Ivy, the most Sussex of ladies

Ivy was fully involved in the life of first Udimore and then Icklesham.

Yet this most Sussex of ladies was born in Buncrana, County Donegal, Ireland.

Her father, Ernest Burgess was a regular soldier in the Royal Irish Fusiliers.

He was an Old Contemptible, one of the small British army,sneered at by the Kaiser. He was wounded at Mons in September 1914.

After the war he was posted around the world. lvy had her 9th birthday in Egypt and was in Dover Castle where the Duke of York School was run for soldiers’ children.

Ivy trained as a nursery nurse and served with the Wollaston family in Wadhurst, the family were evacuated to Devon in the Second War.

Ernest retired as a Regimental Sergeant Major and with his wife Annie took ‘The Plough’ in Udimore.

Here Ivy met a local farmer Tilden Corke. On 1 January 1946 they married in St. Mary’s, Udimore and at 29 Ivy’s Sussex life began.

They had three children, Susan, Jesse and Isabel and farmed at Float Farm. A busy farmer’s wife and Mother she was very active in village life.

A stalwart at St. Mary’s, a Governor at Brede School in Broad Oak,and a W.l. member, Ivy was a Guider in Rye where she started and ran the Ranger Group.

They retired and crossed the valley to a bungalow in Oast House Field, lcklesham.

Sadly Till died in 1991 and Ivy moved to a flat in Five Villages House. She was as active as ever there.

She was a member of The Trefoil Guild for ex Guiders and devoted much of her time to All Saints Church.

She was in the choir, a committee member of the Friends, on the flower rota and served for many years as a Church Warden.

She was very proud of her children, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren.

She will be sadly missed by her family who will remember her as someone who always made time for them and who was always ready to help others.

Ivy was living in Crowhurst care home where she was very well looked after when she was taken ill and passed away in the Conquest Hospital.