Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

SWM

John James Derry

by

J. J. Derry
Service no. 41051
Private, Essex Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Killed in action age 26 on 9 April 1917
Son of Lionel and Sarah Derry, of London; husband of M. L. Eaton (formerly Derry), of 5 Irving Grove, Stockwell, London.
Remembered Fampoux British Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1901 census

In 1901 John Derry was 9 and living at 65 Ellerslie Road with his father, Lionel J. Derry, 36, a laundry carman, and mother, Susan A. Derry, 30. He had a younger brother, Frederick W. Derry, 9. The family were all born in Lambeth.

Geoffrey William John Dee

by

G.W.J. Dee
Private, 24th (County of London) Bn (The Queen’s)
Service no. Regiment 720356
Died on 15 February 1920, aged 23, after discharge 

Chris Burge writes:

Geoffrey Dee was born on 26 November 1896 in Woolwich, southeast London, the first child of John Edwin and Emma Churchill (née Loftin) Dee, who had married earlier in the year. Geoffrey was baptised with the given names Geoffrey William John on 10 September 1897 at St Bride’s, Fleet Street on the same day as three of Emma’s younger siblings, when his parents’ address was 120 Ivydale Road, Nunhead, southeast London and his father worked as a licensed victualler (publican). Geoffrey’s younger brother Philip was born on 15 September 1898 and baptised Philip Walter Loftin Dee on 30 October 1898 at St Martin’s, Dorking, in Surrey, during the period his father was running the Red Lion Hotel. 

Geoffrey’s father died in 1899, and the following year his mother, then living in the Walworth Road, near Elephant and Castle, married George Edward Holton at St Bride’s. Holton, a police constable, was based at the nearby Bridewell Place Station. At the time of the 1901 census George, Emma, Geoffrey and Philip were living at 6 Clock Passage (also known as Clock Place), off Hampton Road and close to Newington Butts, a densely populated area in the parish of St Mary Newington, Southwark. The property was home to three families totalling 11 people. 

George and Emma’s first child Dorothy Ellen was born on 19 June 1901 and baptised at St Mary Newington on 25 August. 

Ten years later, Geoffrey and family were living in Stockwell, at 13 Portland Place North, near Clapham Road in Stockwell. Geoffrey’s stepfather was had risen to the rank of serjeant in the City of London Police and he had listed their children in age order on the census form: Geoffrey Dee Holton, 14; Philip Dee Holton, 12; Dorothy Holton, nine; Stanley Holton, seven; Kathleen Holton, five; John Holton, two. Emma’s younger brother Walter Robinson Loftin, a 34-year-old stereotyper from Kent, boarded with the family. A total of nine people occupied the property’s seven rooms. 

In May 1911 life changed abruptly for the Holton family when Emma died. Forty-year-old George Holton was married for a second time on 3 December 1912, to 23-year-old Constance Muriel Chapman at St Stephen’s Church, South Lambeth.By 1915, there would be three more additions to the Holton family.

Geoffrey Dee was working as a stereotyper at Spottiswoode & Co., Shoe Lane, in the City when war was declared. In the excited rush to volunteer many employees of the print firm joined the City of London Rifles at their Farringdon Road drill hall, but Geoffrey Dee made a different choice. On 6 August 1914 he went to the drill hall at New Street (now Braganza Street), Kennington on 6 August 1914, determined to join the 24th County of London Battalion (The Queen’s). 

He added a year to his age, claiming to be 18 years and 11 months. At 5ft 9in in height with a 33in chest, no questions were asked and he was passed fit. Within days, Private 1894 Dee was in the St Albans area with the 24th Londons. The battalion was sent to France early in 1915, landing at Le Havre on 16 March, the beginning of Geoffrey Dee’s three years on the Western Front. He was wounded in the right leg around 15 June 1915 and treated at 4th Stationary Hospital at St Omer.

Geoffrey was an infantry observer and survived all of the 24th London’s actions until seriously wounded on 16 July 1918, again in the right leg. He was evacuated to the UK where he underwent an above-knee amputation. After the amputation, a medical board at the military hospital Denmark Hill judged his general health as ‘good’. When Geoffrey completed a statement of his own case, he said that he had been treated at Weir Hospital in Grove Road,  Balham, which housed a section of Third London (T.F.) General Hospital. A final review was made at Charterhouse Military Hospital, Charterhouse Square, London, a specialist hospital for limbless men, on 8 March 1919. Geoffrey Dee was discharged six days later and awarded a pension of £2 7s 6d for 13 weeks and then 16s 6d for life. It was noted that his figure (frame) on discharge was ‘slight’ and he faced ‘uncertain’prospects of employment. Geoffrey’s address throughput this period was the Holton family home now at 262 Clapham Road.

