LAST POST - Letters to an ancestor
Last Post gave visitor an opportunity to write a letter to someone who lived 100 years ago: a local soldier, resident, family member, someone they had a personal connection to or the unknown warrior.There was a board of biographies they could choose from, all of whom had local connections. There were folders that gave them them further information about their chosen person. They could then post their letters in a post office sorting box.
Board of Biographies
Board of Biographies
1. An Unknown Warrior
A warrior of any nationality from any force in any country who fell in the Great War
2. Thomas ADAMS & family
37 Stone Street
Thomas Adams, married to Annie, was Caretaker for St James's - the Church, Parish Room and School. In his time he had been in the Army, a Police Constable, a Ham & Beef Man, and Butler at Shirley Hall in Langton. The couple had four married sons (Thomas, Frank, Frederick and George) and a son-in-law (former Police Constable Frank Huckstep, husband of daughter Emma) serving in the Forces.
Frederick Adams was Bandmaster with the Highland Light Infantry; postal worker George joined the Royal Engineers' Postal Service.
Though all survived the war, Frank Huckstep, was badly gassed at Ypres in 1917 and invalided home suffering from shell-shock, from which he never fully recovered, eventually tragically taking his own life in 1940.
3. Private R. ANDERSON
20 Apsley Street, Rusthall
Born in London, Reginald Anderson lived with the Roffe family in Rusthall, and was described as 'adopted' in the census of 1911. He joined the Queen's Own (Royal West Kent) Regiment, and was just 20 when he died of wounds sustained in the 2nd Battle of Gaza in Palestine on 19th April 1917, one of 38 men and 3 officers who died that day.
4. Captain Allan Oswald Rufus BEALE M.C.
Parents' address : 'Linden', Linden Park
From The Courier, December 1916: "A wedding of considerable local interest, and which took place very quietly, was solemnised on Saturday at Rotherfield Parish Church. The bridegroom was Captain Oswald Beale, youngest son of Mr and Mrs Louis Beale, and the bride Miss Dorothy Mary Booker, youngest daughter of Mr John Booker, Station Road, Jarvis Brook. "Captain Beale holds a commission in the Bedfordshire Regiment and has been serving in France for about two years. He has two other brothers, viz. Lieut. Donald Beale (Royal Irish Rifles), and Lieut. Bert Beale."
Oswald and Bert were both awarded the Military Cross. Oswald was also awarded the Croix de Guerre by the Belgian government in 1918, and made a M.B.E. in 1920.
5. Nurse Lucy Kate CARD
2 Rock Villas, Mereworth Road
High Brooms School teacher Lucy Card lived with her married sister Mary Ann Cane and the latter's husband George.
In 1914 she volunteered as a nurse with the Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachments and after basic training at one of the VAD hospitals in Tunbridge Wells was selected to go out to France. She left in April 1915 and was one of the first fifteen voluntary nurses to go to the Front.
Nurse Card served in four different hospitals, and in 1917 when she was awarded the Scarlet Efficiency Stripe, she was at No. 35 General Hospital in Calais, where she had the honour of meeting the King George V and Queen Mary. She was mentioned in despatches in 1918.
After the war she returned to teaching, finishing her career as a popular head mistress of St Luke's Infants' School.
6. Sir Arthur Conan DOYLE & his son Arthur Alleyne Kingsley DOYLE
Windlesham Manor, Crowborough
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writer of the Sherlock Holmes stories, was well-known for his anti-women's suffrage and pro-war views.
When the war broke out in 1914 he tried to enlist stating, "I am fifty-five but I am very strong and hardy, and can make my voice audible at great distances, which is useful at drill." His offer was turned down, but he devoted his energies to supporting the war effort, writing propaganda, and enlisting in the Crowborough Company of the Sixth Royal Sussex Volunteer Regiment, serving as a Private throughout the war. His son, Kingsley, joined the British Army and was wounded at the Somme in 1916. He died in October 1917, after developing pneumonia.
