Remembering Worthing’s fallen

G/1207 Lance Corporal George William Brown

2nd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment

Died February 3, 1915, aged 22

George Brown was born in Battersea, London, in 1892.

He was the second son of Robert Brown, a stonemason, and his wife Ellen.

Sometime after 1900, the Brown family left London and settled at 44 Elm Grove, in the Heene district of Worthing.

George was a pupil at Elm Grove School.

Soon after leaving school George enlisted in the Royal Sussex Regiment at Worthing.

As part of the British Expeditionary Force, he landed in France in the early days of the war.

While serving with his regiment, George contracted enteric fever. He was taken to the military hospital near Wimereux but never recovered. He died on February 3, 1915, at the age of 22. He is buried in Wimereux Communal Cemetery and is remembered on Heene Church War memorial.

He is also commemorated on the Elm Grove School War memorial to former pupils who gave their lives for their country.

G/1270 Private Frederick Philip Hughes

2nd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment

Died February 10, 1915, aged 18

Frederick Hughes was born at the family home at 4 Oxford Terrace, Broadwater (now 18 Sompting Road).

His parents, Frederick and Lauretta, née Lawrence, were married at St Mary’s Church, Broadwater, on April 4, 1896, and Frederick was baptised there on January 31, 1897.

His father was a market gardener and Frederick Jr’s first job at the age of 14 was a grocer’s errand boy.

At the outbreak of the First World War Frederick joined the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment, landing at Le Havre in August, 1914.

He fought in and survived the first battle of Ypres but he was wounded in action on February 10, 1915.

He died of his injuries on that day – the only casualty, according to the Regimental Diary.

He is buried in the Lillers Communal Cemetery and is commemorated on the Broadwater Church War memorial.

The 2nd Battalion lost more soldiers – 1,723 – than any other Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment.

The Battalion was given the unofficial title of ‘The Iron Regiment’ by German soldiers due to its fighting spirit.

2767 Rifleman Carl Gorringe Carpenter

London Regiment (The Rangers) 1st/12th Battalion.

Died February 15, 1915, aged 20

Carl Carpenter was born in Worthing in 1894, the youngest of four children born to Charles and Edith, née Floate.

Charles Carpenter was a commercial traveller in the grocery trade.

Edith was born in the village of Washington, where she and Charles were married in 1889.

They began their married life in Maidstone, Kent, where their first three children were born.

By the time Carl was born they had moved to ‘Maidworth’, Tower Road, Worthing.

The 1911 census shows Carl aged 16, employed as an apprentice hosier and outfitter.

Later, the family moved to 48 Shakespeare Road.

On September 7, 1914, exactly a month after Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War, asked for 100,000 volunteers to join the army, Carl enlisted in London with the London Regiment, The Rangers.

After training at Crowborough and Aldershot, his Battalion landed in Le Havre on Christmas Day, 1914.

Carl was killed in action near Ypres on February 15, 1915.

He is buried in Sanctuary Wood Cemetery, Ypres.

Sub-Lieutenant Edward Stanford

Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve RN Depot (Crystal Palace)

Died February 15, 1915, aged 30

Edward Stanford was born in 1885 in Middleton, Sussex.

His parents, Frederick and Agnes Stanford, were farmers at Middleton Manor Farm for many years.

Frederick, a widower with two young daughters, married Agnes Geere in Islington, London, in 1876.

Frederick and Agnes had seven children of their own, including Edward.

In 1901, aged 16, Edward was a pupil at a boarding school in Somerset.

On March 12, 1908, Edward married Mary Wilberforce in Middleton and they had two daughters; Kathleen, born 1908, and Marjorie, born 1910.

Both daughters were born in Teddington, London, where Edward worked as a tutor.

They lived at 203 Kingston Road in Teddington.

Between 1911 and 1915 Edward’s parents retired from farming in Middleton and moved to Worthing.

Edward volunteered as a Royal Naval Reserve at the Royal Naval Depot in Crystal Palace, London.

On January 5, 1915, he was commissioned to Sub Lieutenant but soon after, he contracted cerebro spinal meningitis and died on February 15, 1915.

He is buried in Beckenham Crematorium and Cemetery, previously known as Crystal Palace District Cemetery.

His home address was given as 80 Central Hill, Upper Norwood, and his wife’s contact details were given as c/o Mrs Wilberforce, Markington Hall, Yorkshire.