Geoffrey died in Torquay, Devon, in 1920 of an infection in his right leg. He is not listed in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database. The military authorities may not have regarded him as a war casualty, but the Stockwell War Memorial committee thought otherwise. 

Geoffrey’s younger brother Philip, also an electrotyper, was conscripted into the Army after 1916 and served in the Royal Fusiliers. Philip returned to Lambeth and in August 1924 sailed for Brisbane, Australia, seeking a new life. He died in 1991. 

George Edward Holton, Geoffrey and Philip’s stepfather, was living in Streatham Vale when he passed away in 1930. 

 Geoffrey is not listed in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database as his death came after the cut-off date for inclusion. His story serves as a good example of the wider remit adopted by the Stockwell War Memorial Committee

Giles Vellacott Daunt

by

Photo of Giles Daunt
Giles Daunt. Photo by kind permission of Will Daunt

G. V. Daunt
Second Lieutenant, South Lancashire Regiment, 10th Battalion, attd. 6th Battalion
Killed in action in Mesopotamia on 9 April 1916, aged 19
Brother of Conrad O’Neill Daunt
Remembered at Basra Cemetery, Iraq
Awarded the Victory, British and Star medals

On 20 August 1914 Giles Vellacott Daunt, aged 18 and working as a clerk, joined the Royal Fusiliers as a Signaller. He was almost immediately offered a commission in the South Lancashires (with whom his brother Conrad also served). Quite apart from his middle-class background – he was a son of the physician and surgeon Francis Eldon Horsford Daunt – he must have looked the part. Six feet tall, over 11 stone and with a 41-inch chest, blue eyes and fair hair.

In February 1916 Daunt embarked on the H.M.S. Ionic, headed for Port Said, Egypt and then Basra, Iraq. He was reported missing in action on 9 April 1916. His death was later confirmed. A memorandum of 6 August states that his body was buried at Sanniyat.

Conrad O’Neill Daunt

by

Conrad O'Neill Daunt
Conrad O’Neill Daunt. Photo by kind permission of Will Daunt

C. O’N. Daunt
Lieutenant, Royal Air Force, South Lancashire Regiment, 8th Battalion
Died age 27 on 29 September 1918
Son of Francis Eldon Horsford Daunt, LRCP (Licenciate of the Royal College of Physicians of London), of 176 Clapham Road, Stockwell, London, and the late Annie Elizabeth Daunt (nee Vellacott).
Remembered at Bronfay Farm Military Cemetery, Bray-sur-Somme, France

Conrad Daunt appears to have been listed as Canadian – at least he is remembered as so on the Veterans Affairs Canada website. The RAF was established late in the war (1 April 1918).

Brother of Giles Vellacott Daunt

Conrad O’Neill Daunt, born in 1891, and his brother Giles Vellacott Daunt, born in 1895, were two of five children of Irish physician and surgeon Francis Eldon Horsford Daunt and Annie Elizabeth Daunt (née Vellacott) of 176 Clapham Road. Both boys were educated at City of London School.

Conrad returned to England from Canada to fight in the war and initially served as a Private with the Second Canadian contingent. He was offered a commission with the South Lancashires, and served with them through 1917. In 1918 he was transferred to the Royal Air Force (established in April) and promoted to Lieutenant.

Will Daunt, great-nephew to Giles and Conrad, writes: “Conrad and Giles Daunt were my great uncles, and, although we knew where they were buried (and have visited Conrad’s grave), we had not realised their names were on the memorial. My grandfather, Francis O’Neill Daunt, was their elder brother and, as a doctor (like his father), was probably a little safer (although he met mygrandmother on a hospital ship coming back from Gallipoli). Sadly, I never knew him because he died in the early 1950s. His two sisters, known as Dorothy and Peg, never married and, like him, spent most of their adult lives in Hastings/St. Leonards.”

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Conrad O’Neill Daunt was living with his uncle, Walter John Vellacott at his farm at Tunnel House, West Thurrock, Essex. Walter Vellacott, 32, was born in Barnstaple, Devon. His wife, Elizabeth, 27 was from High Bickington, Devon. They had 2 children: Margaret Annie Vellacott, 4, born in Homehurst, Esex, and William Walter Vellacott, 7 months, born at West Thurrock. Conrad was 20 and working as a farm pupil. There was a visitor on the night of the census: Moss T. Reick, 44 and married, an evangelist from Berlin, Germany. The servants were Annie Suckling, a single 21-year-old domestic servant from Essex, and governess Ruth Florence Reynolds, 32, single and born in Singapore.

