The Thomas Deadman noted by Chailey Parish Magazine is Thomas William Deadman of Newick, Sussex.

He was born in Funtley, Hampshire in 1878, the son of Thomas James Deadman.  He appears on the 1881 census living at Lower Street, Farringdon, Hampshire at his grandmother’s house.  The household comprised Elizabeth Deadman (head, widow, aged 69, working as a grocer), Hannah Deadman (daughter, single, aged 30, working as a draper), Thomas James Deadman (son, widower, aged 29, working as a wheelwright) and three year old Thomas (whose middle initial looks like the letter N).

Ten years later, the 1891 census records Thomas still living in Lower Street, Farringdon.  His grandmother, aged 78 is recorded as a general shopkeeper, classified on the census as “Neither Employer nor Employed”.  Living with her are her daughter Hannah aged 38 and Thomas, a 13 year old scholar.  There is no mention of Thomas’s father.

By the time the 1901 census was taken, Thomas had moved away from Hampshire and was settled at Fount Hill, Newick and working as a domestic gardener.  He had married Elizabeth Ada Parris just the previous year, their marriage registered at Lewes in the June quarter of 1900.  The Deadman household comprised Thomas and Elizabeth (aged 26, born in Fletching) and their son, Thomas James Henry Deadman aged two weeks old and born at Newick.  Three more children would follow: Elizabeth Louisa Deadman (born 1906), William Mark Deadman and Alfred Edward Deadman.

In March 1915, Chailey Parish Magazine notes that Thomas Deadman is serving his King and Country and in October that year, adds that he is serving as a private with the 2/5th Royal Sussex Regiment in England.  In March 1916, it is noted that Private Deadman is with the battalion in India.

In August 1916, the parish magazine notes that Thomas Deadman is still in India but is now a rifleman with the 24th Rifle Brigade.  Except for the omission of his whereabouts, that information is repeated up until the final published roll call in July 1919.

Thomas’s medal index card held at The National Archives in Kew does not make any reference to the Royal Sussex Regiment but it does confirm that he was a private with the Rifle Brigade.  Two numbers are given: 502 and 206610. 

The 24th (Home Counties) Rifle Brigade was a Territorial Force formation formed at Halton Camp West on 10th November 1915.  The Rifle Brigade had no pre-war TF battalions and the 18th through to the 24th Battalions were comprised of supernumerary TF companies from drafts men on the National Reserve who were used in guarding vulnerable points in Britain.  The 24th was composed of drafts from the Queens, Norfolk, Suffolk, Bedfordshire, Royal Sussex, East Surrey, Essex, Royal West Kent and Hertfordshire Regiments and was commanded throughout by Lieut-Col F.W. Burbury, a retired officer of the Royal West Kent Regiment.