Felbridge & District History Group

Frederick George was born on 14th March 1890, the eldest son of Thomas Wheeler and his wife Betsy Susannah née Baldwin, who lived in Rowplatt Lane before moving to Fir Tree Cottage, Crawley Down Road, Felbridge. Thomas worked as a carter and Betsy was the sister of PC James Baldwin who was murdered whilst on duty in London, and who is also buried in the churchyard at St John’s. Thomas and Betsy had two other children, apart from Frederick, Charles, born on 19th June 1891, and Emily Ellen, born on 20th June 1895. Charles married Dora Pattenden, and Emily married William Henry Barton.

Frederick served with the 9th Battalion The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), as a driver.

PT. Frederick George Wheeler, G/8574, died on Friday 28th January 1916, aged twenty-five.
Photograph courtesy of F Wheeler

Ormond Edwin was born on 9th February 1882, the son of Ormond Edwin Meppem snr. and his wife Isabella née Banister, and brother of Sydney Clarence who also died in world War I on Sunday 18th October 1916. Ormond jnr. married Lillian Annie Creasey on 17th February 1917, who was born on 5th March 1896, and was the daughter of Fred and Salome Creasey. It is unclear as to whether Ormond and Lillian married before he was conscripted into war service, as conscription had been introduced in Britain in January 1916, or whether they married when Ormond was on leave. What is clear is that Lillian was a widow after only four months as a wife.

There is a discrepancy in the war service of Ormond Meppem between the brass Memorial Plaque in St John’s church and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The brass Memorial Plaque records his regiment as the East Surrey Regiment, whereas the CWGC, records that Ormond had enlisted with the 12th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, and served with the 1st Battalion of the London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers). PT. Ormond Meppem, 225100, went missing, presumed dead, aged thirty-five, on Friday 15th June 1917, and his name appears on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, on panel 52. Other Felbridge men to be remembered on this memorial include, John Bonny who died on 12th March 1915,and Sidney Burchett who died on 8th August 1917, killed in the Three Battles of Ypres. Ormond, like Sidney Burchett, was involved in the Third Battle of Ypres, an offensive mounted by Commonwealth forces to divert German attention from a weakened French front further South, which ended with the capture of Passchendaele.
Photograph courtesy of L Phillips

The picture is of Felbridge School in 1904. Circled (L to R) are Albert Brand, Frank Brand & Herbert Paice.

PT. Albert Victor Brand

Albert Victor Brand was born in 1893, the son of John and Mary Brand. In 1901, John Brand is listed as a gamekeeper living at ‘Hart’s Hall Cottage’, Copthorne Road, Felbridge, and his family included George, born in 1884, John, born in 1886, Edmund, born 1887, Ada, born 1891, Albert and then Frank born 1897. John and Mary also had an older daughter called Ellen Susana, born in 1881, who had left home by 1901, and who married Ernest Harding on 3rd July 1902. 

Albert Victor Brand signed up to fight in World War I at the age of twenty-six. He was killed in action and interred at St Marie Cemetery, Le Havre, France, (Div.62. III. O.7). Private Albert Victor Brand 25693 served with the 1^st and 4^th Battalions of the Royal Sussex Regiment. 

Frank does not appear on either the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, or on the Memorial Plaque in St John’s church, in fact there is no official recording of Frank’s death in World War I, save a pencil not on the back of the Felbridge School photograph of 1904. However, there is a memorial to Albert in the churchyard at St John’s.

PT. Herbert Charles Paice

Herbert Charles was born in 1895, in Penge, Surrey, the son of Charles Herbert and Alice Sophia Paice. Charles Paice moved to Felbridge and took over the blacksmith forge and wheelwright shop at the Star junction from Horace Young, at the end of the 19th century. The forge and wheelwright shop stood on the site of the Tool Hire Centre, with the blacksmith’s cottage to the South. Herbert was one of several brothers, and his brother Charles George, born in 1897, eventually took over the blacksmithing business, which later became Paice’s Garage, now the site of Kwik-Fit.