7. The DENNIS family
66 Mount Pleasant
Councillor Albert Dennis of Waymark's, "the Family Draper", and his wife, Ruth, had two sons and two daughters.
Their eldest son, Albert Claude Dennis joined the 7th Royal West Kents in 1914 and was later attached to the Middlesex Regiment. He was wounded at the Somme, and was making good progress in hospital when meningitis set in. He died on 27th July 1916.
His brother Bernard Waymark Dennis went out to France with the Artists' Rifles in early 1916 before receiving a temporary commission in the Rifle Brigade. In January 1917 he was wounded and taken Prisoner of War at Bouchavesnes. Extracts from his entertaining letters home were published in the local press. Their sister Dorothy was a F.A.N.Y, and Joan, the youngest, a V.A.D. nurse.
8. 2nd Lieutenant Clifford C. DOBELL and his mother Elizabeth
3 Thomas Street
Elizabeth Dobell's son Clifford, a popular local footballer, had a distinguished career in the Boer War, and stayed on in South Africa when the war was over, taking up a career in mining. He re-enlisted in 1914, taking part in the German West African Campaign. On its successful conclusion, he returned to the UK and, having joined the Royal Engineers as a Sapper, went to France on a commission in 1916. His already- failing health worsened and he was sent back to England on sick leave in early 1917. He died of TB in Devonport Hospital the following year. The family had already suffered a terrible tragedy in 1889 when Clifford's older brother Charles was hanged at Maidstone Prison for the murder of his boss at the Baltic Saw Mills, Bensley Lawrence. Charles was the last person under 18 at the time of a crime to be hanged in the U.K..
9. George F. DUTCH
Heatherlands Lodge, Forest Road
Grocer's apprentice George Frederick Dutch set up a Tunbridge Wells branch of the 'No Conscription' fellowship in 1915. He felt that, as a Christian and an international socialist, he could have no part in the war and should, as far as possible, work against it and for an early peace. His father was gardener for Mr Newcomb of 'Heatherlands' on Pembury Road, and his sisters Selina and Daisy worked at the big house. George spent most of the war after 1916 in prison, and his activities resulted in his father's losing his job along with the rent-free cottage which went with it, forcing him to go back to the near-poverty of being a jobbing gardener.
In later years George regretted some of his 'inconsiderate behaviour' but never the stand he took.
10. Private Hori W. JARVIS
48 Albion Road
Hori Woolgar Jarvis was the youngest of the six children of carpenter and joiner Frank and his wife Louisa. Hori himself was a confectioner's apprentice, employed by Swiss-born pastry cook and confectioner Thomas Semadeni at 26 High Street in Tunbridge Wells.
He enlisted in the West Kent Yeomanry in May 1915. After volunteering for foreign service he was transferred to the Royal West Kent Regiment and went out to France in December 1916. In August 1917 his parents received news that he had been wounded and was in Leicester General Hospital. He convalesced in Tunbridge Wells, his story is told in the exhibition at Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery about the town's wartime hospitals - "Back to Blighty" - which runs until 4 January 2015.
11. Rudyard KIPLING & his son John
Batemans, Burwash
On the outbreak of war in 1914, Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem, a call to arms, which was published in The Times and begins:- "For all we have and are,/ For all our children's fate,/Stand up and take the war./The Hun is at the gate!" His only son John joined the Irish Guards in September 1914 and was reported "wounded and missing" after the Battle of Loos on 27th September 1915. His body was never found.
It was not widely known at the time that John had initially been turned down by the Army on medical grounds and that his father had used his influence to get him his commission. In 1919 Rudyard Kipling published his "Epitaphs of War" which include the lines
"If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied."
