Harry Filmer Sulivan and Enid Bertha Bevan were married on 28th July 1892 at St Matthew’s Church, Bayswater, London. Harry was the son of a clergyman and Enid, the daughter of a banker. They were to have two daughters, Violet Aileen and Rose Ada. By 1901 the family had moved to Fern Hill, Melton, where they soon became active in local affairs and Enid was appointed manager at Melton Elementary School.

Ardent supporters of the Red Cross, the Sulivan’s hosted the War Office Inspection of the Woodbridge Red Cross Detachments on the grounds of Fern Hill in 1912. Enid was also a Quartermaster for the Suffolk No.2 Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) and began her war work on 1st August 1914, when it became clear that the outbreak of war was imminent. She set up the first Red Cross Hospital at Woodbridge School. Violet and Rose also joined the Suffolk No.2 VAD and worked with their mother at the hospital. The two of them went on to follow the hospital’s subsequent move to the Gate House on Church Street, Woodbridge. Minnie Batchelor and Lily Wright, a ladies’ maid and parlour maid for the Sulivan’s, also volunteered with the Red Cross.

On the 31st October 1914, Enid, Rose, Minnie and Lily ended their association with the Hospital. Enid gave one thousand and forty-four hours of her time, Rose, one thousand and fifty-six hours and Minnie and Lilly five hundred and six hours each. Violet continued to work at the Red Cross hospital after it moved to Westholme on Cumberland Street, Woodbridge. Upon completion of her service, on 19th January 1915, she had given one thousand three hundred and eight hours of her time.

Violet resumed her voluntary work with the Red Cross on 25th June 1917. This time she worked at St Dunstan’s Hospital in London; an establishment that specialised in treatment for soldiers who had lost their sight during in the war. Violet resigned her position six months later. Enid was also to volunteer once more, returning on 3rd July 1917, to work at the Red Cross at Yeatman Hospital in Sherborne, Dorset. She remained as an orderly there until 3rd March 1918, when she resigned on account of “home duties.”

Both Harry and Enid continued to live in Melton and by 1929 they had moved to The Hermitage on New Road (now Saddlemaker’s Lane), Melton. Minnie Batchelor, their long-serving ladies’ maid moved with them and was still in their employment in 1939. Minnie died in 1947 and, like her employers, Harry and Enid Sulivan, is buried at Melton Old Church.

In September 1917, Violet became engaged to Lieutenant Henry Cole Henley of the 4th (Territorial) Battalion Suffolk Regiment and later the 12th (Service) Battalion Suffolk Regiment. Henry was the son of a local doctor and after their marriage in 1920, the couple lived at Leigh House, Broomhill, Woodbridge. Violet died in August 1966.

Rosa married Montague Dudding in Cairo on 6th November 1919. Montague had served as a Lieutenant in the Essex Yeomanry and later in the Indian Army. They had three children and eventually moved to the Western Cape, South Africa. Rosa died in 1958.

Edward Rapley, who lived in Doe’s Alley, Melton, was the Sulivan’s chauffeur at the start of the war. He served in the 4th Suffolks and later the Army Service Corps. Edward was taken ill with appendicitis from which he died on 24th November 1917. He is buried in Dernacourt Communal Cemetery Extension, near Baupaume in France and remembered on Melton War Memorial.