Category: Uncategorized

Our first loss in the Great War

Frederick William Honeysett (43968) was a driver in K Battery of the Royal Horse Artillery and he was killed in the retreat from Antwerp, in Belgium on 20 October 1914. He was on active service in Flanders for only 12 days and was 26. He appears to be the earliest loss in the extended Honeysett/Hunnisett family.

Frederick joined the regular army in 1907, when he was 19. He had been a groom and his father was a coachman, so the Royal Horse Artillery looked a good fit. The RHA manned the lighter mobile horse drawn guns (the Royal Field Artillery had bigger guns!) and usually each battery supported a cavalry brigade.

Frederick and his original X battery were stationed in Mdhow, India in the 1911 census. His new battery, K, was in the Cavalry Barracks at Christchurch, Dorset on the 01 August 1914 and they were quickly mobilised.

K Battery landed at Ostend, Belgium on 08 October 1914 as part of the XVth Brigade RHA supporting the 7th Cavalry Brigade. They then moved to Bruge.

K Battery arrived in a retreat or was it a rout?

The Belgians had been overrun by the German Army and supported by French forces and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) were retreating towards the Yser River, close to the border with France. Each side was trying to keep the advantage of sea access along the Yser River and the Leperlee (canal to Ypres from the sea).

On the “Lives of the first world war” website, Frederick’s entry has this information about his death written by the History Officer, K Battery, RA.

“Dvr Honeysett was killed in the wagon line as the battery prepared to withdraw from Passchendale. There was no time for burial so his body was left at a farm in Moorslede”.

Both places mentioned are nor far from Ypres, slightly to the North-East.

Frederick has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate at Ypres. I have not found him on a Sussex war memorial so far. He was awarded the 14 Star medal and clasp. The 1914 star was awarded to those who had served in France or Belgium between 05 Aug to midnight 22nd November 1914. The clasp was an additional award for those who had operated within range of enemy mobile artillery in the same time period. However the clasp had to be claimed personally, so Frederick would never have received it. In addition he was awarded the British War and Victory Medals.

He had given his father, Henry, as his next of kin and he received £22 3s 2d on behalf of his son.

Frederick’s family

Frederick William was born in 1888 to Henry & Kate Honeysett. He had an older brother, Harry, several younger sisters and two younger brothers, Charles and Jack. They lived in Mountfield, Sussex (near Battle) where Henry was a coachman. Frederick, Charles and Jack all joined the armed services either before the war or very early on.

Harry (b. 1886)

Harry is a little difficult to trace, so if you know any more, please contribute. By the 1901 census he’d left home and was a servant at Manor House Stables in Bexhill. A Harry Honeysett is then found in the Waterford area of Ireland where he was prosecuted for driving a motor car without due care and attention in 1905 and 1907 and paid the fines for doing so. This man is also on the 1911 Irish census in Waterford with the profession of a mechanic and born in England. Although he sounds just the kind of man the Army would want, I haven’t pinned him down yet!

Possible census entry for Harry on the 1911 Irish census

Charles Traughton (b. 1897)

Eridge Castle

Charles T signed up in Maidstone on 15 November 1915 on his enlistment paper he added an extra “n” to his surname, Honneysett and kept it like that for the rest of his life. He had been living and working at Eridge Castle, as a labourer and joined the Royal West Kent Regiment as a Private.  He started in the 9th Battalion (reserve) and then was transferred to the 11th (service). He was trained in England until the start of May 1916 and then was transferred to France as part of the BEF.

His battalion engaged in these battles in 1916:

Flers-Courcelette 15-22 Sep – this was 3rd main phase of the battle of the Somme, it was also the first time tanks were used. The purpose was to punch a hole in the German defences which it did not achieve decisively and poor weather then stopped further assaults.