12. The MAIER family
121 London Road, Southborough
Born in Zurich, house decorator Oscar Christian Maier and his German-born wife Rosa came to Tunbridge Wells with their baby son Oscar Frederick in the early 1890s, and they and their growing family soon settled in. In 1916 Oscar Maier was charged with making a false declaration under the Aliens' Restriction Act, 1914, when he stated on a registration form that he was Swiss, having previously said he was born in Germany - erroneously as it turned out. The court heard that he had proved himself to be a loyal Englishman in all respects. His eldest son was serving the country, another was in the Canadian forces, and a third was in the Southborough Cadets. The case was dismissed. His son Oscar died of wounds at the Front in 1917 and the family received the heart-breaking news on his sister Charlotte's wedding day.
13. Captain C.E. MALPASS & his parents
'Leybourne', 34 North Farm Road, Southborough
Charles Maurice Malpass was head master of Southborough Council Schools. His wife Edith was also a teacher, and Charles Edward was their only child. Educated at the Skinners' School, he was involved in Marine Engineering in Scotland when he enlisted in the Royal West Kent Regiment early in the war, later to be attached to the Artists' Rifles. He went out to France in 1916 and was wounded at the Somme the same year. He recovered, only to be killed in action, leading his Company, on 8 October 1918, just days after being awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in the field. He was 22. A memorial service was held for him in a packed St Matthew's Church, High Brooms, at which his former headmaster spoke with warmth and admiration of his exemplary former pupil.
14. Sapper P. B. MARRINER
6 Stone Street
Percy Marriner was the youngest child and only surviving son of Alfred and Rose, and was drowned in the Hythe disaster on 28th October 1915, alongside Captain R. Salomons. The Courier newspaper reported:- "Mr Alfred Marriner, who is well known in the town as an ex-Police Inspector and at present the Steward of the Great Hall, has sustained a very great bereavement in the death of his only son Sapper Percy Bertram Marriner. The family have received many messages of sympathy. "Sapper Marriner, who was 20 years of age, was an old Victorian*. Previous to joining the Kent Fortress Engineers on May 25th last he was engaged at the Spa Hotel in the capacity of second engineer." *educated at the Victoria Boys' School on Calverley St.
15. Private Frederick A. MEDHURST
8 Kirkdale Road
Frederick Medhurst was the illegitimate son of Louisa Mercy Card and born Frederick Alfred Curtis Card in 1889 at the home of the Medhurst family who "adopted" him. His mother moved to Brighton and eventually Australia. His adoptive father, Jabez Medhurst, was a jobbing gardener, well-known in the town, and he and his wife Caroline already had 13 children of their own when they took in baby Frederick. Frederick had been a Clerk at the Medway Coal Company for 10 years when in September 1914 he joined the newly-formed 7th Battalion of the West Kent Regiment in its Tunbridge Wells company (one of the "Pals' battalions"). Private F. A. Medhurst was killed in the battle of the Somme, at Thiepval, on 30th September 1916, having survived the fierce fighting at Trônes Wood two months earlier.
16. Annie MOONEY
33 Mount Ephraim
Widow Annie Mooney was promoted to the post of Postmistress at Mount Ephraim Sub-Post Office in 1902 after 22 years at the Post Office in Frant. Her husband had died in 1884 leaving her with 6 children under eleven years old. Her middle daughter Elizabeth became a teacher, and moved to Bedfordshire where she met and married Alfred Benney, also a teacher. When he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps (R.A.M.C.) in 1915, his wife and their daughter Marion moved back to her mother's in Tunbridge Wells, and Mrs Benney took a teaching post at Rusthall Boys School. In April 1918 Elizabeth Benney died after a short illness - "a splendid teacher [who] will be very much missed by the staff of the school" wrote the Headmaster. At the time, her husband was a Prisoner of War, though it is not known where he was held, or when he was released.
17. Mary Ann PELHAM
14 Norman Road
Mrs Pelhams's son Frank Harold Pelham survived the Hythe disaster of 28th October 1915. He had been with the Southborough Engineers for some years. A few days after the tragedy he wrote to his parents :- No doubt you have heard of the wreck, but I am quite safe and well. I have still got the photos of Ruth and us all, but they were a little damaged. Please excuse this short letter. Jack Christmas is quite safe and well. Sapper Pelham was unaware that his 26-year -old sister Ruth had died suddenly on 28th October - the very day of the Hythe disaster.
