Category: Military
Rank: Private 578
Regiment or Ship: B Company 4th Sussex Volunteer Regiment and Army Service Corps/Army Ordnance Corps
Service Number(s): 578
Occupation: Upholsterer
Date of Birth: 1878
Place of Birth: Ipswich, Suffolk
Date of Death: 31.08.1939
Place of Death: Sussex
Address: 17 Windsor Road, Bexhill
Photos and newspaper articles
Family Information
Parents:- Walter Skippings, born 1855 in Ipswich, and Elizabeth Skippings (nee Tietjens), born 1856 in Middlesex.
Siblings:-
Walter Skippings, born 1875 in Ipswich, died 1953.
Anthony Skippings, born 1881 in Ipswich.
Ruth Skippings, born 1884 in Ipswich.
In 1881 the family were living at the Post Office, Baylham, Suffolk but moved to Sussex where, in 1891, they were living at 21 Albany Terrace, Ore, where Walter was listed as ‘Broker Furniture Cabinet’. This was reflected in 1901 when he was a ‘Shopkeeper – Second Hand Furnishers’ living at 33 Caves Road, St. Leonards. No death entries can be found for either Walter (senior) or Elizabeth.
Spouse:-
Nathaniel married twice – the first time to Emma Maud Eyles, born in 1875 in Hawkshurst, Kent, and the second time to Rosa Dennett, born 1871, died 1955. Nathaniel and Emma were married in April 1899 and had four children – Florence H., born in 1900; Nathaniel, born in 1902; Victor, born in 1903; and Leslie, born in 1908.
Sometime after 1919 Nathaniel and Emma were divorced and Emma married a Tuckey in Brackley in 1924. She died in Daventry in 1956.
Nathaniel married again – this time to Rosa Dennett and they married in June 1923. Rosa was born in 1871 and died in 1955. Nathaniel died on 31st August 1939 and his probate of 19th December showed that he left £617.15s.11d. to his widow, Rosa Skippings.
First World War Experience
Nathaniel’s war records have not survived so we only know that he joined B Company 4th Sussex Volunteer Regiment in December 1916 and, in January of the following year, left that regiment to join the Army Service Corps/Army Ordnance Corps.
Two interesting articles appeared in the Bexhill Observer concerning a Maintenance Order application in March 1919. Maintenance Order trial