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2450 1st/5th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
David Pettit was born in Sudbury in 1892, one of five children of Robert and Anna Pettit. His father was a millwright and the family lived in Station Road. In 1911 David was employed as an auctioneer’s clerk and was living at Hill View House in Clarence Road with his sister Lily Eliza and brother Robert. (His brother, who later became Town Clerk would lose his son Robert in the Second World War).
David enlisted in Colchester to serve with the Suffolk Regiment. The 5th Battalion embarked on the ‘Aquitania’ in Liverpool in July 1915, heading for Gallipoli in the eastern Mediterranean. The battalion landed at Suvla Bay in early August and saw action against the Turks. The battalion suffered 186 killed or wounded and a further 160 sick, the majority suffering with dysentery. The battalion was garrisoned at Hill 60 and had to endure disease, swarms of flies, heat and water shortage. David served alongside other Sudbury men including his Commanding Officer Lt. Colonel William Morris Armes, CSM Wilfred Hunt, Albert Byham, Harry Farrant, Bertie Martin and Percy Hume, who all lost their lives in the Gallipoli Campaign.
David died of wounds aged 23 on 8 October 1915 and lies buried in Alexandria (Chatby) Military and War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt. He was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal. David would be entitled to the 1914-15 Star but this was missing from his medal record card (this was not an uncommon error and relatives often had to apply for the medal).
David is also remembered on the Trinity Congregational Church Memorial which was moved to the United Reformed Church, School Street when Trinity closed. The United Reformed Church closed in 2017 and it is proposed that the memorials from both churches will be relocated to the Sudbury Cemetery Chapel.
He was also a member of the Sudbury Conservative Club and his name was recorded on their Roll of Honour.
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