Sapper Jack Christmas lived at 6 Grenville Road. His letter home described how he had to "swim for it… A lot of poor fellows could not swim so they stood little chance of escape".
18. The POLLARD family
24 Avon Street
Widow Mary Ann Pollard, mother of 15 children, received the following message from the King in October 1914 :-
The Acting Keeper of the Privy Purse presents his compliments to Mrs Pollard and is commanded by the King to say that his Majesty has heard with the deepest gratification that she has eight sons serving in the Navy and Army. The King sends Mrs Pollard his congratulations, and desires that she will convey the same to her sons, together with his Majesty's best wishes for their success, health, and happiness in the honourable career they have chosen. Five of her ten sons were in the Army and three in the Navy. All except one survived the war: Private William Samuel Pollard, Royal Army Medical Corps (R.A.M.C.), died on 4th October 1917 leaving a widow and 6 young children.
19. Captain David Reginald SALOMONS
Broomhill, Southborough
David Reginald Salomons was the only son of Sir David and Lady Salomons. In 1908 his father established the Kent Fortress Engineers cadet force in Southborough. This was re-formed in 1915 as the 1/3 (Kent) Field Company; "Reggie" Salomons was its Captain.
In October 1915 the Company set off from England, bound for the Dardanelles. At Mudros Bay they transferred to H.M.S. Hythe, a former Dover-Calais cargo carrier, and continued their journey to Cape Helles on the Gallipoli Peninsula, all lights extinguished. On the evening of 28th October 1915, the Hythe was struck in the darkness by another British ship, H.M.S. Sarnia. She sank with the loss of 155 lives. Captain Salomons refused to leave the ship and was last seen on the bridge of the Hythe, having given away his life-jacket to one of his men.
20. Lieutenant S. SASSOON, M.C.
Weirleigh, Matfield
Born into a wealthy family in Matfield, Siegfried Loraine Sassoon was baptised at St Stephen's Church in Tunbridge Wells, the precursor to St Barnabas. His parents separated when he was four, and artist Teresa brought up her three sons, Michael, Siegfried and Hamo, on her own.
Sassoon enthusiastically volunteered for the Army, but after the death of his younger brother Hamo in 1915, he became bitterly critical of the war and the suffering caused, issuing A Soldier's Declaration in 1917 "as an act of wilful defiance of military authority", stating that "the war upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation has now become a war of aggression and conquest". To avoid his court-martial, Robert Graves, his friend and fellow poet, convinced the authorities he was suffering from shell-shock & he was sent to the military hospital at Craiglockhart.
21. Miss Amelia SCOTT
c/o N.U.W.S.S., 18 Crescent Road
Amelia Scott, pioneering social worker, writer, and campaigner for women's suffrage, lived with her older sister Louisa - the "Misses Scott" were well-known local figures. Amelia Scott was Honorary Secretary of the local Branch of the National Union of Women Workers (N.U.W.W.), as well as Vice-President of the local non-militant National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (N.U.W.S.S.). During the war she was on the Executive of the Mayor's Belgian Refugees Committee and after the war was decorated by the Belgian government for her work. She also oversaw the setting up of a Central laundry for the washing and mending of the clothes of the hundreds of soldiers billeted in the town - her sister Louisa was in charge of the Mending Room.
22. Private William VIDLER
53 Newton Road, Hawkenbury
William Slarke Vidler was the first Tunbridge Wells man to be killed in action in the Great War. He had enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry at the age of 17 in 1907, and would have completed his term of service in October 1914. He was serving on H.M.S. Amphion, an Active-class scout cruiser which on 6th August 1914 became the first ship of the Royal Navy to be sunk, with the loss of 150 British sailors, as well as 18 crew members rescued from a German ship. William was the fourth son of William and Mary Jane Vidler. His father was gardener at the Hawkenbury Children's Convalescent Home. It is recorded in the diary of a local resident that when news of William's death became known, 22 people turned up at his parents' house to offer their condolences.
