Stockwell War Memorial

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SWM

George Frederick Geleit

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G. F. Geleit
Service no. B/200790
Rifleman, Rifle Brigade, 13th Battalion
Killed in action age about 33 on 29 May 1917
Remembered at Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA

Information from the censuses

George Geleit was 3rd generation German, his grandfather, August Geleit, having emigrated to London some time before 1871.

In 1911 George Geleit, who was born in Bermondsey, was 27 and married to Clara, aged 25, from Walworth. They had two young children they had named after themselves: George, 2, and Clara, 1, both born in Brixton. The family lived in 2 rooms at 87 Hackford Road (this address is now Van Gogh House – the artist lodged there from August 1873). George described himself as a “housekeeper”.

The 1891 shows Annie Geleit, a 30-year-old widow from Bermondsey, living with her 3 sons, including George Geleit, 7, at 26, Russell Street, in north Brixton.

The 1871 census shows an August Geleit, 46, a tailor, and Caroline (possibly Christina) Geleit, 32, both born in Germany living with their 5 children at Houghton Street, Westminster. August died in 1887.

Geleit means escort or convoy in German.

Harry Bird Gayton

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H. B. Gayton
Service no. 6172
Private, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), 7th Battalion
Died age 24 on 18 December 1917
Awarded the Military Medal
CWGC: “Son of Mr and Mrs F. M. Gayton, of 51 Clifton Street, Clapham, London.”
Remembered at the Dozinghem Military Cemetery, Belgium

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

Harry Bird Gayton was born in Battersea in about 1894. He volunteered on 12 April 1915 and was enlisted into the Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent) Regiment. He gave his age as 21 years and 194 days and his occupation as “tripe dresser”. Gayton stood 5 feet 5 inches tall, with a 36½ inch chest. He had a small scar on the left side of his forehead. He wore upper dentures.

While with his regiment at Chatham, in July 1915 he was disciplined for failing to comply with an order, for which he was punished with 7 days confinement to barracks. He was posted with the British Expeditionary Force on 1 November 1915 and took part in the Battle of Ypres, where he was wounded – he received a gunshot wound to the right arm – on 28 February 1916. He was not admitted to hospital until 10 March. It must have been a wound of some seriousness as Gayton was operated on on 17 March (shrapnel was removed) and remained in hospital for 28 days, after which he rejoined his unit.

Gayton received a Military Medal for actions on 15 September 1917 (we don’t know what these are), but on 15 December he received shrapnel wounds to his knee and right leg. He was admitted to 61 Casualty Clearing station but died of his wounds on 19 December.

The war office sent his effects to his family, including letters, cards, photos, religious books, wallet, cap badge, broken false teeth.

In May 1918 the Infantry Record Office wrote to Gayton’s mother Finetta asking how she would like to receive his Military Medal – privately by post or at a presentation. She opted to have it sent and she later acknowledged its receipt:

“Sir, received the medal quite safe and thank you very much I only wish the dear Boy was here to wear it, yours gratefully F. M. Gayton”

Information from the 1911 census

Robert Gayton, 44, an engine driver for the London and South West Railway Company originally from Fenny Stratford, Buckinghamshire, and Finetta Mary Gayton, 45, from Marks Tey, Essex had 5 sons surviving (of 6 children):
Arthur William Gayton, 20, an off-licence assistant, born in Twickenham, Middlesex
Edmund James Gayton, 19, an office lad for the London and South West Railway, born in Twickenham, Middlesex
Harry Bird Gayton, 17, a shop assistant, born in Battersea
William Robert Gayton, 12, born in Lambeth
Alfred Ernest Gayton, 7, born in Lambeth
The family lived in 4 rooms at 51 Clifton Street, Clapham.

William Albert George Fuller

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W. A. G. Fuller
Private, 17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge’s Own)
Service no. L/4110
Died in hospital on 24 March 1917, aged XX
Remembered at Mazargues War Cemetery, Marseilles, Bouches-du-Rhone, France

William Albert George Fuller was born in Lambeth in 1893, the eldest of five children of Albert Arthur Fuller, a machinist from Battersea, and Rose Maud (née Everett), from Stockwell. 

In the 1911 census the family of seven lived in two rooms at 1 Saunders Place in Saunders Street, which ran between Fitzalan Street and Lollard Street in Kennington. William, aged 17, worked as a labourer. 

William attested at Kingston Upon Thames in 1914. He and his wife Annie Harris had two children before marrying in Hampstead on 12 November 1915. 

Henry Frost

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H. Frost
Service no. 2/9508
Private, East Surrey Regiment, 7th Battalion
Died on 24 March 1916, aged 29
Remembered at Calais Southern Cemetery, France

This identification was made by Chris Burge, who writes:

Henry Frost was born at the end of 1886 in Lambeth, the second youngest of what would be eight known children of parents Thomas and Letitia (née Knight) Frost. Henry’s mother died in 1897 and the family home had broken up by 1901. Henry (Harry), then 14, worked as a ‘carman’ and lived with his older brother Joseph’s family in Stockwell.

