Chapter Fourteen

Heyshott In Two World Wars

 
1914 - 1918
 
In the village hall there is an illuminated Roll of Honour of all those from the village who served in the Armed Forces in the First World War. It includes the names of 75 men and women, of whom 13 served in the Royal Navy or Royal Marines, 56 in the Army, 3 in the RAF and 3 in the Womens Services. Fourteen of them were killed or died of their wounds, including the three Daughtry brothers, Basil, Frank and Ralph. It is an impressive list for such a small community and the majority were volunteers. It has to be remembered that there was no conscription until 1916 and agricultural workers were not in a reserved occupation.
 
The only person now living in the village who has memories of that time is Mrs Kathleen Jackson of 1 Bakersfield Cottages whose father had fought in the Boer War. She was born in Cocking in 1905 in the cottages alongside the then Cobden Arms, which has recently been converted into a dwelling house. She remembers men of the Royal Sussex Regiment marching past the pub on their way to Chichester Barracks. She and some of her friends would stand at the roadside and give the soldiers baskets of fruit.

Cocking c.1906 - enlarge
looking towards Midhurst, the Cobden Arms pub sign is to the right.

Apart from this we are dependant on a few entries in the minutes of the Parish Council which records that 33 men had joined up as volunteers within the first nine months on the war and that, from 1916 onwards, Christmas parcels or postal orders were sent to all those serving oversees.
 
When the war ended, the Parish Council discussed what form of war memorial should be erected. The first suggestion was for a monolith in the churchyard but nothing came of this. Eventually the memorial window in the church was dedicated in 1921.
 
In 1919 the Parish Council asked for contributions to a Peace Celebraation Fund. At about the same time Mrs Cobden Unwin of Oatscroft offered to put the road' from the pillar box to the New Houses into thorough repair on condition that the District Council would take it over and maintain it in the future'. There is a story that, on her way back to Oatscroft from a Parish Council meeting in the Cobden Club, she was furious at tripping over one of the potholes and breaking her glasses. As a result, she made her offer. The Parish council accepted gratefully and passed a resolution that 'that piece of road should henceforth be known as Peace Road' and that 'the expenses incurred be considered as the contribution of Mr and Mrs Unwin to the Peace Celebration Fund'.