100 years ago the Somme battle was already in its fourth month. Exactly half the 20 names here inscribed were already dead, the others still to come. This memorial has a simplicity of statement. You can see at once that what is recorded is both important and significant, and should make you want to know more. I will help that journey now by telling you about some of the names and what they tell us of the club at the time. I have also provided in these frames details about all of them.
In the early 1800s golf was becoming a popular sport of Londoners, and was fast spreading into the southern counties. Limpsfield Chart, founded in 1889, is one of the oldest Golf Clubs in Surrey. Only Guildford (1886), Reigate & Redhill (1887) and Epsom, by just a month or so, are older. By 1925 some 150 golf courses had been created in Surrey, Kent and Sussex. Of the immediate local courses to Limpsfield, Edenbridge did not come into being until 1973, and Tandridge in 1925.
The first man to practically recognise the great suitability of Limpsfield Chart for golf was a Scotsman, in the person of Mr A. M Bell, who about fourteen years ago resided at the Manor House, Limpsfield. Mr Bell laid out the links, but in a short time had to leave Limpsfield. The game he had established, however, continued to flourish, being taken up so keenly that the spring of 1889 saw The Limpsfield Chart Golf Club fairly launched, with a strong and influential committee.
It may interest your readers to have some account of a tour de force accomplished by Mr. Frank N. Streatfeild, a member of the Limpsfield Chart Golf Club over the club links on June 28th. This gentleman undertook to play sixteen nine-hole rounds (144 holes) in one day, playing each hole out, and in addition to walk to and from the links, a distance of four miles each way. Mr. Streatfeild, moreover, set himself the task of doing the 144 holes in 720 strokes (an average of five a hole), and he very nearly accomplished the feat.
What is certain is that the first Ladies' 'Golf Club was formed at St. Andrews in 1867, and that Limpsfield Chart Golf Club, from its inception in 1889, has had an enthusiastic ladies' section, originally with its own course, avoiding much of the gorse, heather, whin and scrub of the men's course.
The first or opening match of the Limpsfield Chart Golf Club, took place at Limpsfield Common, on Saturday last, the 29th of June. The weather was most favourable and there was a very large gathering of ladies and gentlemen present to witness this now popular game. The site chosen appeared most suitable, the visitors seated at the end of the Bowling Green commanding a full view of the game from the beginning to end.