Army
Alexander Wood
Rank: Private
Parents: Mr & Mrs E Wood
Brother: Edmund Wood
Address: Rye
Other Info: Wounded on 18th February 1917
Published: April 1917
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Army
A Searle
Rank: Private
Regiment: Canadian Expeditionary Force
Other Info: One of three wounded Canadians working at Robertson Street Congregational Church Canteen in Hastings.
Published: April 1917
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Army
J R Knight
Rank: Corporal
Regiment: Canadian Expeditionary Force
Other Info: One of three wounded Canadians working at Robertson Street Congregational Church Canteen in Hastings.
Published: April 1917
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Army
A Radcliffe
Rank: Private
Regiment: Canadian Expeditionary Force
Other Info: One of three wounded Canadians working at Robertson Street Congregational Church Canteen in Hastings.
Published: April 1917
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Army
Percy Bristow
Rank: Private
Regiment: 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment
Parents: Mr Robert & Mrs Martha Bristow
Wife: Mrs Florence Matilda Bristow
Brothers: C Bristow & Frank Gilbert Bristow
Address: 80 All Saints Street, Hastings
Other Info: Four times wounded. Missing since 9th September 1916. According to CWGC, Percy died aged 28 on 9th September. He is remembered at the Thiepval Memorial, Pier and Face 7C.
Published: April 1917
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Army
J Barnes
Rank: Private
Regiment: Royal Sussex Regiment
Wife: Mrs Barnes
Brothers-in-Law: J Mitchell & A Mitchell
Address: 62 Fairlight Road, Hastings
Other Info: Wounded. Now in hospital at Burton-on-Trent.
Published: April 1917
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Army
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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Army
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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Army
George Povey
Rank: Private
Regiment: Royal Sussex Regiment
Sent by: Miss Hayler
Miss Hayler’s Address: 17 Brook Street, Hastings
Other Info: Twice wounded, now back at the Front. Additional name information from the Lives of the First World War website.
Published: April 1917
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Army
David Vincent Matingell
Rank: Private
Regiment: 3rd Pioneers, Canadian Expeditionary Force
Address: Born in Caterham, Surrey
Other Info: He has had experience as both soldier and sailor. At the outbreak of the war he was an ex-Navy man, and was in the City Salvage Corps. He voluntarily returned to the Navy at Portsmouth, the week the war started. After several short cruises he joined HMS Kent. He was in the Falkland Island Battle, was on board when the Kent sunk the German cruiser Nurnburg and later took part in the destruction of the German cruiser Dresden off Juan Fernandez Island in the Pacific. The Kent being send to harbour for repairs, he was permitted to leave his ship to go into the Army. He joined the 48th Canadians (now the 3rd Pioneers), who were training at Victoria. He only spent three weeks in Canada, and sailed three days after enlistment. He was four months in France, and was invalided home from the Somme.
David’s CEF enlistment forms can be viewed for free here.
Published: April 1917
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