23. A Personal Connection
Your own personal connection to the years 1910 - 1919
For example: - a relative - someone who lived at your address - a family friend -
A warrior of any nationality from any force in any country who fell in the Great War
2. Thomas ADAMS & family
37 Stone Street
Thomas Adams, married to Annie, was Caretaker for St James's - the Church, Parish Room and School. In his time he had been in the Army, a Police Constable, a Ham & Beef Man, and Butler at Shirley Hall in Langton. The couple had four married sons (Thomas, Frank, Frederick and George) and a son-in-law (former Police Constable Frank Huckstep, husband of daughter Emma) serving in the Forces.
Frederick Adams was Bandmaster with the Highland Light Infantry; postal worker George joined the Royal Engineers' Postal Service.
Though all survived the war, Frank Huckstep, was badly gassed at Ypres in 1917 and invalided home suffering from shell-shock, from which he never fully recovered, eventually tragically taking his own life in 1940.
3. Private R. ANDERSON
20 Apsley Street, Rusthall
Born in London, Reginald Anderson lived with the Roffe family in Rusthall, and was described as 'adopted' in the census of 1911. He joined the Queen's Own (Royal West Kent) Regiment, and was just 20 when he died of wounds sustained in the 2nd Battle of Gaza in Palestine on 19th April 1917, one of 38 men and 3 officers who died that day.
4. Captain Allan Oswald Rufus BEALE M.C.
Parents' address : 'Linden', Linden Park
From The Courier, December 1916: "A wedding of considerable local interest, and which took place very quietly, was solemnised on Saturday at Rotherfield Parish Church. The bridegroom was Captain Oswald Beale, youngest son of Mr and Mrs Louis Beale, and the bride Miss Dorothy Mary Booker, youngest daughter of Mr John Booker, Station Road, Jarvis Brook. "Captain Beale holds a commission in the Bedfordshire Regiment and has been serving in France for about two years. He has two other brothers, viz. Lieut. Donald Beale (Royal Irish Rifles), and Lieut. Bert Beale."
Oswald and Bert were both awarded the Military Cross. Oswald was also awarded the Croix de Guerre by the Belgian government in 1918, and made a M.B.E. in 1920.
5. Nurse Lucy Kate CARD
2 Rock Villas, Mereworth Road
High Brooms School teacher Lucy Card lived with her married sister Mary Ann Cane and the latter's husband George.
In 1914 she volunteered as a nurse with the Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachments and after basic training at one of the VAD hospitals in Tunbridge Wells was selected to go out to France. She left in April 1915 and was one of the first fifteen voluntary nurses to go to the Front.
Nurse Card served in four different hospitals, and in 1917 when she was awarded the Scarlet Efficiency Stripe, she was at No. 35 General Hospital in Calais, where she had the honour of meeting the King George V and Queen Mary. She was mentioned in despatches in 1918.
After the war she returned to teaching, finishing her career as a popular head mistress of St Luke's Infants' School.
6. Sir Arthur Conan DOYLE & his son Arthur Alleyne Kingsley DOYLE
Windlesham Manor, Crowborough
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writer of the Sherlock Holmes stories, was well-known for his anti-women's suffrage and pro-war views.
When the war broke out in 1914 he tried to enlist stating, "I am fifty-five but I am very strong and hardy, and can make my voice audible at great distances, which is useful at drill." His offer was turned down, but he devoted his energies to supporting the war effort, writing propaganda, and enlisting in the Crowborough Company of the Sixth Royal Sussex Volunteer Regiment, serving as a Private throughout the war. His son, Kingsley, joined the British Army and was wounded at the Somme in 1916. He died in October 1917, after developing pneumonia.
7. The DENNIS family
66 Mount Pleasant
Councillor Albert Dennis of Waymark's, "the Family Draper", and his wife, Ruth, had two sons and two daughters.
