Forty nine names of servicemen who were killed in action or died as a result of wounds or sickness attributable to
the Great War appear on the war memorial on Chailey village green. According
to my research, the names of a further seven men should also appear. In alphabetical
order, they are:
Charles Buckwell (born and lived in Chailey), Charles Hodges (born in Chailey), Robert Charles Jessop (born in Chailey), William Alfred Lansdowne (resident in Chailey), Richard Roffe (resident in Chailey), Edward Wells (resident in Chailey) and Charles Jarrett Willey (born in Chailey).
In addition, Harold Macculloch certainly had connections with the parish (his father John died at home in Chailey in 1915) and his name appears on the wooden
triptych inside the church and in the British Legion Roll of Honour but not on the war memorial.
Frederick James Smith and George Spencer Smith are both noted on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Debt of Honour as being the sons of James and Margaret Emma Smith of Yew Tree Cottage, Cornwell's Bank, Chailey, Lewes,
Sussex when in fact Colonel’s Bank is in Newick. Their names appear on the war memorial in Newick along with those of two other brothers
also killed during the First World War.
Finally, William Henry Spice is recorded on Soldiers in Died in The Great War as having been born in “Chailey,
Kent”. As
I indicate on his page, this is certainly an error and it seems likely that he had no connection with the parish.
