Herbert William Deane

The son of John and Alice he was born in Staffordshire. The family moved south around 1911 and he married Nellie Barter in 1933. Their daughter, Sheila Neal, spoke to Steyning Museum for an exhibition in 2025:

"He was the loveliest man you could meet - dedicated, kind, and a very quiet person. He never talked about his experiences, and I wish he had. There are things I was aware of, but we didn’t talk about them. When my parents married, they ran a draper’s shop - my mother managed it, and my father worked on the Wiston Estate. When the war came, they gave up the shop and moved into a
cottage in Wiston. It had no electricity, no toilet, and just a well for water. That’s how village life was.

The story was that he was out looking for poachers, but he was rarely home in the evenings. My mother would sit listening to the wireless, but he was always out. I guess his work as a gamekeeper gave him perfect cover.

I mean, he worked really hard, because the area that he had as a gamekeeper was large, and it was all done on foot. And he would come home, and then go off again on his bike, whatever time they were beating. I was the eldest, and I think you’re more aware of things when you’re the oldest child. I always wanted to record what it was like growing up, but I never got around to it. I’ve always been interested in what people did. People in various jobs and organisations in the same situation, and I feel quite strongly that
they've never been recognised, and because of the Official Secrets Act, they weren't even known about until fairly recently. They've never had proper recognition.

He never spoke about it. I wish I had talked to my parents more, but people didn’t really talk about their service. My own sons were in the military for 25 years, and they didn’t talk about it either. Museum: Do you think your mother knew? Sheila: Yes, I think she must have. You wouldn’t just sit at home assuming your husband was off after poachers every night. But she kept to herself and didn’t
really mix much with the village. She was a quiet woman.

That they knew every blade of grass in the areas they worked in. It’s a forgotten story. I think people need to know what went on. Around 1955, the Wiston Estate no longer needed a gamekeeper so he went to Bury briefly and then he and my mother took over
a pub—the Dog and Duck near Horsham. It’s in ruins now."