Navy
F G Potter
Rank: Able Seaman
Regiment: Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves
Parents: Mr & Mrs F Potter
Brother: E S Potter
Uncle: A Adams
Address: 208 Mount Pleasant Road, Hastings
Published: December 1914 & March 1916
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.
Army
Arthur James Sellens
Rank: Sapper
Regiment: 2nd Home Counties, Royal Engineers
Parents: Mr Charles & Mrs Elizabeth Jane Sellens
Brothers-in-Law: Dick Barry, John Barry & Tom Barry
Address: 18 Middle Street, Hastings
Other Info: For Foreign Service. His Service record has him enlisting in Oct 1914 in the Royal Engineers, where he worked his way up to Sergent before being discharged in Feb 1919
Published: December 1914, February 1916 & March 1916
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.
Army
Sidney Smith
Rank: Private
Regiment: 3rd Battalion, The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment)
Address: 64 Norman Road, St Leonards
Other Info: Prisoner of War in Germany.
The text from ‘Prisoners of War’ reads: The above is not a portrait of a couple of society entertainers. They are two soldiers, prisoners of war at Gottingen, and they are in the costumesthey wore at an entertainment given there entitled ‘Bink’s Dream’. The ‘Lady’ is Private Sidney Smith, of the 2nd Buffs, son of Mr & Mrs Smith, 64 Norman Road, St Leonards and the gentleman is Sergeant T S Moss. Private Smith appeared as a lady boarder, and it will be admitted that his make up was remarkably good. An account of the entertainment is published in “The Wooden City”, a journal for British Prisoners of War at Gottingen.
Published: November 1914, May 1915, March 1916 & April 1917
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.
Navy
Henry James Creasey
Rank: Signalman
Ship: HMS Empress of India & HMS Reindeer
Parents: Mr & Mrs Creasey
Address: 401 Bexhill Road, St Leonards
Other Info: HMS Empress of India was sunk after being used for target practice in 1913.
Published: November 1914 & March 1916
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.
Army
Percival Bellingham
Rank: Private
Regiment: 2nd Army Headquarters / 10th Royal Hussars
Parents: Mr & Mrs Bellingham
Brothers: Alfred H Bellingham, Leslie Bellingham & Charlie Bellingham
Address: 2 Earl Street, Hastings
Other Info: At the Front
Published: November 1914 & March 1916
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.
Army
Alfred H Bellingham
Rank: 1st Class Signalman / Corporal
Regiment: 7th Hussars
Parents: Mr & Mrs Bellingham
Brother: Percival Bellingham, Leslie Bellingham & Charlie Bellingham
Address: 2 Earl Street, Hastings
Other Info: At the Front. Winner of the Military Medal.
Published: November 1914 & March 1916
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.
Army
John T Hayler
Rank: Private
Regiment: ‘B’ Company, 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment
Mother: Mrs A Hayler
Brothers: A G Hayler & A J Hayler
Sister: Mrs E D Hayler
Address: 204 Battle Road, Hollington
Published: November 1914 & March 1916
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.
Army
Joseph (Joe) Herbert Gale
Rank: Corporal
Regiment: Canadian Naval Reserve / 39th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force.
Parents: Mr & Mrs Joseph Gale
Wife: Mrs Ada Mary Ann Gale
Brothers: A Gale , Frank Gale & G Jones
Brothers-in-Law: Frederick John Henry Sargent & William Hewitt
Nephew: Fred Sargent
Parent’s Address: 94 Manor Road, Hastings
Home Address: Albert Street, Cobourg, Ontario
Other Info: Of the old Hastings Navals. Machine Gun Instructor. Killed in action. According to CWGC, Joe died on 11th June 1916 aged 31. He is remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, on panel 24 – 26 – 28 – 30.
You can view Joe’s CEF enlistment papers for free here.
An article in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer dated 1st July 1916 reads:
“Hastings Corporal Killed. We regret to hear that Corporal J. H. Gale, of a Canadian Machine Gun Section has been killed in action.
He was the son of Mr and Mrs Gale of 94 Manor Road, Hastings. He has been Canada for some years, but returned to England. <text unclear> he made a second trip to Canada, and soon after the outbreak of war joined the Colours, going to the Front in January.
His wife is a native of Hastings, and at the present time is residing with the late Corporal’s parents. She is left with three children. Two sons-in-law of Mr & Mrs Gale are on active service, and two sons are undergoing training and another will join up shortly. One grandson is training in Canada.
Mrs Gale received a sympathetic letter from a lieutenant, who says the late Mr Gale was ‘a fine man and a fine soldier. One cannot say any more for a man these days. I am sorry, but it is the fortune of war, and our womenfolk have a hard part to bear in this War. Their task is harder than ours, and it is the way that they keep cheerful under the strain that keeps us going”.
Published: October 1914, March 1916 & October 1916
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.
Navy
James Newington
Regiment: Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves
Ship: HMS Neptune
Sister: Mrs Martin
Sister’s Address: 44 All Saints Street, Hastings
Address: 2 Providence Row, All Saints Street, Hastings
Other Info: HMS Excellent was a land based gunnery school based in Portsmouth.
The text for ‘A Winning Crew’ reads: A crew on board HMS Neptune, winners of the RNR and RNVR race at the squadron regatta, 1915. The man on the left, sitting on the ground is James Newington, brother of Mrs Martin…. Another Hastings man, W Larkins, is third from the left in the second row from the back.
Published: October 1914 & March 1916
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.
Army
William Sellens
Rank: Driver
Regiment: 2nd Home Counties, Royal Engineers
Parents: Mr Thomas James & Mrs Alice Maude Sellens
Brothers: Hugh Sellens & Thomas James Sellens
Brother-in-Law: E J Norman
Address: 58 Stonefield Road, Hastings
Published: October 1914 & March 1916
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.