Armistice Day 2023: East Sussex village honours its only son to die in First World War at special memorial service

The memorial event was in Arlington on Saturday, November 11, and saluted Private Jesse Levett with his descendants attending.

Pvt Levett was shot in the chest on the eve of The Battle of the Somme, on June 30, 1916, but recovered and returned to France after three months. He eventually died in battle two years later at just 20 years old.

Sarah Pursey, whose mother Meg was Jesse’s sister and the youngest of 16 children, called the service 'a very poignant and moving occasion'.

Sarah, from Hereford, said: “All these years later, I like to think it reflects the never ending national quest to tell the stories of those brave lads who epitomise that famous rejoinder – ‘For your tomorrow, we gave our today’.”

Sadly, Pvt Levett's war medals were stolen 50 years ago but were recreated and presented to his family at Arlington Village Hall.

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Many of his descendants attended the service, coming from Herefordshire, Wales, Northamptonshire, and from Chichester and Steyning. The family helped lay wreaths at the Levett family grave in St Pancras’ church yard.

The idea for the service came from Arlington Museum founder Wendy Holmes.

She said: “Only now, are we beginning to unravel Jesse’s story and what happened on that fatal day, in 1916, when he was seriously wounded. That day became known as ‘The Day Sussex Died’, because three Battalions of the Sussex Regiment had more than 1,300 county men killed, wounded or captured. Its 13th Battalion was all but wiped out.”

She continued: "Last year, when I attended a service for the fallen at the Hailsham War Memorial, it struck me that, in Jesse Levett, we have our very own war hero here in Arlington."

She said it took months to find all of his descendants.

Pvt Levett, then 18, and 4,500 men of the Royal Sussex Regiment, took part in the Battle of The Boar’s Head at Richebourg on June 30, 1916. Many of the Sussex soldiers died during a diversionary raid on the Boar’s Head salient. Pvt Levett fought for two more years on the Western Front before going missing, presumed dead, on April 9, 1918, when the Germans attacked the British line.