Raymond Briggs & The East Chiltington War Memorial, Lewes

Although unnamed in the text, a little work identifies the war memorial alluded to in Raymond Briggs' Time For Lights Out.

Green south of the church
East Chiltington Church
Chapel Lane
East Chiltington
Lewes
East Sussex

Source & Further Details:
East Chiltington


Briggs himself is a resident of Hassocks.







Source: War Memorial East Chiltington - East Chiltington - TracesOfWar.com



Source: East Chiltington War Memorial

Briggs has altered 'De St Croix' to 'Cross', possibly for artistic reasons, but the other names from the First World War are, I think, loyally detailed here:

• Burgess, V E
  Memorial: East Chiltington (WMR 17213), East Chiltington, East Sussex
• Cornford, J W
  Memorial: East Chiltington (WMR 17213), East Chiltington, East Sussex
• Dence, F
  Memorial: East Chiltington (WMR 17213), East Chiltington, East Sussex
• De St. Croix, A
  Memorial: East Chiltington (WMR 17213), East Chiltington, East Sussex
• Heaver, W
  Memorial: East Chiltington (WMR 17213), East Chiltington, East Sussex
• Hunt, T
  Memorial: East Chiltington (WMR 17213), East Chiltington, East Sussex
• Stillwell, C A
  Memorial: East Chiltington (WMR 17213), East Chiltington, East Sussex
• Tetley, J C D
  Memorial: East Chiltington (WMR 17213), East Chiltington, East Sussex
• Weaver, A E
  Memorial: East Chiltington (WMR 17213), East Chiltington, East Sussex
• Weaver, C A
  Memorial: East Chiltington (WMR 17213), East Chiltington, East Sussex
• Welfare, W
  Memorial: East Chiltington (WMR 17213), East Chiltington, East Sussex

Source:
https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/names/search?filters[memorialString][East Chiltington (WMR 17213)]=on

Of the Second World War dead, the CWGC has:

SERJEANT RONALD PICKERING
Service Number: 6402592
Regiment & Unit/Ship
Royal Sussex Regiment

Date of Death
Died 28 July 1945

Age 26 years old

Buried or commemorated at
EAST CHILTINGTON CHURCHYARD

• Secondary Unit, Regiment: attd. 7th Bn. Royal Ulster Rifles
• Country of ServiceUnited Kingdom
• Additional Info: Son of Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Pickering, of East Chiltington.

One wonders whether the Tetley who fell in the Great War is any relative of the man of the same surname who fell in the Second?

Can anybody shed light on those other 1939 to 45 names?

• Duke
• Funnel
• Prescott
• Tetley

 

There are a few other Second World War related snatches from the book above that some of you might appreciate.



That last image reminded me of some of the many fantasies from his Briggs's eponymous Gentleman Jim.

 

And now it's lights out for Raymond Briggs himself, a superlatively perceptive illustrator whose eulogisation of his own parents could easily have served for the whole of their wartime generation, and whose portrayals of humanity with its warmth and its warts have enriched a good few generations themselves.

Raymond Redvers Briggs
18 January 1934 to 9 August 2022
Rest In Peace

Obituary:
Raymond Briggs obituary: An illustrious career