The Royal Sussex Regiment at Newton
More: Mumbles welcomed the Sussex Regiment: a collection of memories
The Royal Sussex Regiment Badge
Nothing succeeds like Sussex
Honi soit qui mal y pense
The arrival of the 9th battalion of the Royal Sussex regiment at Newton was noted by Percy Davidson, the local Air Raid Warden on 25th September 1940. They used Summerland House as an Officers' mess and the NCOs and other ranks occupied tents in two nearby fields, also requisitioned, as well as other properties in the Langland and Caswell areas, including Saint Peter’s Church Hall, Newton, which formed the mess for a tented camp, as remembered below.
Summerland House, a substantial two-storey building overlooking Caswell Bay, was requisitioned by the War Department at the beginning of the Second World War and the owner, Miss Catherine Davies, left to stay in her other residence, Glan y Mawddach in North Wales.
The local churches were asked to assist, by asking their parishioners to provide soldiers with a hot bath once a week and friendships were made with the local community.
John Wright, recalled ‘We had detachments from the Royal Sussex Regiment in Newton. A scheme was arranged whereby local residents would provide a meal and a hot bath for the soldiers who were living in pretty rough conditions. We had two soldiers, Privates Davies and Greenfield, who visited us weekly’.Grafton Maggs, notes that ‘Mumbles Home Guard benefited from visits by sergeants from the Royal Sussex regiment to train us all and added to the efficiency and ability of the unit’.The following is taken from Memories of Mumbles at WarPrivate Jim Allen from Deptford, London, came to Mumbles with the 9th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment. His pay was 2/- a day and 9d of that he allowed his mother, which left him ‘1/3 a day to pay for cleaning gear, toothpaste, tea and a wad in the NAAFI’. One evening, when off-duty, he was outside the Tivoli with his mates and it was there he met Kitty Venn, who (in 1946) was to become his wife. From then on, in any off-duty time he could spare, he came into the village to see Kitty. After Jim left UK for service overseas, Kitty joined the WAAF.‘We enjoyed our stay at Mumbles. The people were very friendly and of course we were the ‘Royal Sussex’. We were clean, bright and slightly oiled. But, alas, all good things come to an end.’ Peter Howell. A tented army camp was set up in the parish, alongside St Peter’s Church (where the vicarage is now), using the parish hall as the cookhouse. The first soldiers to occupy it were a contingent of the Royal Sussex Regiment.
The camp became the centre of attraction for the village boys where we were allowed to roam freely. A sickly smell of straw paillasse’s came from wigwam-shaped tents, and latrines were enclosed by corrugated iron sheets.
On Sunday mornings, we watched the soldiers marching to church parade at St Peter’s, swinging along behind a band playing the regimental marching song, for which we soon learned the chorus: ‘Sussex, Sussex, by the sea, Good old Sussex by the sea, And we’ll sing this song, As we march along, Sussex by the sea.’
In due course the men moved out of their camp in our village leaving us wondering how many of the men we had got to know would be killed or wounded in combat. Other army units took their place but somehow didn’t have the same impact on the village—until the Americans came! ‘Whess come from, Boy? ’Peter Howell, 2004
Four months later, The Battalion left Newton, marching down through Mumbles with their band playing 'Sussex by the Sea,' on their way to serve in North Africa.
Private Jim Allen. It was a sad business saying goodbye, not knowing if we would meet again. On the day we marched out to take the train from Swansea it seemed as if the whole of Wales had taken to the streets. People were lining both sides of the roads from Newton to the Castle Fields and beyond. Some of them had been there for a long time, as we did not march out as a full battalion, but by companies. We had a right royal send-off — packets of sandwiches and little keepsakes being thrust into our hands as we passed by. Some of the lads caught glimpses of their girl friends. [Sergeant Finch] turned to face us as we approached the crossroads and called out, ‘Let ‘em hear it, lads.’ He began to sing the Welsh National Anthem with us all joining in. That did it. The people cheered and quite a few tears were shed—some by the Royal Sussex, I shouldn’t wonder.
So we left, and although I have visited many places since and mixed with all sorts, I have not had quite the same feeling of belonging as I had at Mumbles.
On the 11th February, 1941, Laurie Latchford, a Newton Air Raid Warden, wrote: ‘The Royal Sussex left the neighbourhood this evening. They marched away from their camps and Summerland, led by their band playing “Sussex by the Sea”. Quite a stirring sight and sound. We shall miss their band at their church parades. A quiet, orderly lot of men and physically good to look at—what is their future?’ The Swansea Wartime Diary of Laurie Latchford, 1940-41
More: Mumbles welcomed the Sussex Regiment: a collection of memories
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