Researching the Names of the Men on the War Memorial

Like every other parish in the country, Ditchling saw young men go to fight in the First World War. Most were born in village and attended the village school, perhaps joined the newly formed Boy Scout movement, sung in the church choir or played in the village football or cricket teams. Brothers enlisted together, with some village families losing more than one son. These men were part of the village community working on the land, at the local brickworks, or in village gardens and shops. The letters they sent home provide often quite eloquent first hand accounts of ordinary men thrust into extraordinary and often unimaginable circumstances. The village must often have been in their thoughts and it was to Ditchling they hoped to return from the battlefields of the Western Front, Gallipoli and Palestine.

Twenty men from Ditchling lost their lives in the ‘war to end all wars’ but in 1946 a further thirteen names of those who died in the Second World War were carved on the village War Memorial. In carrying out research on those killed in the Second World War it was possible to contact family members, some still living locally, who were able to provide background information, documents and photographs. The results of this research was first published in 2002 in the DHP publication 'For the Fallen', available from our shop.

WE WILL REMEMBER ...

World War I

Captain Francis Attree, Suffolk Regiment, May 8th 1915

Private Charles Blake, Royal Sussex Regiment, September 2nd 1918

Private George Brown, Royal Sussex Regiment, June 1st 1916

Private Edward Cherriman, Royal Sussex Regiment, July 26th 1915

Private Sidney Elsworth, Royal East Kent (The Buffs), September 23rd 1918

Sgt William G. Foster, Royal Air Force, October 26th 1918

Private William Green, Middlesex Regiment, November 24th 1917

Private George Harbour, Royal Sussex Regiment, April 1st 1918

Private Thomas Harbour, Royal Sussex Regiment, March 4th 1916

Private George Harwood, Grenadier Guards, October 6th 1918

Lance Sgt Robert Horney, Royal Sussex Regiment, April 6th 1918

Gunner Frederick Leaney, Royal Garrison Artillery, June 17th 1917

Private Alfred Mears, Royal Warwickshire Rgt., October 4th 1917

Lance Cpl Arthur Mears, Coldstream Guards, September 11th 1917

Lance Cpl Frederick Merrit, Royal Fusiliers, July 23rd 1916

Private Charles Pratt, Royal Sussex Regiment, September 25th 1915

Signaller Frank Skilton, Royal Sussex Regiment, September 11th 1915

Trooper Frederick Tingley, Royal Dragoon Guards, November 6th 1914

Private George Tingley, Royal Sussex Regiment, July 7th 1916

Lance Cpl Charles Waller, Royal Sussex Regiment, July 7th 1916


WE WILL REMEMBER ...

World War II

Sapper William ‘Tommy’ Burt, Royal Engineers, June 10th 1944

Flight Lt Thomas Carson, RAF Volunteer Reserve, January 25th 1943

Sgt James Cottingham, RAF Volunteer Reserve, August 15th 1941

Sgt Ronald Evans, Royal Air Force, February 3rd 1943

Private Cecil Faulkner, Pioneer Corps, February 7th 1946

Flying Officer Henry Emden, Royal Air Force, September 4th 1939

Sgt Harry Legg, RAF Volunteer Reserve, October 13th 1941

Able Seaman Frederick Noakes, Royal Navy, March 26th 1942

Captain William Sherrard, Royal Artillery, February 14th 1942

Flight Lt Richard Stevens, RAF Volunteer Reserve, December 15th 1941

Private William Weaver, Leicestershire Regiment, February 28th 1943

Captain Herbert Shove, Royal Navy, December 5th 1943

Lieutenant Reginald ‘Tony’ Smith, RN Volunteer Reserve , April 28th 1944