The day that Sussex died

On 1st July Private Frederick Cottingham from Chailey, serving in the 8th Royal Sussex pioneers, was killed in action at Montauban on the Somme. His body was never found. The stained glass window depicting the Royal Sussex regimental crest is in St Peter's church, Chailey.

Two days earlier, 30th June 1916 was, according to some, the day that Sussex died. In a diversionary attack at Richebourg L'Avoue , the men of the 11th, 12th and 13th South Down battalions of the Royal Sussex Regiment rose from their trenches into a wall of machine gun fire. They succeeded in taking the German front line trench but in less than five hours the three Battalions lost 17 officers and 349 men killed, and a thousand men wounded or taken prisoner. A third of their combined force had gone and yet the attack at Richebourg is largely ignored in the official histories.

Albert Plummer from Chailey was a Lance Corporal in the 13th. He was wounded in the attack at Richebourg and died on 2nd July, the first of the three Plummer brothers to be killed in action.