William Webb

• 1885: Glynde & Beddingham Cricket Club founded

• 1887: Queen Victoria's Jubilee

• 1894: Manchester Ship Canal opened

• 1899: Boer War starts

• 1901: Queen Victoria dies

• 1903: 1st aeroplane flight by Wright Bros.

• 1905: Ragged Lands established

• 1909: Introduction of Old Age Pension

• 1912: Sinking of the Titanic

• 1914: Start of 1st World War

• 1916: Battle of the Somme

• 1918: End of 1st World War

• 1919: 1st trans-atlantic flight

• 1920: League of Nations founded

• 1922: Irish Free State founded

• 1924: Lenin dies

• 1926: General Strike

• 1928: Women get the vote

• 1934: Hitler assumes power in Germany

• 1936: Regular BBC TV broadcasts begin

• 1939: Start of 2nd World War

• 1940: Dunkirk evacuation

• 1941: Japanese attack Pearl Harbour

• 1944: "D-Day" landings in France

• 1945: End of 2nd World War

• 1946: USA tests atom bomb at Bikini Island

• 1947: Sound Barrier broken

• 1948: NHS founded

• 1950: Korean War starts

• 1951: Suez "Crisis"

• 1953: Queen Elizabeth II crowned

• 1954: Bannister runs 1st 4 minute mile

• 1955: ITV starts broadcasting

• 1955: Glynde Place opened to the public

• 1957: 1st dog in space

• 1958: Gatwick Airport opened

• 1959: M1, the 1st motoway, opened

• 1961: 1st man in space

• 1963: US President Kennedy assassinated

• 1965: Post Office Tower opened

• 1966: England win World Cup

• 1967: 1st heart transplant

• 1968: Martin Luther King assassinated

• 1969: 1st men on the moon

• 1970: North Sea Oil discovered

• 1971: Decimal coins introduced

• 1972: "Bloody Sunday", 13 killed in Derry

• 1974: US President Nixon resigned

• 1976: Harold Wilson resigned as PM

• 1978: 1st "Test Tube" baby born

• 1979: Margaret Thatcher elected, UK's 1st woman PM

• 1981: Prince Charles married Lady Di

• 1982: Falklands War

• 1984: Miners' Strike starts

• 1985: Live Aid concert

• 1987: Hurricane lashes South Coast

• 1987: "Black Monday" Stock Market crash

William Charles Webb was born in Newhaven in 1885, one of at least eight children of George Thomas Webb, a railway worker, and his wife Elizabeth. The father later worked as a railway gatekeeper at Beddingham Level Crossing and the family were living in one of the railway cottages next to the crossing on the Glynde census returns for 1891, 1901 and 1911.

William Webb joined the Royal Navy and was recorded on the 1901 census of 31 March as serving on HMS Duke of Wellington stationed at Portsmouth.

By 1911, and now stationed at the Royal Navy Barracks at Chatham, William was a stoker petty officer. The rather poor photo of him below was kindly supplied to the website by his grandson Sean Webb.

He was one of three sons of George Thomas Webb who served in WWI.