Percy Charles
Pateman was born in Chailey in 1890, his birth recorded at Lewes in the December quarter of that year. He appears on the 1901 census of England and Wales living with his family at Holford Cottage, Chailey. The family comprised
Thomas Pateman (head, aged 44, working as an ordinary agricultural labourer, his wife Elizabeth Jane Pateman (aged 41) and
their seven children: Alice Pateman (aged 18, working as a general domestic servant), Frank Thomas Pateman (aged 17 working
as an ordinary agricultural labourer), Faith Nellie Pateman (aged 13), Charity Hetty Pateman (aged 11), Percy Charles Pateman
(aged 10), George Cecil Pateman (aged five) and Walter Robert Pateman (aged four). The
parents had been born in Chailey, as had Alice. Frank had been born in Plumpton and all the other children had been born in East Chiltington.
Percy Pateman
is first noted as serving his King and Country in the November 1914 issue of Chailey’s parish magazine. In October 1915 it is reported that Gunner Percy C Pateman has been invalided and then the following month
that he has been invalided and returned to active service.
In December 1915,
the parish magazine reports, Pateman, Gnr P, RFA, England quickly followed in January 1916 by the note that he is now in France. Percy Pateman appears to have served throughout the
war, his name appearing in the final published roll call published in July 1919.
In June 1917,
Percy was back in England, a fact reported in the East Sussex News on the 29th (Friday) of
that month:
SOLDIER’S WEDDING
At St Peter’s Church, Chailey – Gunner Percy Charles Pateman (RFA) second son of Mr Thomas
Pateman of Holford Farm, Chailey and Miss Alice Edith Page (eldest daughter of the late Rifleman Samuel Page of Lewes). Wedding took place on Monday. The bridegroom
left on Wednesday for France, the bride returning to London to resume her duties at a munitions factory.
The wedding must have been heavy with sadness. The
bride’s father had died while on active service in India that same month. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission reports his date of death as 6th
June 1917 and his age as 42. He was 206668 Rifleman S Page of the 24th Rifle Brigade,
a Home Counties Battalion which had arrived in India in October 1916. It adds the additional
information that he was the "son of Samuel
and Sarah Page; husband of Martha Eliza Page". Martha had died in May 1911 and
Samuel’s cause of death, recorded on his death certificate, is “Tubercle of the Lung”. His age at death is also noted as 45 rather than 42. Samuel
Page is commemorated on the Karachi 1914-1918
War Memorial. His body lies in one of 24 cemeteries in what was then northern
India but which is now Pakistan. None of
these cemeteries are now maintained by The Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the records identifying the one in which
Samuel Page’s remains lie appear to have been lost.
The National Archives
notes Percy Pateman’s army number as 82015. His brother, Walter and his cousins Alfred, Charles and Thomas Pateman MM also served their King and Country during the First World War.
Percy Pateman
died in 1958 after a long illness; his wife Alice died in 1982.
Sources and Acknowledgements
- 1901 Census of England and Wales
- England and Wales Civil Registration Index 1837-1983
- Chailey Parish Magazine
- The National Archives’ on-line medal information card index
- The East Sussex
News
- The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
- I am grateful to George Page
and Pam Coombs for contacting me with further information about Percy and Alice Pateman and Rifleman Samuel Page
