By Nick Corbo-Stewart, Archivist
Recently catalogued by volunteers at the Record Office, this collection (AM 1943) documents some remarkable events within the life of Sydney Stafford White.
Sydney was born in Northampton and grew up in the north of England. In August 1914, he enlisted with the Royal Field Artillery and served on the Western Front during the First World War.
The first part of this collection documents his service during the First World War. A personal account survives describing the many actions he participated in, as well as summarising principal events and reflections of this time. AM 1943/1/4 is a photocopied volume of the original handwritten manuscript of his war experience, which also includes copies of contemporary newspaper reports. These describe his gallantry in battle (after a gas attack at Ypres, 1915) and the actions that led to him being awarded the Military Medal and the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM). He was later to receive a Bar to his DCM for further bravery under fire. These formative experiences help us understand his later actions in another conflict two decades later.
After completing his service in 1919, he returned to civilian life and worked for various local authorities. His career enabled him to move to Sussex in 1927, and he was later appointed Chief Public Health Inspector for Worthing in 1933. As the 1930s progressed, he was in a position to help to organise and prepare the civil defence of this coastal town, a crucial role given Worthing’s vulnerability to both attacks by air and invasion by sea.
The second part of this collection focuses on this period up to and during the Second World War. Items illustrate the leadership he provided in the frantic organisation of Worthing civil defence in response to the coming conflict. Photographs, newspaper reports and typed summaries describe the help he provided in developing the Worthing Rescue Service (WRS) and his subsequent participation in Air Raid Patrol (ARP) activities.
Starting circa 1939, photographs show groups of men ready for action. They feature Sydney, with younger and older members of the WRS, who proudly pose in their protective clothing including overalls, wellingtons, canvas bags and steel helmets (AM 1943/2/6). Another image shows him and the steel helmeted Rescue and Decontamination Head Quarters staff outside their sandbagged protected HQ building (AM 1943/2/2).
As the crisis deepened, the next set of images document the training exercises and activities undertaken by members of the WRS. An album of photographs (AM 1943/2/3) show the Rescue and Decontamination groups at work during the late 1930s and then during the war. Photographs show vehicles in use, removal of a casualty from a building roof and female members of the Decontamination Laundry section parading in full protective clothing during ‘Warship Week’, 14th February 1942. Training exercises (with public spectators) demonstrate how to deal with mustard gas attack using a fire bomb (one local newspaper caption proudly declares the road this took place upon was open to traffic in twenty minutes after the exercise finished!), respirator practice, coping with mass casualties (using actors and dummies to simulate victims) lying on the roadway, ‘arresting’ third column saboteurs and suspected spies, and rescuing a German pilot from a burning mock up plane on beach front. Additionally, demonstrations took place including exhibiting aeroplane bomb sizes to the public using full size replicas, decontaminating streets with fire hoses and painting gas detector boards for use in an emergency.
Images from AM 1943/2/3
All these images capture the graphic, gritty realism of war. The exercises were not only for the benefit of those taking part but also educating a civilian population for something they had never seen before. They attracted a lot of attention from locals and the press. To emphasise this point, the final part of the collection comes with a series of snippets from local newspapers highlighting the Borough authorities’ attempts to prepare civilians for war, including maps circulated to the local population showing distribution points of gas respirators with instructions on where, when and how to use them, and urging people to report ‘without delay’ to collect them (AM 1943/2/4).
Started in a time of peace and then on into the conflict, these exercises and actions were useful but also controversial due to their graphic portrayal. Sydney would later resign during the war from his role coordinating the WRS (although he did continue as an ARP warden).
At the war’s end in 1945, he returned once again to his civilian life, before retiring in 1961 after 34 years dedicated service. He died in 1973.
In hindsight we can clearly see that the training of the WRS was necessary. As the war progressed, Worthing was bombed a number of times by German aircraft, resulting in casualties, extensive damage to residential and industrial property, and brought terror the civilian population as a whole. Additionally, the threat of invasion loomed large over the town for many years. Sydney’s training paid off, and the responses of the well prepared rescue teams saved many lives, thus helping the town survive. For that, Worthing must be thankful to the courage and experience Sydney Stafford White and his WRS colleagues provided at such a crucial time.
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