Private Reginald Buckwell, 12th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment.

Private Reginald Buckwell, SD/1578 12th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment.
He was the son of Mrs. Catherine Chapman, of 11, Marine Rd., Eastbourne. He died 11th June 1916 aged 23 and is buried in Ocklynge Cemetery, Eastbourne.

This report of his life and funeral appeared in the Eastbourne Gazette.


Military Funeral

Private Reginald Buckwell

“On June 11, Private Reginald Buckwell, the youngest son of the late Mr. James Buckwell (ex-member of the Metropolitan Police) and Mrs. Chapman, 45, Channel View Road, Eastbourne, died in Nottingham Hospital.

He joined the Royal Sussex Regiment (“Lowther’s Own”) in October, 1914 and underwent training at Cooden. After a short time in France the deceased was shot through the ankle and was invalided to Nottingham, where he died of pneumonia and pleurisy.
Private Buckwell was born in Eastbourne and was educated at Christ Church and St. Andrew’s Church Schools, afterwards entering the greengrocery trade.

The funeral, attended with full military honours, took place on Saturday afternoon at Ocklynge Cemetery. The band of the Convalescent Camp accompanied the cortege and a military firing party was present. The “Last Post” was sounded at the graveside. The coffin was polished oak with solid brass fittings, bore the inscription: “Private Reginald Buckwell, died 11th June 1916 aged 23.” Messers Haine & Sons were the undertakers.”

Private Buckwell's grave lies underneath the tree in the foreground

Ocklynge Cemetery, Eastbourne, East Sussex.

Ocklynge Cemetery is located in Old Town, Eastbourne, East Sussex.

The Cross of Sacrifice designed by Reginald Bloomfield for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission stands at the main entrance to Ocklynge Cemetery. 130 casualties of the Great War lie randomly within the walls of the great cemetery.



In Ocklynge there are buried 18 officers and 112 other ranks. The Army has 107 burials, the Royal Navy 9 and the Royal Flying Corps 14.

42 of the burials in the cemetery have local connections and 17 of the men are soldiers who succumbed to wounds at the Central Military Hospital in Old Town. In fact, between January 1916 and July 1919 there were 16,000 admissions to the hospital, only 100 of these admissions succumbed to wounds or sickness.

The nationalities buried at Ocklynge:
South Africans 2
Canadians 8
Australians 6
New Zealander 1
Brazilian 1

The first military funeral at Ocklynge took place in October 1914. Private Edward William Langford of the 1st Battalion Befordshire Regiment he was 23. He enlisted in 1907 and was called up as a reservist in 1914. During the retreat from Mons he was wounded by sniper fire whilst resting in an orchard. His brother who was in the same battalion and a bandsman/stretcher bearer picked him up. Although he made it back to the Royal Herbert Hospital, Woolwich he subsequently died. The family home was in Wellesley Road, near the town centre.
His brother was killed the following year at Ypres.

Private Henry Smith, 9th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment.

Private Henry Smith, 9th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment

Son of George and Emma Smith, of 1, Parks Terrace, Hampden Park, Eastbourne, Sussex.

Killed in Action by a shell on 9th June 1916. Buried in BERKS CEMETERY EXTENSION, Belgium and is commemorated on the Hampden Park Memorial.

The first reports of his death are in the Eastbourne Gazette 21st June 1916.

Private Henry Smith

Tributes from Three Officers – “One of the Very Best”

Four letters received from France by Mr and Mrs George Smith (1, Park Terrace, Hampden Park) state that their son (Private Henry Smith of the Royal Sussex Regiment) has been killed in action. Deceased, who completed his nineteenth year on November 1 , was brought up in the parish of Willington and attended the church school. As a youth he worked on the land and in May last year he enlisted at Eastbourne. Ten months ago his Battalion was ordered to France, and he wrote home regularly his letters being the most cheery and hopeful character.

Lieutenant Theodore E Bourdillon, writing to Mrs. Smith on June 9 says: - “It is my painful duty to have to inform you that your son, Harry Smith, was killed in action this morning. I feel it useless to try and console you in your terrible bereavement, but I am sure you would like to know that he died a painless death. Officers and men alike mourn the loss of one of the very best.”

Lieutenant Banham wrote to Mrs. Smith:- “I can tell you that this is a grief and a big loss to me, which I feel very much. He was always so brave and so cheerful, always the one to volunteer when we had a tough job; and when he was there I felt we had a man who was going to stick it to the last.”

Second-Lieutenant Vidler writes:- “Private Smith was killed in action by a shell today. He was not in my platoon, but I knew him well and looked on him as a true, hardworking soldier and one who could always be relied on in a tight corner.”

Private A.W. Hawkins writes: - “He (Private Smith) was such a plucky chap. He did not care where he went or what he did."

Later that year, this letter was published in the Eastbourne Gazette 19th September 1916

Mrs G. Smith of 1 Park terrace, Hampden Park, Eastbourne has received the subjoined letter in reference to her son Private Harry Smith, Royal Sussex Regiment, whose death was recently announced.