Translory Ridges 1-18 Oct – this was the last big attack in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 by the BEF and French forces with 159.000 allied casualties. The landscape by now had been destroyed and the weather very poor. The ground was described as a morass of liquid yellow-grey mud – men on foot were coated to the knees and movement off the roads became impossible. Guns jammed and provisions got soaked.

Charles survived for 161 days on the Somme before being transferred back to England. On 24 April 1917, he was discharged as medically unfit for service due to his wounds.

He received the British War and the Victory medals and also the Silver War Badge . This last was awarded to those who were honourably discharged due to sickness or injury.

After the war Charles married Florence A Lennox and they had a son, Harry Charles in March 1922. Unfortunately Florence died in 1928. Charles remarried in 1929 in Hampshire to Christine Sarah Violet Case. They had a daughter, Joy in 1931, another child’s details are closed on the 1939 “census”.
In 1939, the family were living in Gosport, Hampshire and Charles was working as a storehouse assistant in Naval Ammunitions, this was considered heavy work. Harry was an apprentice painter and decorator.

Is Charles your ancestor? Can you add more details to the story?

Jack Leonard (b.1894)

Jack signed up for the Royal Navy on 09 June 1913 for a 12 year engagement. His records call him John, which is of course the formal name that has a diminutive of Jack, but Jack Leonard Honeysett was baptised as just that. He had been working as a gardener and motor driver and been living at home.

He trained as a stoker and survived the war. He extended his service until March 1929, when he retired as a Leading Stoker. The Royal Navy advertised for recruits in the local newspapers pre-war and often led the adverts with a request for stokers.

He served on many ship during the war, some of them were:

HMS Dominion

Dominion – a battleship that operated as part of the Northern Patrol in 1914. This force formed a blockade to stop German trade

Aragon – a converted Royal Mail ship, she served as a troop ship taking part in the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915. Sunk in 1917, luckily Jack was elsewhere by then

Hecla – was a converted civilian should used as an offshore depot, when Jack was on the ship it was supporting the Second Destroyer Flotilla based in Belfast.

Hawkins- large battleship commissioned in 1917, based in the China Station. Her boilers were changed from coal fired to oil in December 1929, the prospect may have prompted Jack to retire!

He received the 14-15 star, awarded to those who served between 05 August 2014 and 31st December 2015. He also received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

After the war, Jack married Violet E E Walter in 1921.
He is found in the 1939 “census” living in Battle on Banks Farm as a RN pensioner. Jack was divorced.

Jack and Violet had one son, Derrick Jack born in 1922. In 1939 he was living in Battle with his mother, working as a clerk for a gypsom company and also working as a ARP dispatch rider.

Is Jack your ancestor, can you add more to the story?

Deep Ancestry

I have traced this branch of the family back to 1795 to a Warbleton,Sussex based family

This blog is part of an ongoing series providing the stories around the lives and families of those Honeysetts and Hunnisetts who died in the the Great War.

Find out more about your Hunnisetts and Honeysetts at http://hunnisett.one-name.net

It is also part of the 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge – First

Sources – in addition to Ancestry, FindMyPast and the GRO, these sources have been particularly useful

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/medals/ww1-campaign-medals.htm

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie

http://www.lostheritage.org.uk/

www.curme.co.uk

https://www.freebmd.org.uk/

Hunnisett ? Well that’s an unusual name!

That’s what I often heard when I gave my new (just married!) surname. I had studied my own family history for a couple of years but this new name raised a new challenge. What about doing a one name family study?

I started with more questions than answers:

  • How unusual is it?
  • How big a study would that be?
  • Where do I start?
  • How do I record it?
  • Help!!!!!!

One bite at a time

Luckily, help was at hand. I found a Pharos Tutors course run by the Guild of One-Name Studies called Introduction to One Name Studies  and I immediately started learning how to eat an elephant.

Firstly how big is the elephant?

