Author: Andrew Taylor

In attendance at Saturday’s unveiling of the memorial plaque to Sidney Godley V.C. will not only be our Town Mayor Nick Hodges, who will be giving a speech, but also the Minister for Communities and Local Government, the Rt. Hon. Eric Pickles, who will also be addressing  the crowds.

Also among the guests will be Charlie MacKeith the designer of the Memorial plaque, and Mrs Susan Hill, a great niece of Sidney Godley who will be officially representing the family in the absence of Mr Colin Godley who will be in Mons, Belgium, the site of the battle where Sidney Godley won his medal. There will further be a representative from the Regiment of Royal Fusiliers, the successors to the Regiment that Sidney Godley served in.

The band of the Royal Logistics Corps will be marching from King Street turning into London Road and into the High Street opposite the War Memorial. Commencing at 10.40 the programme finishes with the band departing the High Street at 11.30

On Wednesday 27th of August Deputy Town Mayor will be welcoming Colin Godley and some of the family who will be arriving in East Grinstead on return from their visit to Belgium.

EARLY bird tickets now available for Chequer Mead’s Christmas panto.

THE paving slab which recalls the heroism of Private Sidney Godley VC , who was born in East Grinstead, is now in place below the town War Memorial in the High Street.

It will be officially unveiled this weekend by Town Mayor Mick Hodges, but in the meantime Town Clerk Julie Holden has appealed to everyone to leave the covers in place so that the surprise isn’t spoiled.

Photo credits: Roy Henderson and Simon Kerr

THE popular 999 Funday will take place in Burgess Hill this year and will be bigger and better than ever the ‘three towns’ poll their resources to put on a really great display.

TIME appears to be standing still in East Grinstead where one face of the Town Clock is missing its hands.

But it’s just a temporary problem, and everything will soon be tickety-boo, said a spokesman for the Town Council.

‘At present one set of hands is disconnected from the clock, the other side is functioning as per normal.

‘The problem is a mechanical one which has been diagnosed by our contractors and we have placed an order that will enable us to replace the faulty part.

‘Sadly we have had to source this part from Europe as there is no longer a UK supplier who provides these very specialised items. But of course, this being August, it means our supplier has shut down for the summer holidays and we are going to have to wait until next month before delivery.’

CHEQUER Mead will be hosting its annual Friends Quiz Night on 9 September. Teams of six,or just go along and they will make up numbers on the night. £5 a head and a cash prize for the winners.

ERIC Pickles and the band of the Royal Logistic Corps will attend next Saturday’s unveiling of the Sidney Godley memorial slab by the High Street War Memorial.

The Army band will leave the King Street car park at 10.45am and march up the London Road to the High Street followed by a TA unit and the town’s Army, Air Force and Navy cadets. After they have assembled in the High Street the unveiling will take place followed by short speeches from Mr Pickles and Town Mayor Nick Hodges.

The army band will then play for about 20 minutes before marching back to King’s Street car park from where they will depart.

Town Clerk Julie Holden has stressed that there will be no events taking place at East Court in connection with the unveiling.

The road will then be reopened and the East Grinstead Concert Band will play in 20 minute sessions until around 2.30pm to entertain the town centre crowds.

Guests at the ceremony – who will include members of the Godley family – will be entertained afterwards at the Ex Servicemen’s club opposite the Fire Station.

The work of installing the slab will be generously undertaken by local builders B J Babb in the week before the unveiling.

ON Saturday 23 August Eric Pickles will unveil a plaque by the High Street War Memorial commemorating the 100th anniversary of the action for which Private Sidney Godley became the first private soldier to win Britain’s highest award For Valour.

Pte Godley, who was born in East Grinstead and already commemorated with a blue plaque at East Court, received the medal for his defence of the Nimy Bridge at Mons on 23 August, 1914.

His battalion, the 4th Royal Fusiliers, was one of the first to be sent to the Western Front following the outbreak of war in August 1914.

They arrived in Belgium on 22 August to defend two bridges over the canal at Nimy and prevent the Germans surrounding the British expeditionary forces.

During a German attack, Pte Godley was wounded by shrapnel in his back, and a bullet which lodged in his skull but despite his wounds, he took over a machine-gun from his fatally-wounded commanding officer and held the position single-handedly for two hours.

He was eventually captured by the Germans, and while imprisoned in Doberitz was told by the German officer in command that he had been awarded the Victoria Cross.

Pte Godley, who remained a prisoner of war for four years, was invited to dine with the German officers one Christmas in recognition of his courage.

In 1918 he managed to escape and returned to England via Denmark, from where he sent a postcard to his family.

Unfortunately it did not arrive until the same day he did, and the first they knew of his safe return was when he bumped into his sister who was out shopping close to home.

In 1956 Pte Godley took part in celebrations marking the centenary of the institution of the Victoria Cross at Hyde Park in London. He died in hospital on 29 June 1957 and was buried with full military honours in Loughton Cemetery in Essex.

Since his death blue plaques have been placed at East Grinstead Town Council offices and 164 Torrington Drive, in Loughton, Essex, where he lived for some time.

In 1992 Tower Hamlets Council named a block of flats “Sidney Godley VC House” in honour of the former private soldier who had worked as a school caretaker in the borough.