The idea of six months initial training, followed by annual camp with bounty, was attractive enough for Henry Frost to join the newly formed ‘Special Reserve’ of the East Surrey Regiment on 16 January 1908. He was described as being 5ft 2ins (1.6m) tall, weighing 114lbs (51.5kg) and with brown eyes and dark brown hair. Part way through his initial training, Henry Frost decided his future lay in the Army and he transferred to a regular battalion of the East Surrey Regiment, becoming private 9508, Frost, on 25 April 1908. After two years in the UK, his battalion was posted overseas in 1910 and Henry Frost would not return to England until late in 1914 after the outbreak of the Great War.

After a short period of acclimatisation and re-fit the the 2/East Surreys, arrived in France on 19 January 1915. Henry Frost suffered a bad case of frostbite to both feet due to the squalid conditions in front line trenches. He was invalided back to England on 17 February 1915. He returned to duty on 8 April 1915, posted to the 3/East Surreys at Dover to regain fitness before returning to France on 14 December 1915, in time for another winter. Henry Frost did not rejoin his old battalion but was posted to the 7/East Surreys, part of Kitchener’s New Armies.

In March 1916, Henry Frost’s battalion manned trenches opposite the infamous Hohenzollern Redout, which had been the scene of bitter fighting in 1915. Between 7 and 18 March, the 7/East Surreys were subjected to intense enemy shelling, suffering 34 killed, 22 missing and 243 wounded. Another 39 were hospitalised with shell shock. Henry Frost was likely to have been wounded around this time and evacuated to one of the hospitals at Calais before he succumbed to his wounds on 24 March 1916.

At some stage Henry Frost had nominated as next of kin both his bother Joseph Frost living at 11 Moat Place, Stockwell, and his brother George who lived in Norwood. It was Joseph Frost who received Henry’s medals in 1920. In the absence of a sole legatee, the war gratuity was paid in equal shares to his six brothers and two married sisters.

The creation of the Stockwell War Memorial was their chance to the honour the name of a lost brother.

Frank Thomas Frisby

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F. T. Frisby
Service no. 26192
Private, Grenadier Guards, 1st Battalion
Died on 12 October 1917, aged 36
Enlisted at Battersea
Remembered at Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium

Chris Burge writes:

Frank Thomas Frisby was born on 4 April 1881, the first child of parents John Hulbert and Mary Ann Frisby. He was baptised as an infant on 29 May 1881 at St. James’s, Piccadilly. The family had moved to Stockwell around the time of his third birthday as the family grew with the addition of two more children, Louisa Jane Frisby and Arthur Hulbert Frisby.

Frank married Ellen Susannah Reed at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell on Christmas Eve 1900. At the time of their wedding, Frank said he was a ‘cellar man’ and the couple gave their address as 55 Russell Street.

A decade later, at the time of the 1911 census, Frank and Ellen Frisby were living in five rooms at 52 Union Road, Clapham. They had no children. Frank was now a fishmonger and employed at least one person. Widower Harry Morgan boarded with them, giving his occupation as ‘fish fryer’.

Frank and Ellen’s comfortable life was to be shattered by the Great War. Like anyone trying to run a business, the introduction of conscription early in 1916 made labour even harder to find and dwindling fish supplies led to a doubling of prices by 1916. Who could afford fish suppers now?

Conscription was soon extended to married men after its introduction, and Frank’s turn came in the summer of 1916. His army service number, 26192, is consistent with recruits to the 1st Bn. Grenadier Guards in July and August of that year. Frank would be sent to France towards the end of 1916.

Frank had been on the Western Front for close on a year when the his battalion took part in the opening of the First Battle of Passchendaele on 12 October 1917. Frank Thomas Frisby was killed in action on that day.

In due course, Ellen Susannah Frisby received a War Gratuity and widow’s pension, meagre compensation for her loss. Her husband’s medals followed in 1920. With no known grave, Frank Thomas Frisby was one of the thousands of names added to the Tyne Cot Memorial, unveiled in 1927.

In common with other families, Frank Thomas Frisby’s name was added to the headstone marking the grave of his parents at Lambeth Cemetery, Blackshaw Road, Tooting. The simple inscription reads ‘Also FRANK THOMAS FRISBY (son) Killed in action (Belgium) 12th October, 1917. Aged 36 years.

Surely it was Ellen Frisby who arranged for her husband’s name to appear on the Stockwell Memorial. Ellen continued to live at 52 Union Road into the 1930s, only moving to Tooting near the time of her death in 1944.

Frank’s brother, Arthur Hulbert Frisby, married with four children, had volunteered in 1915 and served in the Royal Engineers throughout the War, returning safely to his family in May 1919.

Frederick Amos Frewer

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F. A. Frewer
Service no. 926373
Gunner, Royal Field Artillery, “A” Bty. 290th Bde.
Killed in action age 25 on 30 October 1918
CWGC: “Son of James and Elizabeth Frewer, of 39, Arlesford Rd., Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Tournai Communal Cemetery Allied Extension, Belgium

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Frederick Amos Frewer lived at 40 Chantry Road, Brixton where they had 6 rooms. James Frewer, 49,  born in Marylebone, London, was a vellum binder. Elizabeth Frewer, 44, was also born in Marylebone. Frederick Amos Frewer, 17, was a letterpress machine minder apprentice, born in Paddington, west London. Florence Elsie Elizabeth Frewer, 15, was an apprentice to an embroiderer. She was born in Paddington.