Category: Military
Rank: Sergeant G/2219
Regiment or Ship: 8th Bn Royal Sussex Regiment
Service Number(s): G/2219
Occupation: Market Gardener (1911 Census).
Date of Birth: 1881
Place of Birth: Ninfield, Sussex (baptized at St Mary the Virgin, Ninfield).
Date of Death: 07.02.1919
Place of Death: Unknown.
Place of Burial / Memorials:
Esnes Communal Cemetery, in Northern France.
Address: Hope Cottage, Sidley
Photos and newspaper articles
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Family Information
Parents:
Richard Hammond, born in 1855, in Bexhill, Sussex and Annie Balcombe, born in 1856, in Heathfield, Sussex. They were married in 1875, in Hastings.
Siblings:
Alice Mary Hammond, born in 1878, in Ninfield, Sussex.
Herbert John Hammond, born in 1883, in Ninfield, Sussex.
Amy Eliza Hammond, born in 1886, in Ninfield, Sussex.
Arthur James Hammond, born in 1888, in Ninfield, Sussex.
Annie Hammond, born in 1891, in Ninfield, Sussex.
Eva Hammond, born in 1894, in Ninfield, Sussex.
Spouse:
No record has been found of George Charles Hammond ever marrying.
First World War Experience
The only service record of George Charles Hammond that seems to have survived is his Medal Roll Index Card. The information on that tells us that he served in the Royal Sussex Regiment, becoming, first a Corporal and, then a Sergeant, with Service No, G/2219.
He entered the Western Theatre of War (France) on 24th July 1915, and, at the end of the war, had been awarded the British, the Victory and the 1915 Star, medals. He had, also, earned the Military Medal but no reason was given.
The last note on the MIRC is “committed suicide, on 7th February 1919”, which will become clear, and commented on, later.
The MRIC is all the information on George’s experience that seems now to exist but a grandnephew of George, a John Hammond, worked hard to get George’s name added to the memorial in “All Saints” church, Sidley. In 2014 this was finally done and the story of how he achieved this was told in the “Bexhill-on-Sea Observer”, online.
Additional Information
A possible marriage for Alice Mary Hammond is that to a Charles Ebenezer Meredith, in the December quarter of 1900, in the Hailsham district, which included Ninfield.
There is a marriage of a Herbert J. Hammond to a Beatrice Lewis, in Ninfield, in 1911, and the birth of an Eleanor M. Hammond (1920), and a Robert S. Hammond (1926), in Brighton, whose mother had the maiden name of Lewis.
Arthur James Hammond married a Naomi H. Isted, in Bexhill, in 1911and they had four children: –
Arthur G. Hammond, born in 1911, in Bexhill.
Reginald S. Hammond, born in 1915, in Bexhill.
Kenneth J. Hammond, born in 1922, in Bexhill.
Henry M. Hammond, born in 1927, in Bexhill.