Stockwell War Memorial

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John Thomas Hills

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J. T. Hills
Rifleman, London Regiment, 1st/17th Battalion
Born in Chelsfield, Kent; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Stockwell
Died of wounds age 38 on 30 November 1917
CWGC: “Son of Tom and Elizabeth Hills, of Well Hill, Chelsfield, Kent; husband of Emma Harriet Hills, of 31 Hargwyne Street, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Orival Wood Cemetery, Flesquieres, France

NATIONAL ROLL OF THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918

HILLS, J. T., Rflmn., 1/17th London Regt. (Rifles)
He joined in 1916, and in the same year embarked for France. Whilst on the Western Front he fought in the Battle of the Somme and in an engagement at St. Eloi. He died gloriously on the Field of Battle at Arras in November 1917, and was entitled to the General Service and Victory Medals.
“And doubtless he went in splendid company.”
31, Hargwyne Street, Stockwell Road, S.W.9.

Information from the 1911 census

John Thomas Hills was a dustman. In 1911, aged 31, he lived with his wife Emma Hills, who was from Crockenhill, Kent in 3 rooms at 31 Hargwyne Street, Stockwell. They had one child: Dorothy Hills, 6, who was born in Lambeth.

Albert Edward Hills

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A. E. Hills
Service no. 62590
Private, Royal Fusiliers, 9th Battalion
Died 15 June 1917, aged about 21
Remembered at Niederzwehren Cemetery, Kassel, Germany

This identification was made by Chris Burge, who writes:

Albert Edward Hills was born in 1896, then the youngest of the six children of parents Eugene Frederick (aka Thomas) and Sarah Hills. Albert was baptised as an infant on 20 May 1896 at St Stephen’s Church, South Lambeth. The family were then living in Beech Street. Albert’s sister Ethel, born around 1899, was the final addition to the family.

The 1911 census finds Albert living with his father, sisters Alice and Ethel, and older brother James. His father worked as a slater, James as a bricklayer’s labourer and Albert was 14-year-old office boy. The five adults occupied five rooms at 7 Beech street, South Lambeth (the address no loner exist but it was off the south side of Dorset Road), an area of social deprivation according to Charles Booth’s earlier poverty map.

Whether Albert was conscripted in 1916 or volunteered at the end of 1915 is not known. In any case, he appears to have initially enlisted at Westminster, London, joining the 2 Battalion, County of London Yeomanry as Private 2829, Hills. This was a training unit sending drafts of men to the front at regular intervals. The medal roll entry for Albert shows he was in France by 10 January 1917 and posted to the 9/Royal Fusiliers on 6 February as private 62590, Hills. It was Albert’s fate to be thrown into the cauldron of the Arras offensive in April and May of 1917.

Albert Edward Hills was taken prisoner near Monchy on 3 May 1917 with a grenade wound in the right knee. He was moved from Limberg to Hameln POW camp. He developed tetanus and died in the camp hospital on 15 June 1917 and was originally buried in the Hameln camp cemetery.

Albert’s father and sister Alice continued to live at 7 Beech Street in the 1920s, and later at Alverstone House, Lambeth. Albert’s father Eugene Frederick Hills passed away in 1941, aged 82.

Charles F. P. Hillier

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C. F. P. Hillier
Service no. L/7574
Private, Royal Fusiliers, 4th Battalion
Born in Cork, Ireland; enlisted in London
Killed in action on 27 October 1914, aged 35
CWGC: “Son of Daniel and Ellen Hillier, of 9 Hemans Street, Lambeth, London. Served in the South African Campaign.”
Remembered at Le Trouret Memorial, France

Tentative identification

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission database lists a Charles Hillier, whose parents lived at 9 Hemans Street, off Wandsworth Road. However, this man was christened Charles James John in Cork, Ireland, the son of Daniel Hillier, a coal porter from  Stratfield Saye, Berkshire, and Ellen (née Pierce)
from Cork. 

The CWGC database also states that Hillier served in the Boer War. On 24 October 1900 Charles  Hillier, a private with the South West Borderers, was admitted, for unknown reasons, to Brookwood Asylum in Surrey.

Harold Joseph Hill

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H. J. Hill
(Harold Joseph Hill)
Service no. 43809
Lance Corporal, Machine Gun Corp, 53rd Coy.
Born in Wandsworth; enlisted in Stockwell
Died of wounds on 17 May 1917, aged 21
Son of Joseph Snare Hill and Emma Elizabeth Hill, of 32 Herbert Road, Stockwell, London.
Remembered at Mont Huon Military Cemetery, Le Treport, France

world war one soldier harold hill's family in 1916
Harold hill's family 1916

Information from the 1911 census
In 1911 the Hill family lived at 153 Trentham Street, Wandsworth, where they occupied 5 rooms. Joseph Snare Hill, 57, was an ornamental plasterer. He was born in Westminster. His second wife, Emma Elizabeth Hill, 55, was from Hanwell, Middlesex. Joseph Hill had a three children by a previous marriage to Sarah (Arthur Frank, Florence and Ethel Mary (who is on the census return for this address, aged 27, born in Clapham and working as a ledger clerk).
Joseph and Emma had 2 children surviving in 1911 (of 3):
Henrietta Emma Hill, 18, a compiling clerk, born in Wandsworth
Harold Joseph Hill, 14, a student, born in Wandsworth

title page of The British Army From Within
The British Army From Within

THE INSCRIPTION

About 15 years ago, in the 50p box of an Oxfam shop on the Isle of Wight, Peter M-D found a copy of The British Army from Within by E. Charles Vivian, published around 1914, just as the Great War was starting. He bought it for the inscription alone.