My first course taught me how to work out how big a task it was likely to be and gave me some good ideas on where to start. I learnt that my Hunnisett/Honeysett plus umpteen spellings study was deemed to be in the Small size and with quite a defined geographical location in the 19th century censuses. Emminently devourable in small bites!

How to digest your elephant

The Guild of One Name Studies was my next mentor. I joined and read all the material I could find on what recording systems to use, what records to start with and how not to get indigestion by eating too much at a time. Plus reassurance that you could start wherever you wanted and even find others to help.

I looked at recording systems; spreadsheets gave lots of flexibility and the Custodian4 database was used by some members and their user information gave good recommendations about how to structure an identification system for individuals, households and branch lines. So I bought it.

Deep breath. Then I started. In the middle. And worked backwards and forwards.

There was actually a method to this. I thought I could cope with the number of individuals recorded on the UK 1851 census, the first to give birth locations, family relationships and reasonably accurate ages. Then I could match against the 1841 and 1861 censuses, using birth and marriage records to build my family groupings and then branches. The Guild reassured me that I didn’t need to have all the answers so I became brave enough to register a one-name study and offer to answer research questions.

To see my profile page on the Guild’s website, type Hunnisett in the search box at the top of the page

I continued researching going back to the early 1500’s and forward to the 1881 census. But what to do with my multiple spreadsheets, Custodian database and branch family trees on paper (381 years worth), never mind progressing with further censuses and even onto emigrants. The elephant was beginning to get out of hand.

Getting smarter

The Guild then ran a set of webinars which helped me onto the next steps. One of the seminars was about setting up a one-name website of your own. Quite a scary concept!

They encouraged and supported me to set up a one-name website backed by its own database, TNG. The Guild manages the hosting and website upgrades and will take over the management and preserve the data when I no longer can. What a relief!

Here’s the link to my one-name website

It’s a work in progress as I am double checking all the data & sources before inputting it – I’ve learnt a lot since I started it.

But what about the stories I have uncovered?

Deep breath (again) and I set up a blog, where I could tell the tales of the individuals I have uncovered.This last step, only taken in November 2018 has felt like the missing link, where hopefully I bring the Honeysett/Hunnisett people to life.

The current focus is on telling the tales of the family members who died during the Great War. Many of them came from big families and their siblings also served, so I have told their stories too.

Now, how do I get people to read what I have written?

This is what I am trying.

The 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge. GeneaBloggersTribe on Facebook, tweeting the blogs.

This is where I need help, what’s working for you?

Hellingly boy buried in Egypt & what’s the railway connection?

Frederick Hunneysett was drowned on 31st December 1917 when the troop ship he was on, the Osmanieh,hit a mine just outside the harbour at Alexandria, Egypt and sank within 7 minutes. 199 people died that day. The previous day another troop ship, the Aragon, had been torpedoed in exactly the same place and 610 people died.

HMS Osmanieh

The troop ships held a mixture of troops and medical staff; the fact that there were nurses on both ships and the scale of the loss meant that there were survivors stories in the newspapers.

Hadra War Memorial Cemetery, Alexandria, Egypt

Frederick’s body was recovered, many were not, and his grave is with those of his company, the 98th Light Railway Company, Royal Engineers, in Alexandria, Egypt in the Hadra War Memorial Cemetery.

They were to support the war in Palestine by manning narrow gauge trains (the size of model trains)  that could quickly move supplies from the main supply dumps to refilling points close to the front line.

These were quick to build, relocate and repair and their widespread use towards the end of the war kept the guns firing and the soldiers eating. The British Army was rather late in adopting them but by the time of Frederick’s transfer their importance was recognised and men with railway experience were being moved from infantry units to the railway operating companies.

Frederick’s war

Frederick’s name was recorded on the list of Railwaymen who lost their lives in a special service in St Paul’s Cathedral. He is also recorded on Hellingly war memorial.

Garter
Courtesy of The Brighton Circle

Frederick had indeed got railway experience. He had joined the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway on 31 December 1906 as a porter at Hailsham, transferring to Norwood Junction as a passenger guard where he was working until he joined the army in Croydon.