Their eldest son, Albert Claude Dennis joined the 7th Royal West Kents in 1914 and was later attached to the Middlesex Regiment. He was wounded at the Somme, and was making good progress in hospital when meningitis set in. He died on 27th July 1916.
His brother Bernard Waymark Dennis went out to France with the Artists' Rifles in early 1916 before receiving a temporary commission in the Rifle Brigade. In January 1917 he was wounded and taken Prisoner of War at Bouchavesnes. Extracts from his entertaining letters home were published in the local press. Their sister Dorothy was a F.A.N.Y, and Joan, the youngest, a V.A.D. nurse.
8. 2nd Lieutenant Clifford C. DOBELL and his mother Elizabeth
3 Thomas Street
Elizabeth Dobell's son Clifford, a popular local footballer, had a distinguished career in the Boer War, and stayed on in South Africa when the war was over, taking up a career in mining. He re-enlisted in 1914, taking part in the German West African Campaign. On its successful conclusion, he returned to the UK and, having joined the Royal Engineers as a Sapper, went to France on a commission in 1916. His already- failing health worsened and he was sent back to England on sick leave in early 1917. He died of TB in Devonport Hospital the following year. The family had already suffered a terrible tragedy in 1889 when Clifford's older brother Charles was hanged at Maidstone Prison for the murder of his boss at the Baltic Saw Mills, Bensley Lawrence. Charles was the last person under 18 at the time of a crime to be hanged in the U.K..
9. George F. DUTCH
Heatherlands Lodge, Forest Road
Grocer's apprentice George Frederick Dutch set up a Tunbridge Wells branch of the 'No Conscription' fellowship in 1915. He felt that, as a Christian and an international socialist, he could have no part in the war and should, as far as possible, work against it and for an early peace. His father was gardener for Mr Newcomb of 'Heatherlands' on Pembury Road, and his sisters Selina and Daisy worked at the big house. George spent most of the war after 1916 in prison, and his activities resulted in his father's losing his job along with the rent-free cottage which went with it, forcing him to go back to the near-poverty of being a jobbing gardener.
In later years George regretted some of his 'inconsiderate behaviour' but never the stand he took.
10. Private Hori W. JARVIS
48 Albion Road
Hori Woolgar Jarvis was the youngest of the six children of carpenter and joiner Frank and his wife Louisa. Hori himself was a confectioner's apprentice, employed by Swiss-born pastry cook and confectioner Thomas Semadeni at 26 High Street in Tunbridge Wells.
He enlisted in the West Kent Yeomanry in May 1915. After volunteering for foreign service he was transferred to the Royal West Kent Regiment and went out to France in December 1916. In August 1917 his parents received news that he had been wounded and was in Leicester General Hospital. He convalesced in Tunbridge Wells, his story is told in the exhibition at Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery about the town's wartime hospitals - "Back to Blighty" - which runs until 4 January 2015.
11. Rudyard KIPLING & his son John
Batemans, Burwash
On the outbreak of war in 1914, Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem, a call to arms, which was published in The Times and begins:- "For all we have and are,/ For all our children's fate,/Stand up and take the war./The Hun is at the gate!" His only son John joined the Irish Guards in September 1914 and was reported "wounded and missing" after the Battle of Loos on 27th September 1915. His body was never found.
It was not widely known at the time that John had initially been turned down by the Army on medical grounds and that his father had used his influence to get him his commission. In 1919 Rudyard Kipling published his "Epitaphs of War" which include the lines
"If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied."
12. The MAIER family
121 London Road, Southborough
Born in Zurich, house decorator Oscar Christian Maier and his German-born wife Rosa came to Tunbridge Wells with their baby son Oscar Frederick in the early 1890s, and they and their growing family soon settled in. In 1916 Oscar Maier was charged with making a false declaration under the Aliens' Restriction Act, 1914, when he stated on a registration form that he was Swiss, having previously said he was born in Germany - erroneously as it turned out. The court heard that he had proved himself to be a loyal Englishman in all respects. His eldest son was serving the country, another was in the Canadian forces, and a third was in the Southborough Cadets. The case was dismissed. His son Oscar died of wounds at the Front in 1917 and the family received the heart-breaking news on his sister Charlotte's wedding day.