Inside the front cover H H has been written in bold letters. Below, in a different handwriting, is “Harry got his wishes. Harry got one stripe. He got to fire the machine guns.”

Below that, in the same handwriting but different coloured ink, is “Harry got his name on the memorial in Stockwell.”

He felt compelled to find out more.

At that time, the vast resources of the internet were not available, so he went to Stockwell and made a list of all the names with the initials HH. Then he spent a day in the reading room of the Imperial War Museum and after a few hours found his man and solved the riddle.

“He had one stripe so was a lance corporal,” says Peter. “He fired a machine gun so had to be in the MGC – the Machine Gun Corps. His name was Harry. Lance Corporal Harold Joseph Hill MGC 4309 born May 17th 1896 died of wounds May 17th 1917. He is buried in Mont Huon Military Cemetery in Le Treport, France. I was in Normandy a few years ago and I went to pay my respects.”

“I found a reference giving the name of the base hospital where he died – near Le Treport – and that his mother was present at his death from gangrene. I made a note of it on paper, entered it onto my database, moved house four times, had hard drive failure – and the reference is lost. The hospital is easy, it was the one they built of wood and canvas near Le Treport. At the end of the war they took it down and all they left behind were the graves. When I visited, the cemetery was in a thousand-acre cabbage field miles away from anywhere.

“The book had been smoke damaged and then water damaged, so I suspect it had been in a house fire. Harry Hill lived in 32 Herbert Road, Stockwell, which I think was damaged during the Blitz so maybe that was the cause.”

Herbert Road, now gone, ran almost parallel with Sidney Road, between Stockwell Road and Aytoun Road.

SERVICE RECORDS

Peter was told that Harry’s military records were destroyed during the Blitz along with 85 per cent of the Machine Gun Corps archives. However,
Harry’s service record has survived in the National Archives although, like many others, they are badly smoke and water damaged during a bombing raid. These records tell us more about Harry the person.

Harold Joseph Hill worked for the Admiralty as a clerk. On 13 November 1915, the day Hill volunteered, J. S. Barnes, Head of War Registry, wrote a careful note: “Mr. H. J. Hill has received permission to leave the Admiralty in order to elist in the army.” Later, on 9 December 1915, they made a request, which sets out all the possibilities for their former clerk, aside from survival: “43809 H. J. Hill. Please notify Admiralty in event of this man’s discharge, death etc, or of his being granted a commission or being reported missing or a prisoner of war.”

This duly happened, with a note coming back on 6 June 1917 addressed to the Secretary, Admiralty, Whitehall: “With reference to your letter of the 9th December, 1915, ref number 4E 5800/1914, I deeply regret to inform you that No. 43809 L/Cpl Harold Joseph Hill, MGC, formerly No 5131 2nd London Regiment, has been reported to this office as having Died of Wounds on the 17th May, 1917, at No. 3 General Hospital, Le Treport, France. Lieut. for Colonel i/c of Records, MGC, 91 York St, SW.”

Harry’s records show that he was wounded in action on 6 May and was admitted to hospital with gunshot wounds to the abdomen, forearm and back the following day. He died 10 days later.

The records also show that Harry was, at 5 feet 5 inches (165cm), above average height and weighed 119lbs (54kg). His chest measurement was 33 inches (84cm), which he could expand 2 inches (5cm). He signed up at 9 Tufton Street, London SW1 (it is just behind Horseferry Parade). He had one sibling: Henrietta, 26, who lived at Herbert Road.

CENSUS INFORMATION

The 1901 census shows that the Hill family was then living at 23, Tonsley Road. Harry Hill’s father, Joseph Suare Hill, was a plasterer, born in Westminster in 1854. His mother, Emma, was born in Hanwell in 1856. Emma’s pension declaration of 18 April 1919 states that Harry had only one sibling – Henrietta, born in 1893 in Wandsworth. However, the census shows that he had two other siblings: Albert F. Hill, 19, a flour merchant’s clerk, born in Battersea in 1882, and Ethel M. Hill, 17, a tea merchant’s clerk, born in Clapham.

By 1911 the family had moved to 153 Trentham Street, Streatham, Joseph Suare Hill had died and Albert had left home or was otherwise absent from the house, Ethel was working as a ledger clerk, and Henrietta was now a “compiling clerk”. By 1911 his father, Joseph Suare Hill, was deceased.

Charles Richard George Hill

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C. R. G. Hill
Service no. 495791
Private, London Regiment, 1st/13th Kensington Battalion; also Machine Gun Corps, attd. 56th Coy.
Born in Camberwell; enlisted in Camberwell; lived in Lambeth
Died of wounds age 37 on 20 March 1918
CWGC: “Husband of Ethel May Hill, of 17 Clitheroe Road, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Etaples Military Cemetery, France

Information from the 1911 census

Charles Richard George Hill, 30 in 1911, was a compositor born in Camberwell. His wife, Ethel May Hill, 34, was from Brentford, Middlesex. The couple had no children and occupied 5 rooms at 17 Clitheroe Road, Stockwell.