‘We Should Not Forget’ : The Royal Sussex Regiment Remembered in Priez, 100 Years On

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DRCG Blog

7 min readOct 10, 2018

Photographs & Interview by Greg Fielder; Words by Miranda Slade; with special thanks to Nicole Roger.

This year in September 2018, a group of dedicated individuals traveled to Priez, a tiny village to the east of Paris, to honour the 22 young soldiers from the Royal Sussex Regiment who lost their lives there on the 10th September 1914.

DRC Group were proud to be one of the sponsors of this event. Our co-founder and Chairman Greg Fielder was one of the key organisers while Office Manager Nicole Roger was indispensable, especially when it came to translating the 20-page brochure into French.

A cause incredibly close to Greg’s heart, the whole DRC team had a hand in this once-in-a-lifetime event, in one way or another. Greg’s connection with the Royal Sussex Regiment Association spans many generations: from his father, to his great uncle, to his brother, to his son.

I interviewed Greg one morning at DRC’s office in the heart of London. Our conversation soon illustrated the office walls with stories of community, sacrifice and commemoration between Sussex and the battlefields of Northern France.

2014 marked the centenary of the start of The Great War. This milestone inspired Greg: “the thought came to me that we should honour the 7,302 men who lost their lives in the Great War, especially as one of my relatives was among those who died. We (the Association) decided amongst ourselves that Priez would be a fitting location, as this is where the regiment took its first casualties in September 1914.”

After raising the money (a grand total of £60,000) over two years, the memorial was unveiled on the 10th September 2014, the 100th anniversary of the day those men lay down their lives.

“It was particularly poignant”, articulates Greg, “because as our veterans get older, the First World War moves further into the past. There isn’t going to be another significant anniversary in living memory with the exception of this year, 2018, and the end of the war.”

This is exactly why 2018 was chosen as the year for the Royal Sussex Regiment Association to come together with the people of Priez to commemorate their dead and celebrate the rebuilding of their communities: “It had to be this year. We decided we would mark September, leaving the members free to pay their respects at the cenotaph in London for the end of the war in November.”

“There isn’t going to be another significant anniversary in living memory with the exception of this year, 2018, and the end of the war.”

The presence at the ceremony in Priez was notable — not least as the hamlet has only 50 inhabitants.

Greg lists some of the guests: “the High Sheriff of West Sussex, the deputy Lord Lieutenants of both East and West Sussex, both mayors of Brighton and Chichester, and the British Military Attaché at our embassy in Paris. Clearly it was significant enough that those people felt they should make the effort to pay their respects.”

As the Lord Lieutenants are representatives of Her Majesty the Queen, the idea was floated to invite the Duke and Duchess of Sussex — newlyweds Harry and Meghan. The event in Priez did become quite an occasion, but it was decided to keep the focus on those closest to the events, rather than to roll out the red carpet…

Initially the vision for the event was fairly modest. However, as the significance of the commemoration was realised, the organisers learned that they were going to have to accommodate more than originally thought.

“Everything was funded by Sussex-based companies, or those with ties to the area, who want to be associated in some form of remembrance and who don’t want the public to forget the enormous sacrifice of these men.”

In the tiny village of Priez the feeling was unanimous that there should be an exhibition about the hamlet’s history in addition to the planned proceedings of a wreath-laying, a ceremony and a church service.

“It was really amazing how the people of Priez came together as well as all the history they found about their village” says Greg.

Priez suffered extreme destruction, at both ends of the war. The exhibition focused on how the village was rebuilt, and largely by the kindness and generosity of another township.

“The French Government’s policy in the 1920s was to assign unaffected towns to become ‘War Godmothers’ to communities that had been devastated by the war. Researching the exhibition, the villagers of Priez discovered their War Godmother: a town in the Bordeaux region named Ludon-Médoc.”

“Ludon-Médoc helped to rebuild the schoolhouse and paid for a memorial to the French losses, which is up in the school now. Despite this being fairly recent history, no one in the village knew any of this until now. On the day itself, the mayor of Ludon-Médoc attended and they exchanged medals. Our commemoration rekindled a relationship that had died out over the last 100 years.”

“Many will know the legend of the ‘Taxis of the Marne’ — where after the famous Retreat from Mons the French 6th armée had to rely on Parisian taxis to ferry soldiers for the counter offensive which was the Battle of the Marne — well, one gentleman got in touch who owned one of these famous taxis and came to take people for rides on it.”

“Our event became one of remembrance and reconstruction and, like the allied forces, a shared British and French experience.”

As Greg puts it: “We shouldn’t forget. I’m not military, but many of my family are or have been. The Regiment have allowed me to become a member of the Association and this is one of the things I’ve done for them. Nicole translated the programme into French so we can have it in both languages. All of these things contribute: it’s a way of paying back.”

And, Greg hastens to add, however you are able to pay back: “we had one donor who donated beer rather than money! Gemma, DRC’s designer, then made a label for it and et voilà — a memorial ale!”

“Everything was funded by Sussex-based companies, or those with ties to the area, who want to be associated in some form of remembrance and who don’t want the public to forget the enormous sacrifice of these men.”

“The donations brought the veterans to this event. It was extremely special, and it went off really well. There is a great big ‘Thank You’ going out to all of those who supported us.”

This is a story of communities coming together and strengthening emotional ties in the face of unimaginable devastation. It is down to the devotion and dedication of many, that communities came together once more to pay their respects, to remember and, with those who lost their lives in the Great War in mind, to continue to move toward a brighter future.