Frederick’s service record is one of the “lost records”, so what is known has been reconstructed from other records. He was awarded the British Medal and the Victory Medal, but not the 1914/15 star, this suggests that he didn’t join the army until at least 1916. His medal card also shows that he started in the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment and his medical record shows that he sprained his ankle in November 1916 at Corbie, a small town in the Somme, France. It also says he was a Lance Corporal. He then transferred to the Royal Sussex Regiment, date unknown. Finally he was transferred to the Royal Engineers, 98th Light Railway Company as a sapper (private) and his company was sent by ship to Alexandria, Egypt. They were to support the war in Palestine by manning narrow gauge trains (the size of model trains)  that could quickly move supplies from the main supply dumps to refilling points close to the front line. These were quick to build, relocate and repair and their widespread use towards the end of the war kept the guns firing and the soldiers eating. The British Army was rather late in adopting them but by the time of Frederick’s transfer their importance was recognised and men with railway experience were being moved from infantry units to the railway operating companies.

Frederick growing up

He was born on 14 Apr 1891 in Hellingly, Sussex to Cornelius and Sarah Jane Hunneysett, one of their 8 children. His mother was listed as his next of kin and his father received his war gratuity of £20 77s 10d

His father was born in Hellingly, and the family lived in Hellingly, then Hailsham, both addresses near the railway as Cornelius was a coal porter. Several of Frederick’s brothers also worked on the railway.

What Fred’s brothers did in the war and afterwards

Alfred Stephen (b1889) also joined the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway, but later than his younger brother. He started work as a railway porter on 13 May 1907. He was still living at home for the 1911 census so presumably worked near enough to travel from home. He married Mary B SHEEHAN in 1912 in Havant, Hampshire. He resigned from the Railway on 24 Apr 1914. I haven’t found any war service yet, so the easiest way to track his whereabouts is from his childrens’ births.

Mary Ann was born in Havant in 1915. However, Dorcas Agnes was born (and shortly died) in Sheffield in 1917. A further daughter, Constance, was born in Sheffield in 1920. Then came another move and Alfred T was born (and shortly died) in the Grimsby area in 1926. Unfortunately Mary B also died in 1926, leaving Fred with two daughters to raise. He married again, three years later to a young widow, Eleanor HENNESSY (nee REEVES), who already had a son, Jack.

Fred & Eleanor went on to have a child together, Frank Cornelius, in 1930 again born in the Grimsby area. By 1939, Fred and his family have moved to Holten le Clay in Lincolnshire, 5 miles south of Grimsby. The family have settled in this area, along the coastline.

Bertie Oliver, (b1892) was living at home in 1911, He was 18 and working as a groom. Unsurprisingly, he also joined the London, Brighton and East Coast Railway. He joined as a porter (lad) on 20 June 1914 and resigned on 7 Apr 1914.

His war service record hasn’t been found but his medal card shows that he was in the Royal Field Artillery, firstly as a gunner and then he transferred into the Territorial Force as a driver. He received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal, so joined at the earliest in 1916.

Bertie married Emma Olive HORNE in the last quarter of 1917, in the West Ham registration district in Essex, this includes Woodford where the couple were in 1939, Bertie working as a groundsman.They had two children, Joan and Norman.

Norman joined the Royal Navy and went down with his ship the HMS Orion in 1941, aged 17. He is commemorated on the Chatham War Memorial.

Frank (b1894) was still at home in 1911, working as a labourer. He joined up in 1915 at the age of 21. He joined the Royal Sussex Regiment as a private and was sent to France in July 1915. He survived the war earning the 1915 star as well as the British War and Victory medals. He returned to Hellingly, marrying local girl Louisa Kathleen PAGE in 1922. In 1939, they were in Upper Dicker, in the parish of Hellingly , Frank was working as a brick and haulage lorry driver.  Louisa’s brother Ernest and his family lived next door.

