Category: Military
Rank: Private
Regiment or Ship: 8th Bn Royal West Kent Regiment
Service Number(s): G/6726
Occupation: Farm Labourer
Date of Birth: 1881
Place of Birth: Sevenoaks, Kent
Date of Death: 1956
Place of Death: Battle registration district
Address: Turkey Farm, Bexhill on Sea
Photos and newspaper articles
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Family Information
Parents: Samuel Levett (1844-1914) and Anne Levett, nee Simmons, (1843-1887).
Martin married Alice Catherine Terry (1882-1963) in Riverhead, Kent, on 25th February 1905. Only one child of that union has been found – Emily Alice, born on 11th September 1916 and died in 1968.
Martin and Alice went to Australia in 1913 – travelling on the vessel “Worms” and docking in Freemantle. They returned in 1915 – maybe to enable Martin to enlist for the war. They sailed on the “Orsova” docking on 25th April – and Martin enlisted a month later.
First World War Experience
Martin enlisted on 22nd May 1915 and went to France in September of that year. He had previously served with the Royal West Kent and this is the regiment he went back to. He was over 5’ 6” at the time and had a chest measurement of 34”½ – expansion 2½”.
He was discharged on 26th September 1917 with an internal derangement of the left knee and was awarded a pension of 13s 9d per week.
Martin was awarded the 15 Star, the Victory Medal, and the British War Medal.
In 1919 he attended a Welcome Home dinner in Sidley and it was shown that over one sixth of the population had enlisted to fight in the “war to end all wars”.