Private Warner
does not feature in Nurse Oliver’s album but he does get a couple of mentions in local newspapers whilst he was a patient
at Beechland House.
On 23rd March 1917 he is noted in the Sussex Express as a prize winner at a whist drive held at Newick the previous day. He is also presumably the same Private Warner who warranted a far larger mention the following month in
the same newspaper:
April 13th 1917 - Newick
RUNAWAY HORSE - Excitement was caused
at Newick Green on Sunday when, about 10.30
am, a pair horse van belonging to the Army at Maresfield
Camp was seen coming from that direction, only a small boy aged about four years, sitting on the dickey. Private Warner of the Middlesex Regiment, rushed to the rescue, and finding the reins hanging, caught hold
of the side of the van and managed to check the horses near to North Lodge without any serious damage being done. Private Warner, who is a wounded soldier (having been four times wounded) attached to the Red Cross Hospital
at Beechlands, sustained a slight injury to his knee, and was much exhausted.
Nothing further
is known of this man. Private Jennings who was also a whist drive prize winner
appears in the February 1917 pantomime Beauty and The Beast. The fact that Private Warner is not on that cast list suggests to me that he
arrived at Newick some time after 7th February 1917 although this is pure conjecture.
Sources and Acknowledgements