Alex Cornelius (1899) joined the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway as a porter (Lad) on 20 June 1914. Five days after he resigned on 07 April 1916, he joined the Royal Marines. He enlisted at Brighton at just 17 and at 5ft 9ins. He served on the Arty and the Ramilles. RM Arty was the old Eastney Barracks, a shore training establishment.

He then transferred to HMS Ramillies on 01 May 1917. Ramilles was a brand new battleship which was launched in June 1916 and commissioned on 01 September 1917. It is likely that Alex sailed on her maiden voyage. However the ship saw no active service during the war.

Alex was transferred to the Royal Fleet Reserve in 1920 and finally demobbed in June 1921. He also returned to Sussex, marrying Alice Caroline FARRANT in 1923. He also seems a to have rejoined the railway, as the couple lived at Junction, Polegate in 1939 and Alex was a railway shunter

Sources

Ancestry for

– UK, Railway Employment Records, 1833-1956

Findmypast for

– British Armed Forces, First World War Soldiers’ Medical Records

– War Memorials Register

– Soldiers Died In The Great War 1914-1919

Peter Singlehurst; The War Dead of the Commonwealth Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt

Commonwealth War Graves Commission Debt Of Honour

https://www.greatwarforum.org

http://www.londonwarmemorial.co.uk

www.lbscr.org

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/transport-and-supply-during-the-first-world-war


Fold3 for

– UK, WWI Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923  

– British WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards

– UK, Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects  Fold3

https://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/54600/alexandria-(hadra)-war-memorial-cemetery/

National Archives for

 – RAIL 1057/2179

Died in the Great War – Hunnisetts and Honeysetts

I’ll be working on the history of the Hunnisett and Honeysett family members that died in military service during the WW1, so check back to look for new links to their stories. If you know more, please get in touch

This blog is part of the Hunnisett/Honeysett One Name Family Study

A great way to show you recognise them is to visit their record on Lives of the First World War,  and then click remember. This site will be updateable to March 2019

A HONEYSETT, d. 1917, France

Albert Arthur HONEYSETT, b. Plumstead, London, d. 07 Nov 1918, 153870

Alfred HONEYSETT,b. Polegate, Sussex,  d. 16 Oct 1917, France, G/27678*

Alfred HONEYSETT, Borden, Kent, 14 Mar 1916, G/4876

Bertram Thomas HONEYSETT, b. East Dulwich, Surrey, d. 08 Sep 1918, France, 27316*

Cecil HONEYSETT, b. Brightling, Sussex, d. 30 Jun 1916, France, SD/2706

C H HUNNISETT, d. 1917, France

Charles Vincent HUNNISETT, b. Hanover Square, London, d. 11 Sep 1916, France, 1578 OR 1518*

Edwin Edward HUNNISETT,  d. 30 Jun 1918, France, Royal Navy F 24688*

Frank Victor HONEYSETT, b. Sidley, Sussex, d. 25 Sep 1915, France, G/1711*

Frederick HUNNEYSETT, b. 1891, Hellingly, Sussex, d. 31 Dec 1917, Egypt, 282716*

Frederick George HUNNISETT,  b. 1889, Oxford, d. 01 Apr 1918, France, 285725*

Frederick John HONEYSETT, b 1891, d. 17 Oct 1917, Royal Navy, K/8193*

Frederick William HONEYSETT, b. Battle, Sussex, d. 20 Oct 1914, Belgium 43968*

George HONEYSETT, d. 1916, France

George Henry HUNNISETT, b. 1880 St Leonards, Sussex, d.22 Mar 1917, Salonika, Greece, 27424*

George Russell HONEYSETT, b. 1898 Mereworth, Kent, d. 21 Mar 1918, France, 11816*