“c/o 9th Royal Sussex, 73rd Brigade, 24th Division, B.E.F., France.

Dear Mrs Smith, I am just writing a line as I intended to do some days ago. To try and offer you what poor sympathy I can at loss of your son. He was a great favourite with the ’boys’ of his company and a great member of them turned out to the funeral. We laid him to rest in a little cemetery on the side of the hill near where he was killed. Mr. Bourdillon tells me that you would like to have a photograph of the grave. I am sorry to say that as we are not allowed to take any photos out here that will be impossible. But I can assure you that the graveyard will be well looked after. The cross with the name on it is in position; the exact spot can be obtained from the Graves Registration Commission., who have the keeping of all the registered graves out here. May God comfort you and support you in your time of trial. It is your loss and ours, but I hope not his. Perhaps that thought will be your strongest consolation in the days to come. Please accept these few words of sympathy – Believe me. Yours very faithfully, R.P. Dodd (C. of E. Chaplain).”

He is now buried in BERKS CEMETERY EXTENSION, Belgium.

Hairdressing needed at home, not at the Front.

Mr. Beattie the military reprsentative at the Eastbourne Military Tribunals was a man not to be argued with. In this reported case in the Eastbourne Gazette in 1916, Mr. Beattie is amazed when the applicant insists on hairdressing being a national necessity:

Haircutting a Necessity

G.H.Williams, hairdresser, newsagent and tobacconist, Langley road urged that enlistment would result in a loss of business.

Mr. Beattie, “Your wife could carry on the news agency and tobacconist business and she could get 23s a week separation allowance in addition, without the cost of keeping you.”

Applicant, “But if the hairdressers business is closed the customers of the other part of the business will go.”

Mr. Beattie, “You would not claim that your business is a national necessity?”

Applicanat, “It is a necessity!”

Mr. Beattie, “What! To get your hair cut!”

Applicant, “Yes.”

Eight weeks conditional was granted, applicant being advised to make application to the Commissioners (at the County Hall, Lewes) nfor help in the matter of his rent.
It was remarked that replies to such applications were often belated.

The Front Line and Rats

Life in the trenches was a world away from drill halls and every day life. Rats were one of the Front line's most unpleasant guests.

The 11th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment crossed to France via Southampton on 5th/6th March 1916, landing at Havre.

This letter from Private Wenham of the 11th appeared in the Eastbourne Gazette on 14th June 1916 and gave the people back in Eastbourne a taste of what was happening.

“Lowthers Lambs” and the Rats

'Mr and Mrs H. Wenham, of Meads Street Eastbourne, have received a letter from their son (Private F.P. Wenham) in which he says,

“We are doing another four days in the trenches, but as we have already done two we shall soon be out again. Then we shall go back a little way for eight days rest.

We are like the rats which infest this place – we only get active at night! When in the front line we have a fine game with the rats. When the rifles are placed on the parapet we stick a piece of toasted cheese on the bayonet, then when ‘Nibs’ comes along, pull trigger, and exit rat! The advantage of this means of execution is that there is always a chance of the bullet finding its way into the German trench and making Fritz nervous. You can take it from me, there is no need to worry on my behalf. The grub is pretty good, I am absolutely fit, and Fritz is far too busy to make a bullet with my number on it.”'


Private Frederick Peter Wenham served in the 11th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment (1st Southdowns). Service number SD/261.

He was subsequently transferred to the 9th Battalion. He died on 30th July 1917, aged 21 and is buried in LIJSSENTHOEK MILITARY CEMETERY, Belgium.

Remembrance Day - 'In Flanders Fields.'

For Remembrance Day 2007, 'In Flanders Fields' by John McCrae:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae's grave in Wimereux Cemetery, France.


John McCrae was born in Guelph, Ontario and attended the Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute. He then studied medicine on a scholarship at the University of Toronto. While attending the university he joined the Zeta Psi Fraternity (Theta Xi chapter; class of 1894) and published his first poems. He was a member of The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada while studying at the University of Toronto, during which time he was promoted to Captain.

McCrae served in the artillery during the Second Boer War, and upon his return was appointed professor of pathology at the University of Vermont, where he taught until 1911 (although he also taught at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec). In 1910, he accompanied Lord Grey, the Governor General of Canada, on a canoe trip to Hudson Bay.

At the start of the war McCrae was appointed as a field surgeon in the Canadian artillery and was in charge of a field hospital during the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915. The poem ‘In Flanders fields’ was written upon a scrap of paper upon the back of Colonel Cosgrave, in the trenches during a lull in the bombings. On May 3, 1915, after he witnessed the death of his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, the day before (as recited to his grandson). The poem was first published on December 8, that year in Punch magazine, London


From June 1, 1915 McCrae was ordered away from the artillery to set up No. 3 Canadian General Hospital at Dannes-Camiers near Boulogne-sur-Mer, northern France. C.L.C. Allinson reported that McCrae "most unmilitarily told [me] what he thought of being transferred to the medicals and being pulled away from his beloved guns. His last words to me were: 'Allinson, all the goddam doctors in the world will not win this bloody war: what we need is more and more fighting men.'"

