Arthur Thomas
Washer was born at Chailey in late 1893 or early 1894, his birth recorded at Lewes in the March quarter of that year.
By the time the
1901 census was taken, he was living with his family in three rooms at Bureet House, North Common, Chailey. The household comprised Alfred Washer (head, aged 33 and working as a general agricultural labourer), Eliza
Washer (his wife, aged 31), and their four children: Alfred (aged ten), Edith Mary (aged eight), Arthur Thomas (aged seven)
and Albert Frederick (aged four).
In October 1914,
Chailey Parish Magazine noted that Arthur was serving his King & Country, recording the following October that he was
serving with the 7th Royal Sussex Regiment in France.
The following
month, November 1915, Arthur Washer is noted as serving with the 8th Royal Sussex Pioneers in France.
The 7th Royal
Sussex was a service battalion which had begun recruiting at Chichester on 12th August 1914 and would later form part of the 36th Brigade in the 12th (Eastern) Division. The 8th Royal Sussex was also a service battalion formed at Chichester in September 1914. In time, it would form part of the 54th
Brigade in the 18th (Eastern) Division.
It is possible
that Chailey Parish Magazine incorrectly assigned Arthur Washer to the 7th Royal Sussex when it published its roll call in
October 1915. According to the historian Paul Reed, original recruits to the
7th Battalion were given the prefix G to their regimental numbers; numbers which began at 1 and carried through to around
1200. Arthur Washer’s regimental number is noted at The National Archives
in London as G/1967.
According to Chailey
Parish Magazine, Arthur Washer served with the 8th Royal Sussex Regiment throughout the First World War, his name appearing
in all issues from October 1914 right through to the final published roll call in July 1919.