Harmen Charles HONEYSETT, b. 1892, d. 24 Feb 1917, 1719A – Australian Infantry*

Harry HUNNISETT, b. Ripe, Sussex, d. 03 Nov 1917, Israel/Palestine, 37318*

James George HONEYSETT, b Brightling Sussex, d. 30 Jun 1916, France, SD/2707*

Robert HONEYSETT, b. 1892 Hurstmonceaux, Sussex, d. 03 Sep 1916, France, SD/599*

Sidney HONEYSETT, b. Borden, Kent, d. 26 Oct 1917,

Thomas HONEYSETT, b. Hartfield, Sussex d. 09 May 1915, France, G/1306*

William HONEYSETT, d. 31 Jul 1917, Belgium, 532347*

William HONEYSETT,b. Sidley, Sussex, d. 09 May 1915, France, G/1099*

William Henry HONEYSETT, b. Ascot Berks, d. 31 Jul 1917, Belgium, G/236/27*

The Polish Connection

Recent research has discovered an ancestor who was one of the survivors of the Polish November Uprising of 1830-1.

How over 200 young Polish servicemen came to England, were welcomed by the people of Portsmouth and one of them surprisingly ended up in the direct line of ancestry of my own East Sussex Hunnisett family line (by marriage) is explored further here.

The November Uprising

The Cadet Revolution or November Uprising of 1831 started when young Polish officers from the Military Academy revolted against Tsarist Russia, the overlord of a partitioned Poland. It started well, with the army rallying to the cause and other outlying areas of the Russian Empire joining in. Eventually local support fell away and the uprising was crushed by the Imperial Russian Army. Tsar Nicholas I closed the University of Warsaw and took Poland completely within the Russian Empire.
When the end came, rather than surrender to the Russians, over 20,000 men crossed the border into Prussia and surrendered there on the 5th October 1831. This gave the Prussians a real problem, Russia lent on them to send the men back and promised no reprisals. Some went, with disastrous results. Others left Prussia in bands of between fifty and a hundred, and travelled towards France through the various German principalities and were greeted with enthusiasm by the local populations.The Prussians made it very uncomfortable for the remaining Poles by putting them to work with convicted criminals on the roads. A different solution needed to be found; eventually in 1834, 3 ships set off for America with the reluctant remnants of the Polish Army – mainly “other ranks”.

They didn’t make it to America, the weather in the English Channel was very bad and the ships made land where they could. The Elizabeth landed at Le Havre, where the men were welcomed by the French and stayed in France. This was seen as the very best option as Polish-French relations were very good. The Union landed in Harwich, on the east coast of England. They eventually left again to go to Africa, this might seem like a strange change of direction but they were to join the French Foreign Legion and become French that way.

The 3rd ship, the Marianne , landed at Portsmouth where 212 young men (plus one wife) got off the ship and peaceably refused to get back on.
This is a transcription of the letter the Poles wrote to Captain of the Marianne about their decision to stay in England.

We, the undersigned Polish refugees, shipped by the Prussian Government, at Danzig, aboard the Mariane, bound to the United States of North America, and driven into this port, by stress of weather, and determined not to proceed to America, but to unite with our countrymen and warriors, who are in France, in order to be nearer to our own country, and not to seek our fortune in another hemisphere, having remained three months on board the Mariane, and the captain being obliged to prosecute his intended voyage we have decided not to prevent any longer the ship proceeding to sea, but land here, and now think it a duty we owe to Capt. Claasen of the Mariane, before he leaves us, on his intended journey, to declare, that during the whole of the voyage, we have received the provisions and comforts allowed us by the Prussian Government by his hands, in every accordance with Justice; and, that Captain Claasen has, with every humanity towards us, done his duty to the Prussian Government as likewise to his owner, for which we beg he will accept our most cordial thanks.

