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Located in St Mary’s Lane, next to the town cemetery and to Clinch Green Wood, Bexhill Isolation Hospital at the start of 1914 was a collection of iron huts, some of which had come from a different site where they had been erected in the 1880s. They were not weather proof and were so primitive […]

There were five campaign medals available for individuals who saw service in the First World War. An individual, male or female, could be issued with a maximum of three of these medals, although there are a small number of exceptions to the rule. Service medals were issued automatically to other ranks, but officers or their […]

“Dazzle” camouflage (also known at the time as “razzle dazzle” or “dazzle painting”) was first used in the First World War. It was a method of providing camouflage at sea, by painting massive areas of a ship in strongly contrasting colours, using stripes, broken lines, and distorted rectangles. The idea was not to hide the […]

From the “Bexhill Observer” – 24th July 1915 INTERNED BY GERMANS Private George Eden, R.A.M.C., of Boxhedge, Nelthorpe, Banbury – brother of Mrs George Abbott, of Holly Cottage, Belle Hill – has just returned to his home after being interned since August, in Germany, after the Battle of Mons. He was, with others, in charge […]

In September 1914, 125,000 French and 94,000 Russian prisoners of war were imprisoned. By the end of the First World War nearly 200,000 British soldiers had also been captured. The majority were taken from the Western Front, particularly in March, April and May 1918 following German attacks on the Somme and the Chemin des Dames […]

Transcribed from the Bexhill Chronicle dated 25th December 1915. CHRISTMAS AND WAR TIMES. A GLIMPSE AT BEXHILL SHOPS. This year Christmas presents as a rule have been greatly affected by the war. Of course all the Bexhill tradesmen have strictly banned goods “made in Germany.” At night, with the slightly increased lighting facilities the town […]

Transcribed from the Bexhill Chronicle dated 25th December 1915. LIFE IN THE TRENCHES (BY A BEXHILL SOLDIER) The following interesting sketch of life in the trenches has been received from a correspondent who is “somewhere in France”. FIRST TWENTY HOURS IN THE TRENCHES We have again changed our billets, and are now about 14 miles […]

Ashburnham The Ashburnham Church war memorial is inside St. Peter’s Church Ashburnham. It is located on the North wall of the Nave about half way down. It is a framed document, decorated pen on paper, with a little damage at the bottom left hand corner. It lists the 74 men who went to war on […]

A War Memorial Committee was formed in 1919 to organise a memorial for the village of Little Common. A design was produced in late 1919 by Louis Frederick Roslyn, a well-known sculptor who after the war designed various memorials and became famous for his work, including the Bexhill Town War Memorial. His design was approved […]

In the late 1980s Fred Gray and Aylwin Guilmant worked with Bexhill Museum on an oral history project called “Bexhill Voices” which set out to record the personal stories of local residents who grew up in Bexhill. The first volume focussed on people who were born before or during the First World War. These accounts […]