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

THE PRATT FAMILY AT WAR

Copyright Valerie Martin 2006

Originally published in Along the Furlong in January 2006.

Peter Pratt was born in the village of Rusper in West Sussex and was a hedger and thatcher by trade.  He met Louisa Short (who had been born in Warnham) and they were married.   I cannot help but wonder if she was related in some way to Albert Short of Findon Farm fame.   Perhaps someone will one day tell me. 

Peter and Louisa were still living in Rusper when their first child, Helen Barbara (known as Nell) was born in 1868.  

They had moved to the nearby village of Newdigate when their second daughter, Louisa, came along in 1870.

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Two years later they had moved to Sullington, the birth place of their third child, Emily.

By 1875, the family had arrived in Findon where they made their home at Gore Cottage at the foot of Bost Hill and Peter became a well-known Findon character. 

Six more children were born at Gore Cottage...

There were a total of nine children.  This is the story of their two oldest sons, Charles and George.  It is another of those tales from war-torn Britain involving a family from Findon and describes how the hostilities hit ordinary people in the village.

George had a career with horses.  It is known that he was still living with his parents at Gore Cottage when he worked as an ostler at the Gun Inn during the tenure of George Mayhew (c. 1886-1895). 

At the outbreak of the First World War, George was a married man of thirty-six, and he joined the 2nd/4th Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment as a Private.

Many men volunteered to fight.  It was said at the time that there was no one left in Findon but old people, wives and children.  As well as manpower, there was a massive compulsory round-up of horse-power at this time for "the war to end all wars".   Horses were used for pulling the guns and ammunition.  Stables and farms were raided by War Office officials for the war effort.  Drivers of carts were stopped and their horses commandeered leaving the vehicles minus any means of locomotion.   If a horse could stand, it was said that it was taken to serve its country.   Many hearts must have been broken.

By October 1917, General Allenby's force had been entrenched for some months in Palestine in front of a strong Turkish position along the Gaza-Beersheba road.   George and the rest of the troops were in readiness to proceed on the town of Beersheba as their first objective.  At last, on 31st October, the attack was commenced.

News arrived in Findon that George Pratt had been killed in the attack on Beersheba on Saturday 3rd November 1917.

On the following evening, the 4th, the Australian Light Horse Brigade charged over the Turkish trenches into the town.   Beersheba War Cemetery was immediately created on the fall of the town and this is where George was buried, some 74 kilometres south-west of Jerusalem, and far away from his beloved Findon.   The cemetery now contains 1,241 Commonwealth burials from the First World War, 67 of them unidentified.

When George's older brother, Charles, left school before the turn of the century, he started work as an agricultural labourer.  He later married Emily who came from the tiny hamlet of Coombes just over the downland.  Their first child, a son, was christened Charles after his father.  Charles Junior was baptised in Findon on 5th November 1899.

Charles Senior became a tenant of Hugh Richard Penfold Wyatt of the Cissbury Estate (his landlord went on to became High Sheriff in 1905 and later wrote "The Fragments of Findon" in 1926).  Charles lived on Cissbury land at Sheepcombe.   Sheepcombe farmhouse is still in existence to this day at the top of Coombe Rise (on the south side) in Findon Valley.   The adjoining farm labourers' cottages were converted many years ago.

Charles Junior was brought up at Sheepcombe and could not have been more than sixteen years old at the outbreak of the Great War.   Nevertheless, he followed in his Uncle George's footsteps and became a Private in the army.  This was with the 9th Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment. 

On 3rd October 1918 the Germans sent an appeal for a cease-fire to President Woodrow Wilson of the United States. His reply demanded no less than a German surrender.   Charles Junior was now 19 years old and was badly wounded at this time while fighting in France.  From the Worthing Gazette dated 20th November 1918.....

Having been brought back to this country he died of his serious injuries on Sunday, 27th October 1918 and is buried in the churchyard of St. John the Baptist Church in Findon.  

From the Worthing Gazette dated 22nd January 1919....

He was the last Findon soldier to die in this conflict to end all conflicts.  

His grave is on the left-hand side of the path up from the lych-gate and also contains the remains of his father, Charles Senior, who died many years later on 16th June 1953 and his mother Emily who died at the age of 81 on 29th September 1958.

A beautifully illustrated framed poem dedicated to Charles Junior and dated 1987 hangs on the church wall close to the memorial tablet.   Here we come upon one of those little Findon mysteries.   No one knows who wrote the poem or who arranged for it to be put in the church in 1987.    Charles Junior had no descendants.  Why is the poem only dedicated to Charles Junior and not his Uncle George, or indeed any of the other Findon men who died in the Great War?   Has he a secret admirer I cannot help wondering?  

Could this be a clue?  Minnie (George's youngest sister) was a hundred years old in 1987 but when the poem was written but this may just be a coincidence?   However, I cannot see why she would have remembered her nephew and not her brother in St. John the Baptist Church.  Minnie lived to be 103 years old.

The Soldier

Here and forever more at peace
Your shattered frame shall lie
Finding in death its earned release
Beneath the Sussex sky.

This earth that once your forebears tilled
enshrines your bones with pride
Whose too brief life long years fulfilled
The day your brave heart died.

Summer and winter seasons through
Green Spring and Autumn gold
Their transient homage pay to you
Who never will grow old.

O may your spirit's shining strength
Teach our torn world today
To seek and find in love at least
The peace for which we pray.

1987 — dedicated to Private Charles Pratt
 

Peter Pratt and his wife Louisa, are also buried in St. John the Baptist churchyard in a grave nearly opposite that of their son, George, and grandson, Charles Junior.

Continue if you would like to read about  Private Alwyn Langham.

This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.