Sunday, October 19, 2014

G/18321 Private William Thomas Martin, 1/5th East Kent Regt


Chailey Parish Magazine notes in its January 1918 edition that Private W T Martin is serving with the 1/5th Buffs (East Kent Regiment).  This information is then repeated up to and including the final published roll in July 1919. 

He probably enlisted under The Derby Scheme and is almost certainly the same G/18321 Private W T Martin whose medal index card at The National Archives shows him serving with the 5th East Kent Regiment.  

William had been schooled at Newick and at some point he sent a photo of himself to John Oldaker, the headmaster of Newick School who had made it a point to contact all old boys and make notes about what they were doing and where they were serving.  His notes for William Martin state: 

[Pupil] 1894-1901.  Enlisted August 30th 1916, East Kent Regt, Buffs, 3rd Batt. Afterwards to 5th Battn.  Went to India March 1917. To Mesopotamia.

William's employers, H & W R Fuller, had actually applied for his exemption from military service, as reported by the Sussex Agricultural Express on the 26th May 1916. They were unsuccessful.



My thanks to Simon Stevens for the information and photograph from John Oldaker's album, and to Ancestry for the medal index card image.


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