Jesse Albert Woodhams was born in 1890 at Chelwood Common, Sussex.  He appears on the 1901 census of England & Wales as a ten year old school boy living with his family at Twyford Lodge Cottage, Maresfield, Sussex.  The family comprised Thomas Woodhams (head, born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent), a widower aged 38 and working from home as a gamekeeper, and his four children: [Edith] Kate Woodhams (aged 15, born in Tonbridge), Thomas Woodhams (aged 13, a school boy born in Tonbridge), Jesse, and Frederick Woodhams (aged three, born in Twyford, Sussex).

 

The Children's mother, Sarah Woodhams, (nee Godsmark), had died a few months earlier at the young age of 36, leaving her husband to care for their four children.

 

Chailey Parish Magazine first mentions Jesse in August 1917 noting:  Woodhams, Pte J, Coldstream Guards. In January 1918, the additional information that he has been wounded is added and this information is repeated up to and including the final published roll call in July 1919.

 

The National Archives’ on-line medal information card index notes that Jesse Woodhams’ army number was 18474.  This number would have been allocated around June or July 1916 so it would appear that Jesse had been in khaki for at least a year before Chailey Parish Magazine first mentioned him.

 

There is a death recorded for a 74 year old Jesse A Woodhams in the December quarter 1964 at Doncaster and this is almost certainly the same man.  His two brothers Thomas Woodhams and Frederick G Woodhams also served their King and Country during the First World War.

 

Sources & Acknowledgements

 

• 1901 Census of England & Wales
• Chailey Parish Magazine
• The National Archives’ on line medal information card index
• John Hastings-Garrett for information about the Woodhams family