13. Captain C.E. MALPASS & his parents
'Leybourne', 34 North Farm Road, Southborough
Charles Maurice Malpass was head master of Southborough Council Schools. His wife Edith was also a teacher, and Charles Edward was their only child. Educated at the Skinners' School, he was involved in Marine Engineering in Scotland when he enlisted in the Royal West Kent Regiment early in the war, later to be attached to the Artists' Rifles. He went out to France in 1916 and was wounded at the Somme the same year. He recovered, only to be killed in action, leading his Company, on 8 October 1918, just days after being awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in the field. He was 22. A memorial service was held for him in a packed St Matthew's Church, High Brooms, at which his former headmaster spoke with warmth and admiration of his exemplary former pupil.
14. Sapper P. B. MARRINER
6 Stone Street
Percy Marriner was the youngest child and only surviving son of Alfred and Rose, and was drowned in the Hythe disaster on 28th October 1915, alongside Captain R. Salomons. The Courier newspaper reported:- "Mr Alfred Marriner, who is well known in the town as an ex-Police Inspector and at present the Steward of the Great Hall, has sustained a very great bereavement in the death of his only son Sapper Percy Bertram Marriner. The family have received many messages of sympathy. "Sapper Marriner, who was 20 years of age, was an old Victorian*. Previous to joining the Kent Fortress Engineers on May 25th last he was engaged at the Spa Hotel in the capacity of second engineer." *educated at the Victoria Boys' School on Calverley St.
15. Private Frederick A. MEDHURST
8 Kirkdale Road
Frederick Medhurst was the illegitimate son of Louisa Mercy Card and born Frederick Alfred Curtis Card in 1889 at the home of the Medhurst family who "adopted" him. His mother moved to Brighton and eventually Australia. His adoptive father, Jabez Medhurst, was a jobbing gardener, well-known in the town, and he and his wife Caroline already had 13 children of their own when they took in baby Frederick. Frederick had been a Clerk at the Medway Coal Company for 10 years when in September 1914 he joined the newly-formed 7th Battalion of the West Kent Regiment in its Tunbridge Wells company (one of the "Pals' battalions"). Private F. A. Medhurst was killed in the battle of the Somme, at Thiepval, on 30th September 1916, having survived the fierce fighting at Trônes Wood two months earlier.
16. Annie MOONEY
33 Mount Ephraim
Widow Annie Mooney was promoted to the post of Postmistress at Mount Ephraim Sub-Post Office in 1902 after 22 years at the Post Office in Frant. Her husband had died in 1884 leaving her with 6 children under eleven years old. Her middle daughter Elizabeth became a teacher, and moved to Bedfordshire where she met and married Alfred Benney, also a teacher. When he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps (R.A.M.C.) in 1915, his wife and their daughter Marion moved back to her mother's in Tunbridge Wells, and Mrs Benney took a teaching post at Rusthall Boys School. In April 1918 Elizabeth Benney died after a short illness - "a splendid teacher [who] will be very much missed by the staff of the school" wrote the Headmaster. At the time, her husband was a Prisoner of War, though it is not known where he was held, or when he was released.
17. Mary Ann PELHAM
14 Norman Road
Mrs Pelhams's son Frank Harold Pelham survived the Hythe disaster of 28th October 1915. He had been with the Southborough Engineers for some years. A few days after the tragedy he wrote to his parents :- No doubt you have heard of the wreck, but I am quite safe and well. I have still got the photos of Ruth and us all, but they were a little damaged. Please excuse this short letter. Jack Christmas is quite safe and well. Sapper Pelham was unaware that his 26-year -old sister Ruth had died suddenly on 28th October - the very day of the Hythe disaster.
Sapper Jack Christmas lived at 6 Grenville Road. His letter home described how he had to "swim for it… A lot of poor fellows could not swim so they stood little chance of escape".
