In the 20th Century the family name has a unique distinction. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the body responsible for all records of British and Commonwealth casualties during the two World Wars, has confirmed that our family name is the only surname with a single entry. The family member who paid the ultimate sacrifice for his country was William David Kearvell, a Gunner in the Royal Field Artillery. He died of his wounds in August 1917 and is buried in the Coxyde Military Cemetery in West Flanders, Belgium. His name is commemorated on the War Memorial in Funtington Parish Churchyard.

 

Looking back to 1693, we can see that our ancestors remained in Bosham and the surrounding area for at least the first 100 years. Then, as a family bible recounts, at the end of the 18th Century two brothers left to seek their fortunes, probably heading for London. They reached Warfield in Berkshire, where one eventually married and became the first member of the family to live outside the County of Sussex (see footnote). It was the best part of another 100 years towards the latter part of the 19th Century, with the family expanding quite quickly, that we see movement away to other southern English counties and emigration to Australia. The 20th Century sees movement to English counties in the Midlands, East Anglia and the North and emigration to Canada, USA and New Zealand.

 

Those of us in the modern family, who have been fortunate enough to journey back and take a look around Bosham, can not fail to fall in love with the views and sights of our Sussex homeland. But the memory that will remain with me is Bosham Church with its Saxon Spire standing tall and looking seaward - probably the most familiar landmark to our Bosham family over the past 300 years".

 

footnote(Jul 2004): We now know that the brothers, Richard and Francis, who set out from Bosham to walk to London in late 18th century, did get to London. Richard married in Stepney London in April 1793 before settling in Warfield Berkshire. Francis married in 1802 and lived at Linchmere on the Surrey/Sussex

Border.

 

footnote(2006): the book written by Angela Bromley-Martin has now been published under the title

“Bosham ... a village by the sea” by Hughendon Publications ISBN 0-9541395-1-8 and printed by RPM Print & Design, 2-3 Spur Road, Quarry Lane, Chichester. West Sussex PO19 8PR. Our entry has been scaled down but appears in Chapter 11, ‘The Folk that made the Village’.