Edward’s parents continued to live in Worthing at a house called Mertonville, near Broadwater Green (now 104 Broadwater Street West).

They are buried in Broadwater Cemetery.

L/7518 Corporal Levi Holden

2nd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment

Died February 16, 1915, aged 28

Levi Holden was born in 1887 in Boxgrove, near Chichester, where his father, Frederick Holden, was working as a shepherd.

By the time Levi was four years old, the family were living in West Wittering.

Frederick married Mary Puttick in 1870, in the registration district of Thakeham.

The marriage probably took place in Storrington, the village where, according to the census records, Mary had been born.

Levi had ten siblings and the family had moved to Durrington by the time of the 1901 census.

Frederick was now employed as a market gardener, an occupation that Levi was to follow his father in.

In 1909 Levi married Edith Alice Dodman in Worthing.

She was the daughter of George and Mary Dodman, of Howard Street.

The 1911 census shows Levi and Edith living in Northbrook Cottages, Broadwater.

Levi was working as a market gardener employed by Mr Kennard, of Forest Road.

Levi enlisted at Brighton into the Royal Sussex Regiment.

He was killed in action at Cuinchy, France, on February 16, 1915.

He has no known grave but he is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial in France.

He is also remembered on the war memorial at Broadwater Church.

At the time of his death Edith Holden was living at 18 Howard Street.

Corporal SD/741 Berkeley Thomas Tivey

11th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment

Died February 16, 1915, aged 21

Berkeley Thomas Tivey was born 1893 in Greenhill, Harrow, Hendon, Middlesex, and was the second eldest child of George Berkeley Tivey, a wood carver, and Emma Mary ‘Durer’ Pudney.

Berkeley had an older brother, George Berkeley Tivey, who died, aged 13 months, around the time of Berkeley’s birth.

Another brother died, aged two years, in 1902, and he had a further two brothers and one sister who all survived.

One of his brothers, Harold, joined the Middlesex Regiment in 1914 and was involved in heavy fighting in Mesopotamia; he was wounded there three times.

Berkeley joined the West Sussex Constabulary on April 6, 1914, and then enlisted at Worthing in November, 1914.

He was described as 5ft 9in tall with dark brown hair and blue eyes.

His efficient work soon won him promotion.

However, he died February 16, 1915, age 21, after contracting cerebro spinal meningitis while he was still on active duty. He died at Bexhill Camp.

His home address at that time was 308 Chapter Road, Cricklewood, Willesden Green, London.

He was buried at Willesden New Cemetery, Middlesex.

The SD prefix to his military number was very distinctive.

It indicated that the holder had volunteered for service in the Sussex Pals and stood for South Downs Battalions.

The Southdowners were also known as ‘Lowther’s Lambs’, after Colonel Claude Lowther, who had been instrumental in their formation and recruitment.

Berkeley’s family continued to live in Willesden.

His mother died there in 1932 and his father in 1948.

8157 Private Wilfred Chilton

Scots Guards 2nd Battalion.

Died February 25, 1915, aged 18

Wilfred Chilton did not have a settled childhood.

His father John was a theatrical manager but no record can be found of his mother.

There were four children in the family – Mary, born 1894 and Wilfred, born 1897, both in Brighton; and Elna and Rose, who both died in childhood.

Mary married and gave birth to six children before dying, aged 33, in 1927.

The 1901 census shows Wilfred, aged four, and two of his sisters boarding with the Norris family, at 73 Becket Road, Worthing.

Wilfred was a pupil at Elm Grove School.

We also know that he later attended Sussex Road Boys’ School and then St Andrew’s School, in Clifton Road.

His name is recorded on the war memorials in Elm Grove and St Andrew’s schools.

It is also on the Sussex Road Boys’ School War memorial which is now in the Sidney Walter Centre, Sussex Road.

Wilfred enlisted in the Scots Guards, 2nd Battalion, in Liverpool, in January, 1912.

He landed in France with his regiment in November 1914 and took part in the 1st Battle of Ypres.

He was killed in action on February 25, 1915, near Fleurbaix, and was buried at Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery, Fleurbaix.

After the war, Wilfred’s only sister Mary, now Mrs Mary Gladys Cornwall, of Hoylake, Cheshire, completed the Borough of Worthing’s official form to enable her brother’s name to be added to the memorial.

She also gave Wilfred’s last known address in Worthing as 42 St Dunstan’s Road, West Tarring.