THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

THE OUTBREAK OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR HITS FINDON

Copyright Valerie Martin 2000

First published in Along the Furlong, October 2000

The postcard below was sent from Worthing four miles to the south of Findon a week after the war was declared on Germany back in 1914, says it all....

 

The message on it read —

What a solemn time it is and what need to be ready for whatever may come.  We must live our lives one day at a time.

 

On 22nd JULY 1914 a seaplane crashed into the sea four miles south of Findon.   Here is the wreck of seaplane 115 on that day....

I have no further details of that day and I doubt if it had anything to do with the dark days ahead but was just a taste of things to come in the months ahead.

Tuesday, 4th AUGUST 1914 began as any ordinary weekday in Findon but then news arrived that Britain had declared war with Germany.  How this affected the Findon villagers can only be imagined but I can confidently say that the community was quite different from today and much smaller, with its population of around only 800. The chief cause of the war was Germany's desire to spread and to obtain more colonies for its growing population and trade and consequently many other countries were dragged into the struggle.

The Boy Scouts were scheduled to hold a rally at the Worthing Sports Ground but this was temporarily abandoned when the Findon troop (along with Worthing and Goring) were asked to participate with more than a thousand other Sussex Scouts to stand guard on railway bridges overlooking the lines.

By the end of the week,

an Army captain, in the company of a vet combed the area with what was called "an imperative order" direct from the War Office

"to purchase a great number of horses for Army use". 

Horse-drawn carts, vans and wagons belonging to tradesmen were stopped in the road and the horses removed from their shafts, never to be seen again.

 "Everything must give way to military necessity"

— the officer explained to the dismayed owners as he
 commandeered the surprised beasts and handed over compensation for them on the spot as they were led off. 

Has anyone stories of Findon horses being enlisted belonging to their father or grandfather, I wonder?  In the nearby town of Worthing, just south of Findon, more than seventy were taken by the army to the Steyne School playing field before being entrusted to army depots and shipped off to the front.

 

25th January 2006

V

Just looked at your website and seen the wonderful pictures of local army camps.

Wondered if you have seen this one of Findon - North Lodge (Muntham) can be seen.


J S

John Stepney, Findon Village, West Sussex.

 

At the outbreak of the war, some of the villagers were more concerned with the rifle range practice at Cissbury Ring than with the war itself.   Bullets were whistling over their heads on the hillside.  It was the same situation as complained about by the Findon artist, Edwin Douglas, in 1898.  

Although Cissbury Ring had been utilised for military training in comparatively recent years, there was no military presence during the actual war and no preparations put in hand for adapting the summit for defence purposes.

c. 1914 — Worthing Motor Services, (formed by local businessmen in 1909), ran a fleet of fifteen buses which included pleasure excursions to Findon. This photograph shows an outing in a Milnes-Daimler 22 hp vehicle — maybe the men's last trip before the First World War. 

At the beginning of the "war to end all wars", in nearby Worthing, the pier had just been re-opened after suffering damage from a raging storm.  
At the onset of the conflict with Germany, the Worthing fishermen hauled their crafts up the shingle just four miles to the south of Findon and hid them well inland. Rolls of unsightly barbed wire appeared and were positioned on the coastline to repel any would-be invaders. Homeowners on the seafront braced themselves and were encouraged to be on the alert in the event of a military order being issued for them to move further inland. In the event of an invasion, and if evacuation became necessary, inhabitants were instructed to collect as much food as they could carry, money and blankets and make for the safety of the downland.    There was much talk in Findon that "it would be all over by Christmas".

Many Findon soldiers were soon to come under enemy rifle fire in the months to come.  A million men from Britain and its Empire were to perish in the fields of France and Flanders.  The Royal Sussex Regiment benefited from the presence of a number of Findon men. It boasted a long and glorious place in history.  It was nicknamed the "Iron Regiment" because of its good conduct under fire during early encounters with the Germans. The 2nd Battalion was one of the first to land on French soil on THURSDAY, 13TH AUGUST 1914.

The Sheep Fair on Nepcote Green continued as usual under the shadow of war in SEPTEMBER 1914 with 5,700 animals coming under the hammer, a number which was slightly down from previous years. The flocks were comprised of practically all pure Southdown sheep.

The first Findon man to fall victim to the terrible war was Lance Corporal Thomas Constable of the 1st Dorsetshire Regiment. He died in France on Monday, 26th OCTOBER 1914.

Just prior for CHRISTMAS 1914, an ambiguous official lighting order sent a ripple of concern and reality to the situation on the coast four miles south of Findon.   It decreed,

 

All public and private lights which if unobscured would be visible from the sea, shall be kept extinguished or effectively obscured so as to be invisible from the sea.   And all lights shall be shaded to cut off light from the sky.

 

This order lasted for the next four years.

Continue to read Who was left in Findon during the Great War?

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THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — was launched by Valerie Martin in January 1999 and will grow to be a historical record of life in Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

 

E-mail: valeriemartin@findonvillage.com