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

THE FOURTH YEAR — 1918

Copyright Valerie Martin 2004

Originally printed in the Findon News in October 2004

In FEBRUARY 1918, the government introduced rationing, which affected the Findon butchery and grocery trade. The first foods rationed were meat, butter and margarine, and in July the system was widened to include sugar, lard and jam too. To reduce the amount of food shipped from overseas, everything possible was done to encourage the growth of agriculture, and Findon was no exception. Subsequently, the 1918 harvest was said to be the biggest for sixty years. Numbers were also slightly up for sheep auctioned on Nepcote Green in the autumn and had risen to a presentable 7,250. By 1918 the minimum agricultural wage had increased to 32/- a week for the Findon worker.

Lance Corporal 7701 Albert Constable died whilst a prisoner of war in Germany on Sunday 15th SEPTEMBER 1918.  He was buried at Cologne Southern Cemetery, grave reference V.G.5.  Cologne was entered by British Forces on 6th December 1918 and the Southern Cemetery was begun by the city in 1900 and covers a very large area. It was used during the war for the burial of more than 1,000 Allied prisoners as well as German soldiers. After the Armistice it was chosen as the site of one of four permanent sites to where British graves from 183 other cemeteries in Germany could be moved.

 

Gunner Cedric Christian Douglas of the Royal Horse Field Artillery, (youngest son of Findon artist, Edwin Douglas from "Fox Down"), was one of the last from Findon to fall victim in the fighting. He died, age 30, of wounds at a casualty clearing station at Cambrai in northern France on WEDNESDAY 18th SEPTEMBER 1918. The announcement of his death was in The Times, late war edition on 24th September 1918.

Two weeks later, 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.

Private Charles Pratt was the last Findon man to die on the battlefield.  He was serving with the 9th East Surrey Regiment and fell on SUNDAY 27TH OCTOBER 1918. He lived at Sheepcombe and was a tenant of Hugh Richard Penfold Wyatt of the Cissbury Estate.

The village children rejoiced when Oliver Thomas returned from the war to reclaim his job as headmaster — and the disciplinarian, Miss Smith, finally departed. Oliver Thomas was head teacher for thirty years and when he died in 1941, he was buried in the graveyard at St. John the Baptist Church below Church Hill.

The First Great War ended for everyone in Findon with the signing of the Armistice on 11th NOVEMBER 1918.

Continue if you would like to read The Pratt Family at War.

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