Corporal Chatterton
Very little is known about this man. Corporal Chatterton did not leave an entry in Nurse Oliver’s album but he was a patient at Beechland House, Newick in June 1917. He is recorded simply as “Cpl...
View ArticleGeorge Clarke, National Reserve
Very little is known about this man and his entry in Nurse Oliver’s album does not make it clear whether he was a Hickwells or Beechland House patient. It reads: Thomas George Clarke N.R Late 1st Cold...
View Article16621 Private James Cowley, 1st Kings Own (Royal Lancaster Regt)
16621 Private James Cowley of the 1st King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment was a patient at Beechland House after being wounded on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme. His entry in Nurse Oliver’s...
View ArticlePrivate Davey
Very little is known about this man. Private Davey did not leave an entry in Nurse Oliver’s album but he was a patient at Beechland House, Newick in June 1917. He is recorded simply as “Pte Davey”, one...
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12517 Cpl Frederick John Denton MM, 9th Essex Regiment
12517 Corporal Frederick John Denton (pictured, above in October 1916) was a patient at Beechland House from October 1916 until August 1917. His entry in Nurse Oliver’s album reads: Think kindly of...
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L/6273 Private Frederick John Harding, 4th Middx
L/6273 Private Frederick John Harding was probably a patient at Hickwells and may have transferred to Beechland House in June 1916. His entry in Nurse Oliver’s album reads: L/6273 Private F Harding 4th...
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7480 Private Reginald Pimble, 1st Gloucestershire Regt
Reginald Pimble was a convalescent patient at Hickwells after being wounded at The First Battle of Ypres in November 1914. His entry in Nurse Oliver’s album reads:A trouble’s a tonA trouble’s an...
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Probationer Annie Bertha Hoidge, Sussex 54 VAD
Annie Bertha Hoidge was born in Twyford, Hampshire in September 1882. She was the daughter of William Pearn Hoidge (1842-1885) and Elizabeth Pearn Crosley (1843-1886), and the youngest of six siblings:...
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Probationer Alice Kathleen Fenn, Sussex 54 VAD
Alice Kathleen Fenn (pictured above right with her younger sister Jessie), was born at Dover, Kent in 1876, her birth registered in the district in the March quarter of that year. She appears on the...
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Probationer Jessie Mary Fenn, Sussex 54 VAD
Jessie Mary Fenn (pictured above left with her older sister, Kathleen) was born at Dover, Kent in 1886, her birth registered in the district in the December quarter of that year. She appears on the...
View ArticleProbationer Unis Reta Bourne Grounds, Sussex 54 VAD
According to the 1891 census, Unis Grounds was born in Brighton. Her birth though was recorded at Steyning, Sussex in the July quarter of 1882. Her name is recorded in volume 2b, page 314 as Unis...
View ArticleProbationer Marina Edith Bourne Grounds, Sussex 54 VAD
Marina Grounds was born at Brighton in 1874, her birth recorded at Brighton in the June quarter of that year. Her name is recorded in volume 2b, page 243 as Marina Edith B Grounds. She was the...
View ArticleProbationer Emily Bryant, Sussex 54 VAD
In common with too many of her colleagues in Sussex 54 VAD, I know little about Mrs Emily Bryant. In 1913 she noted in Nurse Oliver's book, on a page dedicated to the Detachment, "E Bryant" and in a...
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Assistant Quartermaster A Gander, Sussex 54 VAD
I know next to nothing about this lady. She appears in the photo above, seated third from left. Her (heavily over-written) signature appears in Nurse Oliver's album on the page devoted to Sussex 54...
View ArticleProbationer Kathleen Etheldred Pownall, Sussex 54 VAD
Kathleen Etheldred Pownall was born on the 15th January 1889, her birth registered at Kensington district, London, in the first quarter of that year. She appears on the 1891 census living at 5...
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Alice Pointing, cook, Sussex 54 VAD
Alice Pointing was the sister of Frank Pointing, George Pointing, James Pointing and William Pointing. She married Ernest Stevens who also appears on this Chailey roll-call.I know very little about...
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Quartermaster Helen Marian Green, Sussex 54 VAD
Helen Marian Green was born on the 28th August 1877 in Sarrat, Hertfordshire. She appears on the 1881 census as a three year old living at Great Sarratt Hall, Hertfordshire with her family. The head...
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Probationer Rose Agnes Hancock, Sussex 54 VAD
Rose Agnes Hancock was born in Fulbourne, Cambridgeshire in about 1866. She appears on the 1911 census as a 45-year-old parlour maid working for the Green family at the Red House, Chailey. She had been...
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Clerk Dorothy Austen Holcroft, Sussex 54 VAD
Dorothy Austen Holcroft was born in Morpeth, Northumberland in about 1888. By the time the 1901 census was taken, however, she was living in Sussex with her parents and two sisters. Dorothy's father,...
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The Mikado - Beechlands, June 1917
"Entertainments" of one sort or another seem to have been common currency for VAD hospitals during the First World War, both as a means of raising morale, and of raising money. The photograph above,...
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