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Old 22-07-11, 16:59
Jill Jill is offline
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Default Thomas Charles Harwood

Name - "official" name and what they were known as
Thomas Charles Harwood

Date and place of birth
23 Aug 1899, Cuckfield, Sussex

Names of parents
Charles Harwood (otherwise Chandler) & Mary nee Pottington (Mary died 1911, Charles committed to Broadmoor 1911, died 1916)

Details of each of his or her marriages - if any - and any divorces
26 December 1918 All Saints' Lindfield, Sussex to Victoria Lily May Cole
1933 left his wife for Florence Ethel Johnson (met her when auditing the books for the bakers she worked for) who changed her name to Harwood. Article in Mid Sussex Times about the Lindfield Miniature Rifle club for which he was Secretary having folded when he left the district (it was reformed the following year and is still going strong)

Occupation(s) - if any
From 1913 worked for Ralph D Higgs, accountant in Boltro Road, Haywards Heath. Then an accountant in Surrey. Also owned some grocers shops in London at some point and a newsagent called Right On at Westergate, Sussex in 1933. Member of the Liberal Party and is thought to have stood for some sort of election.

Military service - if any
Lance Corporal 103356 Sherwood Foresters( Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Regt), he had this rank at the time of his marriage. Conscripted in summer 1917, gassed at some point as there is a reference to this in an undated letter from his employer. 2 photos of him in "hospital blues" taken in Southampton (one portriat, one on a group with other soldiers and nurses so may have been in Netley military hospital
Addresses where they lived - and please list which censuses you have or haven't found him/her on, if applicable.
1901: Bolnore Lodge, Cuckfield, Sussex
1911: Bolnore Lodge, Haywards Heath, Sussex (his father was farm bailiff for Kleinwort the merchant banker) at this point his mother was dying of TB
1921: Gravleye Farm. Lindfield as a visitor with wife and son. It's a neighbour of his parents in law.
1923: 3 Walstead Place Cottages, Lindfield, Sussex at birth of 2nd child
1930s until he left his wife in 1933ish 2 West View Cottages, Gravelye Lane, Lindfield next to laundry, his mother in law's house
1935-38: 12 St Aidan's Road, Dulwich from electoral roll (with Florence, calling herself Harwood)
1939-45: 109 Shakespeare Road, Norwood
c1960: Ashford, Middlesex
1976: Surrey


Date, place and cause of death
12 Feb 1976, Surrey, don't know cause

Date and place of burial / cremation.
Somewhere in Surrey, cremation, OH went but can't remember where

Details of will / administration of their estate - if applicable
The will caused a lot of resentment as he left nothing to his three daughters.

Memorial inscription - if any
Not known

Link to father Charles Harwood aka Chandler

When living at Lindfield he was on several committees for village groups eg Lindfield Club, Tennis Club, Lindfield Rifle Club, see Mid Sussex Times for details.

Last edited by Jill; 15-01-22 at 09:43. Reason: marriage & military details, 1921
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Old 16-04-14, 18:51
Jill Jill is offline
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I found this earlier this week:

MID SUSSEX TIMES 31 DEC 1917
A PRETTY WEDDING was solemnised at the Parish Church on Boxing Day, the contracting parties being Lance-Corporal Thomas C Harwood , Sherwood Foresters, son of the late Mr Charles Harwood of Haywards Heath, and Victoria Lily May, only daughter of Mr & Mrs Albert R Cole, of Lyoth Lane, Lindfield. The officiating clergyman was the Rev HAROLD THOMAS. The bride was given away by her father and was attended by Miss Louie Watkin. Owing to the bride's brother being unable to obtain leave from service Mr M Parks acted as best man. After the ceremony a reception was held at the bride’s home. Lance-Corporal and Mrs Harwood left for Gloucestershire on Friday morning, to spend a short honeymoon.


[M Parks was either Mark Parks b 1875, (father of cricketer Jim Parks) or possible his 18yr old son Mark Parks jr. TC Harwood’s grandson had been told of the connection, and another grandson was in hospital with Mark Parks’s snr ‘s great grandson when having tonsils out c1961]

Last edited by Jill; 12-04-16 at 18:31. Reason: misplaced apostrophe/grammar
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Old 17-12-20, 20:41
Jill Jill is offline
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We now know they went to Gloucestershire for their honeymoon because his sister was sent to a children's home there and stayed in the area afterwards, her address is in his diary of 1917 is Sudeley Castle.
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Old 10-04-23, 09:11
Jill Jill is offline
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I now know he was a sergeant in the 1st or 2nd Cadet Battalion of the Sussex Yeomanry before he was conscripted into the regular army. There is a postcard group photo of him with sergeants stripes taken by Lindfield photographer William Marchant. In his 1917 diary is the address of a Capt Staunton Hedges. Newspaper reports of the time mention Capt Staunton Hedges and the Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill Bn of the Sussex Yeomanry. and Thomas makes one mention of his cadet uniform in his diary.

Several weeks of sleuthing over the names in the 1917 diary has revealed someone called Crockford, who turned out to be from Hurstpierpoint in Sussex and who was also in the Sherwood Foresters, indeed his regtl number is only 4 digits on from Thomas's.

Crockford's military record survives, whereas Thomas's does not. Thomas's diary has the words Brocton and Clipstone, Crockford's records show these were army training camps and has the dates they were there. Crockford died from the effects of gas on 18 Aug 1918 at a Canadian field hospital in France.

I knew Thomas had been gassed due to an undated letter from his employer sympathising. I found a query on the Great War Forum about the 10th Battalion Sherwood Foresters and a gas attack which revealed it was on 15 Aug 1918 somewhere between Fouilloy and Vaux sur Somme resulting in the loss of 18 officers, 33 men killed, 44 died later of wounds and 431 wounded.

"and long strings of men with their eyes bandaged, each holding the man in front, trailed slowly backwards down to the dressing station" (quote from 10th (S) Battalion The Sherwood Foresters by Lieut W N Hoyte) which is an image which is exactly that portrayed in "Gassed" the painting by John Singer Sargent.
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