Signed by the 211 Polish Officers and Men who were embarked in the above ship. Portsmouth Feb 16 1834

The government were unprepared for this and did not offer any support or encouragement. However the local population in Portsmouth rallied round, raised money and helped the young men with food and accommodation .
” The non-commissioned officers of the 12th regiment contributed £7 and the 77th Depot gave £12, while a concert at the Green Row Rooms brought in £60”(Wikepedia)

What’s the connection?

Arthur James Hunnisett b. 1884 in St Leonard’s Hastings married Fanny Elizabeth Mary May in Hastings in 1910. Arthur’s family line goes back to the mid 1500’s all in East Sussex. However Fanny’s family turned out to be a little bit different. Her father was George M W Way and her mother was Fanny KISIELEWSKI, both born and then married in Portsea,Hampshire (the naval area of Portsmouth).

Finding Michel Kisielewski

Fanny senior is found on the 1901 census in Portsea, living at home with her parents Michael and Mary Ann Kisheliski, Michael’s birth place is stated as Poland and he was a tailor.
Michael KISIELEWSKI married Mary Ann Ross in Portsea in 1838. They are on the 1841 census, having started their family of eventually 7 children. Many of his compatriots are in the Polish Refugee Hospital, also in Portsea and in the 1841 census.
Michael and Mary Ann stay in Portsea for the rest of their lives, their surname spelt in many weird ways in each record. Their four daughters all marry but their sons do not, so this branch of the KISIELEWSKI name does not continue.


Was Michal part of the November Revolution?

In 2004 the Polish population in Portsmouth raised money to finish a memorial for the survivors of the November Revolution who came to Portsmouth in 1834. The memorial contains a list of the 213 people who landed, with their name and rank and tells a bit of the story, and there on the list is
Michal KISIELEWSKI,
He left Poland when he was about 23 and lived the rest of his life in Portsmouth

What brought the May family to St Leonards?

George May was career Navy, as was his father before him. In 1881, the census shows him still in the Royal Navy and living in Portsmouth.
However in the 1891 census, the family had moved to Hastings (including their daughter Fanny) and George was an instructor in the Royal Navy Artillery Volunteer School. This was a government backed relatively new endeavour and provided training for any young man, of the professional and commercial classes, who wished to be in the naval reserve and had no background in the navy. George would have run training in Boat skills, General fitness and Weapons handling, “The drills will comprise those for great guns, rifle, pistol, and cutlass”.

How did George & Fanny get to Hastings, East Sussex?

By the time of the next census in 1901, George had changed roles and was the Superintendent of the White Rock Baths in Hastings This was an underground complex built on land reclaimed from the sea, when George was in charge there were both gentlemens and ladies baths and also a fashionable turkish bath. According to the newspaper reports it was always teetering on the bring of bankruptcy so it can’t have been a very settled existence.

There is a photograph in the Hastings & St Leonards Pictorial Advertiser, showing George & Fanny’s sons in their WW1 uniforms, along with their son in law, A Hunnisett. This last was Arthur Hunnisett who had married Fanny May in 1910. The photo was taken in early 1917 and by then George was the manager of the local Masonic Hall, presumably a bit less precarious an occupation than managing the White Rock Baths.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_Uprising

THE ORGANISATION OF THE ROYAL NAVAL ARTILLERY VOLUNTEERS EXPLAINED BY
THOMAS BRASSEY, M.P, 1874

http://www.victorianturkishbath.org/6DIRECTORY/AtoZEstab/England/HastWhite/1HastWhiteSF.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_into_Hampshire

A History of White Rock

Hampshire Telegraph – Monday 24 February 1834 © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
 
Milosz K. CybowskiUniversity of Southampton
First and last refuge: France and Britain as centres of the Polish Great Emigration

150th anniversary of the Polish landing – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-26315789

http://www.memorialsinportsmouth.co.uk/cemeteries/polish.htm

Ancestry. co.uk, FindMyPast.co.uk, FreeBMD

Hastings & St Leonard’s Observer, British Newspaper Association,