Private 123842 Horace Vitler, Canadian Infantry...

...was born 23rd January 1893, the son of George Vitler (died 16th August 1911) and Ellen Cheal (died 13th January 1925).

The 1911 census records the family as living at Church Farm Hall Cross Hooe, Sussex. George, aged 61, was a farm bailiff and Ellen, aged 57 - the couple had been married for thirty four years and had produced fourteen children, two of which did not survive childhood. Also, on the census were Alfred, aged 30. Basil, aged 24, Frank aged 23, Horace aged 18, Winnie, aged 16, Robert aged 14 and granddaughter aged 1.

After the census, the family moved to Olive's nursery in the village where Horace and Robert became employed, all of the other boys in the family became farm labourers.

Horace emigrated to Canada and found employment as a farm labourer. He enlisted into the Canadian Army on the 27th September 1915 at Chatham, New Brunswick. His first unit was the 70th Canadian Infantry Battalion, before transferring to the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (Eastern Ontario Regiment) on the 9th June 1916.

Horace died on the 18th September 1916 of wounds sustained at Courcelette and is buried on the Somme in Puchevillers British Cemetery about 8 miles north of Amiens.

He is remembered on the headstone of his parents, as is his brother Robert Edward Vitler, and upon the war memorial tablet within the church.

The Bexhill On Sea Observer for the 11th of August 1923 records the unveiling of the war memorial by Ellen Vitler on “Sunday evening the feast of the patron saint St Oswald, king and martyr” and the attendant dedication by the Vicar. The paper noted the “unusually large attendance” at the service and describes the tablet before listing those remembered upon it.

Note:

- Puchevillers British Cemetery - Puchevillers British Cemetery is situated just to the west of the village. Just before the start of the Battle of the Somme, the 3rd and 44th Casualty Clearing Stations came to the village and most of the burials before the end of March 1917 were of casualties from the two clearing stations. During April and May, the 2nd/1st Casualty Clearing Station used the cemetery. The final burial plot holds the graves of men killed in the German Spring Offensive of 1918, many of them buried by the 49th Casualty Clearing Station in March 1918 and by the 48th Labour Group in August. The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and contains 1,763 burials of which seven unidentified.