During World War I, PT. Herbert Charles Paice, 1353, served with the 1st and 4th Battalions of the Royal Sussex Regiment, and lost his life on Sunday 14th November 1915, aged twenty. He was buried in the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt, in grave no. D. 194. There are 2,056 Commonwealth war graves from the First World War located in this cemetery.
Photograph courtesy of F Wheeler

The pictured shows circled (L to R) Ernest Creasey, Herbert Paice (see above entry) and Alfred James Hill.

LNC. CPL. Ernest Stanley Creasey

Ernest Stanley was born on 24th November 1894, the third son of John and Fanny Creasey, who were of 7, Model Cottages, Felbridge, at the time of his death in 1916. John Creasey was born in 1860, the son of George and Amelia of 25, Imberhorne Lane, and who later lived at Fir Tree Cottage, Crawley Down Road, one of ten children. John and Fanny had five children, Olive Elsie, born in 1883, Arthur George, born in 1888, Frederick Leonard, born in 1890, (who was also killed in World War I), then Ernest Stanley, and finally, Minnie Lillian, born 1899.

In 1881, John is listed as a carter, as are his brothers Thomas and James, working for either the Felbridge Place estate or the Imberhorne Manor estate. Ernest worked as a nurseryman and did not initially volunteer for war service with the outbreak of World War I. His army career started when he was twenty years and ten months old, enlisting at Horsham on 14th September 1915. He joined the 14th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment, but was transferred to 11th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment on 31st December 1915. On 20th January 1916, Ernest achieved his II Class musketry, and was appointed acting Lance Corporal (unpaid) on 8th August 1916. Unfortunately, Ernest Creasey, SD/4899, went missing in action, presumed dead, on Sunday, 3rd September 1916. The Commonwealth War Grave Commission and the Memorial Plaque in St John’s record him dying as a Lance Corporal.

CPL. Alfred James Hill

Alfred James was born in 1894, the first son of James Terry Hill and his wife Jane née Langford. James was born in 1854, the son of Anne Hill, formerly of Crawley Down, and James Terry of ‘Park Farm’, Hophurst Hill, now Milborrow Chimney Sweeps. In 1851, James Terry, aged twenty-seven, is listed as the farmer of ‘Park Farm’, of twenty acres, employing two people, Anne Hill, aged nineteen, as a house servant, and William Arnold, aged sixteen, as an agricultural labourer. It was whilst in service at ‘Park Farm’ that James Terry Hill was born. Jane, the wife of James Terry Hill, was born in 1861, in Slaugham, Sussex, the daughter of Harry and Catherine Langford, who moved to Felbridge and lived in Crawley Down Road.

James and Jane Hill lived at ‘Acacia Farm’, Crawley Down Road, and their family consisted of, Alfred James, born in 1894, Horace, born in 1897, Harry Langford, born in 1901, and Catherine, born in 1903. Horace and Harry never married, but Catherine married William Pentecost, known as Tom, and descendants of their family still live in the Felbridge area.

With the outbreak of World War I, Alfred James enlisted with the ‘D’ Company, 8th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment. During his service he progressed up the ranks to Corporal. Unfortunately, CPL. Alfred James Hill, G/2669, was killed in action, aged twenty-three on Friday 1st June 1917, in Boisleux-St Marc, and is buried in the Sunken Road Cemetery, Boisleux-St Marc, Pas de Calais, France.
Photograph courtesy of M Owden

Mark (pictured with his wife and son) was born on 7th March 1916, the son of William Mark Heselden and his wife Edith née Cosson. Mark joined the family building firm of W M Heselden & Sons Ltd. in 1930, working as a carpenter. On 4th April 1940, he married Winifred Emily Alison Potter, and they had one son called Keith, born in 1942.

Also in 1940, Mark was called up under the Government’s direction of labour policy for World War II to carry out duties working on aircraft engines. He worked first at Gatwick and later at Southampton, and whilst in Southampton the Germans bombed his unit heavily. Later Mark joined the 174 Workshops and Park Company of the Royal Engineers, and was due to take part in the Normandy invasion of 6th June 1944, but Sapper Mark William Heselden, 14379084, was fatally injured just a fortnight earlier when an army lorry in which he was travelling was involved in a road accident. Mark died the following day on 23rd May 1944, and was buried in St John’s churchyard.
Photograph courtesy of M Heselden