Published: September 1914 & March 1915
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.