Display to show life in Beeding, Bramber, Botolphs and Small Dole during First World War

Together with Beeding and Bramber Local History Society, they are putting on a display about the First World War in these villages and Small Dole.

The display will be held on Saturday, November 8, until Monday, November 10, from 10am to 4pm, in the Gladys Bevan Hall, Church Lane, Upper Beeding.

This is at the far end of Church Lane, opposite St Peter’s Church.

The display will not be about the war in general, or battles and fighting, but will show life in the villages at the time and feature the men who took part, both those who lost their lives and those who survived.

All the names on the War Memorial have been researched so we have learned something of the short lives of these men and of the families they left behind.

Finding out about those who enlisted and survived was more difficult, but enquiries led to many of them, so they could be featured as well – the families they returned to, and their post-war lives.

The photograph, here, is of Upper Beeding Boy Scouts, in about 1916, with their leader, The Reverend Hobbs.

We know most of the boys’ names and they include two of the younger brothers of one of the young men who died.

They are Albert Newman (the last on the left in the back row) and Arthur Newman (the last on the left sitting at the front), sons of Alfred and Ada Newman of Dacre Gardens, Upper Beeding.

One wonders whether this photograph was taken before or after their brother, Alfred, died, on October 21, 1916.

The photograph will be among many on display.