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Old 07-09-15, 06:54
Jill Jill is offline
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Default (75) William Carey

William Carey is the “lost sheep” of the WW1 Roll of Honour of St Wilfrid’s School, Haywards Heath, because I have not been able to find his date of death and I can safely say I have spent more time researching William than any member of my own family.

William was the son of gardener George Carey, and Mary Ann (nee Pettitt) who started off their married life in Keymer, Sussex, where their first son Charles George Carey was born in 1883. His birth was registered in Cuckfield district in Q2 1883 and there is a baptism for him at SS Cosmos & Damien, Keymer on 13 May 1883.

By the 1891 census the family had moved to Haywards Heath and were living at St Clair Cottage which was the gardener’s cottage for the now demolished St Clair house in Perrymount Road and William appears with them aged 3 born in Haywards Heath, which gives a birth date of between April 1887 and before March 1888.

There is no GRO birth registration in Cuckfield district or Lewes district (under which different parts of Haywards Heath came) for William during this period. There is a Bertie Carey in Dec 1889, bapt in Horsted Keynes s of Richard & Rosanna. There is a registration for a William Edward Carey much later in Jun Q 1889 Cuckfield but it is for a baby with parents Edward and Elizabeth of Brook Street, Cuckfield who was born 14 Apr, bapt 16 Apr and buried aged 5 days on 22 Apr 1889 at Holy Trinity, Cuckfield (from Holy Trinity parish registers). There is a registration in Rye, Sussex , Mar 1889 for a William Charles Carey. There is no baptism for William at St Wilfrid’s church in Haywards Heath.

The family are at the same address in 1901, William was 13, with no additional children in the family.

The 1911 census saw William in the Navy as a Stoker 1st Class aboard HMS Halcyon giving his birthplace as Haywards Heath although his age of 24 gives a birth date of between Apr 1886 and Mar 1887.

In January 2015 Ancestry added the Royal Navy Register of Seamen’s Services 1900-1928 which was a revelation. William gave a birthdate of 5 Dec 1886 and a birthplace of Brighton (13 miles south of Haywards Heath). I’m sure it is him because he was on HMS Halcyon in the 1911 census with a Haywards Heath birthplace, his Naval record shows him on HMS Halcyon and because of the newspaper report below. On his Naval record his previous occupation is given as Postman though there is nobody of that name in the correct time frame in the British Postal Service Appointment Books on Ancestry.

After finding a mention of him in the Sussex Express, Surrey Standard and Kent Mail for 15 Sep 1906 I realised it was related to a note on his service record about spending 3 days in the cells:

William Carey, of Haywards Heath, was charged with being an absentee from the Navy. On the application of Supt. Brooman an order was made for the prisoner to be sent back to his ship at Chatham.


The last entry on William’s naval record is in the “If Discharged, Whither and for what Cause” column. It says “Run Lyttleton” from HMS Pioneer on 12 Oct 1912, i.e. he deserted at Lyttleton, New Zealand.


I have searched the local newspaper for the war years which is available digitally at Burgess Hill library for references to William Carey but have found nothing. Throughout the war each week the paper listed a huge number of names of local men serving in the forces, alphabetically by village and town. His name is not there. (His brother does not appear either though his army record survives, neither is my husband’s grandfather, he was orphaned as a child so there were no proud parents to pass his name to the press). The “Roll of Honour” website claims he served with the Surrey Regiment but gives no evidence for this and I believe that may refer either to Bertie Carey who is demonstrably a different man or to the William Carey who served with 1st Bn Queens (Royal West Surrey Regiment) regtl no 9444 who was presumed to have died on 12 April 1916 according to the UK Army Register of Soldiers Effects, but was later found to be alive, and was a prisoner of war as noted on his medal card.


I have looked at every William Carey, W Carey or any other Carey with W and another initial in any of the services from any country on the CWGC site and eliminated them as they are too old, too young, have differently named parents or were born in another country (The UK Army Register of Soldiers Effects was also very useful.)


I have no idea what happened to him after 1912. Sometimes I even wonder if he died in WW1 at all, and as he had disappeared in 1912 may have got onto our Roll of Honour purely on the assumption by his family that he had died in the war. His father had died in 1908, mother in 1928. His brother has a WW1 service record, he was married but his only daughter died (unmarried) in 2004, so there are unlikely to be relatives who might know.

I have found a William Carey on a crew list on the ship “Port Lincoln” as a 28 yr old Able Seaman born Sussex from Port Pirie, South Australia sailing to Sydney NSW 28 May 1917, which might be him, (bit would give a birth date of c1889) and have looked at the NZ Papers Past website and Australian newspapers on Trove without any conclusive sightings.


Newspaper report of death found, see below. I will leave all the steps I took in my research in eliminating other William Careys though.

Link to my Ancestry tree for William Carey

Last edited by Jill; 02-09-18 at 11:54.
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