18. The POLLARD family
24 Avon Street
Widow Mary Ann Pollard, mother of 15 children, received the following message from the King in October 1914 :-
The Acting Keeper of the Privy Purse presents his compliments to Mrs Pollard and is commanded by the King to say that his Majesty has heard with the deepest gratification that she has eight sons serving in the Navy and Army. The King sends Mrs Pollard his congratulations, and desires that she will convey the same to her sons, together with his Majesty's best wishes for their success, health, and happiness in the honourable career they have chosen. Five of her ten sons were in the Army and three in the Navy. All except one survived the war: Private William Samuel Pollard, Royal Army Medical Corps (R.A.M.C.), died on 4th October 1917 leaving a widow and 6 young children.
19. Captain David Reginald SALOMONS
Broomhill, Southborough
David Reginald Salomons was the only son of Sir David and Lady Salomons. In 1908 his father established the Kent Fortress Engineers cadet force in Southborough. This was re-formed in 1915 as the 1/3 (Kent) Field Company; "Reggie" Salomons was its Captain.
In October 1915 the Company set off from England, bound for the Dardanelles. At Mudros Bay they transferred to H.M.S. Hythe, a former Dover-Calais cargo carrier, and continued their journey to Cape Helles on the Gallipoli Peninsula, all lights extinguished. On the evening of 28th October 1915, the Hythe was struck in the darkness by another British ship, H.M.S. Sarnia. She sank with the loss of 155 lives. Captain Salomons refused to leave the ship and was last seen on the bridge of the Hythe, having given away his life-jacket to one of his men.
20. Lieutenant S. SASSOON, M.C.
Weirleigh, Matfield
Born into a wealthy family in Matfield, Siegfried Loraine Sassoon was baptised at St Stephen's Church in Tunbridge Wells, the precursor to St Barnabas. His parents separated when he was four, and artist Teresa brought up her three sons, Michael, Siegfried and Hamo, on her own.
Sassoon enthusiastically volunteered for the Army, but after the death of his younger brother Hamo in 1915, he became bitterly critical of the war and the suffering caused, issuing A Soldier's Declaration in 1917 "as an act of wilful defiance of military authority", stating that "the war upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation has now become a war of aggression and conquest". To avoid his court-martial, Robert Graves, his friend and fellow poet, convinced the authorities he was suffering from shell-shock & he was sent to the military hospital at Craiglockhart.
21. Miss Amelia SCOTT
c/o N.U.W.S.S., 18 Crescent Road
Amelia Scott, pioneering social worker, writer, and campaigner for women's suffrage, lived with her older sister Louisa - the "Misses Scott" were well-known local figures. Amelia Scott was Honorary Secretary of the local Branch of the National Union of Women Workers (N.U.W.W.), as well as Vice-President of the local non-militant National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (N.U.W.S.S.). During the war she was on the Executive of the Mayor's Belgian Refugees Committee and after the war was decorated by the Belgian government for her work. She also oversaw the setting up of a Central laundry for the washing and mending of the clothes of the hundreds of soldiers billeted in the town - her sister Louisa was in charge of the Mending Room.
22. Private William VIDLER
53 Newton Road, Hawkenbury
William Slarke Vidler was the first Tunbridge Wells man to be killed in action in the Great War. He had enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry at the age of 17 in 1907, and would have completed his term of service in October 1914. He was serving on H.M.S. Amphion, an Active-class scout cruiser which on 6th August 1914 became the first ship of the Royal Navy to be sunk, with the loss of 150 British sailors, as well as 18 crew members rescued from a German ship. William was the fourth son of William and Mary Jane Vidler. His father was gardener at the Hawkenbury Children's Convalescent Home. It is recorded in the diary of a local resident that when news of William's death became known, 22 people turned up at his parents' house to offer their condolences.
23. A Personal Connection
Your own personal connection to the years 1910 - 1919
For example: - a relative - someone who lived at your address - a family friend -
