Army
F Woods
Rank: Sapper
Regiment: 29th Company, Royal Engineers
Address: 7 West Street, Hastings
Mother: Mrs Woods
Brother: R B Woods
Other Info: With the British Expeditionary Force
Published: September 1914
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Army
R B Woods
Rank: Sapper
Regiment: 62nd Company, Royal Engineers
Address: 7 West Street, Hastings
Mother: Mrs Woods
Brother: F Woods
Other Info: At Stanhope Lines, Aldershot
Published: September 1914
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Army
William Lewis Hoadley
Rank: Lance Corporal
Regiment: 7th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment
Parents: PC William & Mrs Hagar Hoadley
Address: 24a Milward Road, Hastings
Other Info: According to CWGC, William died aged 19 on 19th October 1915. William is buried at Bethune Town Cemetery, grave reference IV.F.55.
A correspondent found William Hoadley’s soldier’s Bible in a French shop in 2023. They have tried to find a home for it in museums, to no avail. Images of the Bible are below.
On 6th November 1915, the Hastings Observer reported that: “Police-Constable Hoadley of 65a Milward Road has sustained a said bereavement in the death of his only son, William Lewis, whilst on active service.
He was a Lance-Corporal in the 7th Royal Sussex Regiment, and 19 years of age and died as the result of his wounds received at Loos. In his boyhood days the Lance-Corporal was a member of the Holy Trinity Choir and the Boy’s Brigade. Later he joined the Scouts. Three days after the outbreak of war he enlisted and went to the Front between five and six months ago. Since then he has had many exciting experiences.
Hoadley served three year’s apprenticeship to the grocery trade, and at the time of his enlistment held a good situation at a Hastings shop. He was a good swimmer, and won prizes as a school boy at the Hastings Baths, and he was also one of the successful competitors at the swimming carnival promoted by Mr du Cros, and carried out at Shornden Reservoir. Together with Police Constable Craske, Hoadley was clever in making high dives at the Baths.
It is worthy of note that up to date members of the Hastings Police Force have had three sones killed and two wounded at the Front.”
Published: September 1914 & May 1916
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Army
Victor A Balchin
Rank: Rifleman
Regiment: 18th Battalion, London Irish Rifles
Address: 92 Milward Road, Hastings
Other Info: Winner of the Bantam Weight Boxing Championship.
Published: September 1914 & March 1915
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Army
James Larkin
Rank: Driver
Regiment: Royal Field Artillery
Parents: Mr & Mrs Larkin
Address: 37 Percy Road, Ore
Other Info: Wounded in October, now again at the Front
Published: October 1914 & March 1915
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Army
Edric Ernest Websdale
Rank: Rifleman
Regiment: E Company, 1st Battalion, Rifle Brigade
Mother: Mrs Alice Healsdown
Stepfather: William J Healsdown
Brothers: Charles Cecil Websdale, Herbert Stanley Websdale & G H Websdale
Address: 77a Clifton Road, Ore
More Info: Reported missing on 26th August. Prisoner of War.
Published: September 1914, October 1914 & September 1915
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Army
P F Holliwell
Rank: Bandsman
Regiment: 5th Royal Sussex Regiment
Address: 9 Lennox Street, Halton, Hastings
Published: September 1914
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Army
A Cruttenden
Rank: Gunner
Regiment: Royal Horse Artillery
Father: Mr T Cruttenden
Address: 44 St Paul’s Road, St Leonards
Other Info: In the fighting line
Published: September 1914
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Army
Ernest Penfold
Rank: Saddler
Regiment: 4th Dragoon Guards
Parents: Mr & Mrs Penfold
Brothers: Archibald Penfold, Arthur Penfold & Bert Penfold
Address: 34 Old London Road, Hastings
Other Info: A prisoner in Germany. Wounded.
Text from the top image reads: ‘This photograph was sent home by Ernest Penfold, a prisoner of war in Germany. It was forwarded to us by his Mother, Mrs Penfold, Mount House, Old London Road, Hastings. Penfold is the Englishman in the centre of the back row’.
Published: September 1914, August 1915 & November 1915
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Army
William John Elliot
Rank: Private
Regiment: 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment
Parents: Mr John Robert and Catherine Mrs (Kate) E Elliott (Nee Bolingbroke)
Parents-in-Law: Mr James William & Mrs Eunice Beney
Brothers-in-Law: James George Beney, Ernest Beney, Percy Beney, Arthur Beney, Frederick George Paine & George Holder
Wife: Mrs Eunice Elliot
Address: Old London Road, Ore
Other Info: Wounded.
An article published in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer dated 3rd October 1914 reads: “Private William Elliott, of the Royal Sussex, whose relatives are at Carlisle Villas, Hastings, has been shot in the knee, and is at present at Cambridge.
Private Elliott was about 12 yards away from Captain Slater when that popular officer was killed, and he was wounded in the same battle.
In a letter from the hospital at Trinity College, Cambridge, he says: “I am getting on a well as possible but am still very weak yet, after the terrible times I have been through. God only knows how I came through such an ordeal. A fortnight ago today I never thought I should get back to dear old England again.
I have got some awful news to tell you when I do meet you again, about those brutal Germans but, thank God, I have the pleasure, the honour, of killing at least ten of them with my dear old rifle. It did please me to see the drop dead shot by us British boys.”
Mr Elliott’s knee has been very painful, but is better. It will, however, be some little time before he is able to return to Hastings. In his previous letters he described is experiences in the field, and how often being picked up he and his wounded comrades were brought away from the front in trains that ‘nearly shook them to pieces’ which was unavoidable but very painful in their wounded state.
Mr Elliott is a reservist, who served three years with the Colours. He has only been away eight weeks.
Published: September 1914 & January 1915
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