'In Flanders Fields' appeared anonymously in Punch on 8 December 1915, but in the index to that year McCrae was named as the author. The verses swiftly became one of the most popular poems of the war, used in countless fund-raising campaigns and frequently translated (a Latin version begins In agro belgico...). 'In Flanders Fields' was also extensively printed in the USA, which was contemplating joining the war, alongside a 'reply' by R. W. Lillard, ("...Fear not that you have died for naught, The torch ye threw to us we caught...").

In late January 1918, while still commanding No 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) at Boulogne, McCrae died of pneumonia. He died on January 28, 1918, and was buried with full honours in Wimereux Cemetery, just a couple of kilometres up the coast from Boulogne. McCrae's horse, "Bonfire", led the procession, his master's riding boots reversed in the stirrups. McCrae's gravestone is placed flat, as are all the others, because of the sandy soil.

51st Division Memorial, Beaumont-Hamel, France.

The 51st Division memorial is in the Beaumont-Hamel Park. It takes the form of rough blocks of Rubislaw granite which were produced by Garden & Co. in Aberdeen, and are assembled in a pyramid form. On the top stands a statue of a kilted Highland soldier, looking east towards the village of Beaumont Hamel which men of the 51st Division took on 13th November 1916. The three panels on the pyramid bear inscriptions in Gaelic, English and French.

The Gaelic words can be translated as 'Friends are good on the day of battle.’

The monument was initially unveiled, following a procession from Beaumont Hamel village to the site, by Marshal Foch in September 1924. He concluded his speech with the words "Sons of Scotland, sleep in peace".

The memorial was originally dedicated by the Reverend Sinclair, who had been a chaplain with the Division. Pipers played, and the school-children of the area were among the crowds

Directly opposite, and in front of Y ravine, is another memorial to the 51st Division, a simple wooden cross. This originally stood at High Wood, and the inscription reads "In memory of the 51st Highland Division Officers, NCOs and men who fell at High Wood July 1916". The Division was in action there on the 23rd of July, when the 4th Gordon’s and 9th Royal Scots between them suffered 450 casualties, and also on the 29th of July (4th Seaforth’s).

Hunter’s Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel, France.

Hunter’s Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel, France.

Beaumont-Hamel was attacked in vain on the 1st July, 1916, and captured by the 51st (Highland) and 63rd (Royal Naval) Divisions on the following 13th November. Hunter's Cemetery (the origin of the name is not known) is, in fact, a great shell-hole, in which soldiers of the 51st Division, who fell in the capture of Beaumont-Hamel, were buried after the battle. There are now over 46, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site.

The cemetery itself is also circular, whilst all the known casualties (41) buried here except one died on the 13th of November, and all except two are men of the Black Watch (6th and 7th battalions) or Gordon Highlanders.

The fighting at Pozieres descriped by Lieutenant J.A. Raws.

This is a famous extract from a letter by Melbourne journalist Lieutenant J. A. Raws, who in a very graphic account, describes a scene during the battle for Pozieres

"... we lay down terror-stricken along a bank. The shelling was awful ... we eventually found our way to the right spot out in no-man's-land. Our leader was shot before we arrived and the strain had sent two other officers mad. I and another new officer took charge and dug the trench. We were shot at all the time... the wounded and killed had to be thrown to one side ... I refused to let any sound man help a wounded man; the sound had to dig ... we dug on and finished amid a tornado of bursting shells ... I was buried once and thrown down several times ... buried with dead and dying. The ground was covered bodies in all stages of decay and mutilation and I would, after struggling from the earth, pick body by me to try and lift him out with me and find him a decayed corpse ... I went up again the night and stayed up there. We were shelled to hell ceaselessly. X- went mad and disappeared... there remained nothing but a charred mass of debris with bricks, stones, girders and bodies pounded to nothing ... we are lousy, stinking, unshaven, sleepless ... I have one puttee, a man's helmet, another dead man's protect dead man's bayonet. My tunic rotten with other men's blood and partly spattered with a comrade's brains".

2nd Lieutenant John Alexander Raws of the 23rd Battalion who was born in Manchester, England, enlisted at Adelaide, South Australia and was killed in action on 23rd August 1916 aged 33.

His younger brother, Lieutenant Robert Goldthorpe Raws, was also killed at Pozieres. He was also in 23rd Battalion, born in Manchester, enlisted at Adeleaide and was killed instantly by a shell on the 28th July 1916, 26 days before his brother, aged 30.

Also see - Pozieres - today

Pozieres an account by C.E.W. Bean

Pozieres as recalled by Phillip Gibbs, War Correspondent.