Meanwhile, Conrad’s family lived at 118 Newington Causeway (convenient for Guy’s Hospital). Physician and surgeon Francis Eldon Horsford Daunt, 51, born in Kinsale, County Cork, and his wife, Annie Elizabeth Daunt, 46, from Tavistock, Devon, had five children, including Francis Eldon Daunt, 22, a medical student, Giles Daunt, 14, Helena Margaret Daunt, 11. Frances Willmore, 40, a general domestic servant born in Lambeth, lived in.

Christopher Dartnell

by

world war 1 soldier christopher dartnell
Christopher Dartnell before and after returning from the front. Courtesy of the Dartnell family

C. Dartnell
Service no 19561
Lance Corporal, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, 6th Battalion
Killed in action on 16 October 1917 age 21
Enlisted at Camberwell
Remembered at Hooge Crater Cemetery, Belgium

Chris Dartnell volunteered for military service shortly after the start of World War One. He was part of what was known as Kitchener’s volunteer army formed from the volunteers in 1914 and 1915.

The medal roll confirms that he was awarded the 1914/15 campaign Star together with the British War Medal and Victory Medal.

The official War Diary of the 6th DCLI for the 16th October 1917 states the following:

“The Battalion was in Brigade Support (to the 10th Battalion Durham Light Infantry who were in the front line trenches) and were quartered in Sanctuary Wood in Dugouts and Shelters about J13 C.5.7.” During the night 15/16th the enemy shelled the portion of the wood the Battalion were occupying with Gas Shells and High Explosive shells. He also again shelled the Wood very heavily from about 9am to Dusk. A&C coy’s carried up rations to the 10th DLI and our B” coy, leaving the wood at 5.30pm in parties of 20 under an officer. Casualties other ranks 4 killed 7 wounded”.

Alongside Christopher’s grave are the headstones of 3 other NCOs, all having been killed on the night of 15/16 October 1917.

In 1980, shortly before she died, Ethel Florence Humphreys (born 1903), the youngest of the 12 Dartnell siblings, wrote his reminiscence of her brother Chris for her daughter in 1980:

…My next vivid memory was War being declared in August 1914. My brothers, Roger, Jim and Fred were called up and transported to France and India. My father was called to repair the Hospital ships and was often in France for a month at a time. His trade was plumbing. It was frightening when the Zeppelins came over and dropped bombs and you wondered if you might be killed when they came your way. We very often stayed and sheltered in the underground where the trains were stationary until All Clear was sounded.

Next to be called up was my brother Chris, when he was 18. He hated war and violence and often wished he was not in the Army. When he had leave from France he never wanted to go back after his leave and the last break he had from the trenches he didn’t go back until after another day had passed. That was in 1917 (May). We then had a telegram to say he was killed in action in October – he was just 21. We all were very shocked because of this and the news that my brother Bill had been wounded in German East Africa and was on his way home having been shot in his right hand and had lost a thumb and was also wounded in the right hip. So he was out of soldering for good. He became a Commissionaire for a firm in the City of London.

My last brother, Reg was called up when he was 18 in January 1918 and sent to France for the big push in May 1918. We had a couple of cards from him the first few weeks and then no more news until August that he was a prisoner of war.

Thank goodness they all arrived home except Chris, safe and well after the war ended in November 1918.

Then Armistice was declared in November 1918 and we were told to go home at lunchtime. I remember going to see the masses of people gathering in the Strand, London and felt lost in the crowd. People dancing and cheering and drinking. I had to walk home as there were no buses running. When I reached my house my Mother was crying because her son, Chris, had been killed and would not be returning and my other brother Reg was still a prisoner of war and we were still waiting to hear if he was still alive.

Chris Dartnell died at Sanctuary Wood during the third Battle of Ypres and is buried at Hooge Crater Cemetery not far from there. Chris Dartnell’s great-niece Sheila says, “It’s just one of many cemeteries across Europe which shows that they are highly maintained – not like some of the memorials here.”

Information from the censuses

According to the 1911 census, the Dartnell family were living at 24 Hartington Road (that side of the road was demolished many years ago). Frederick Dartnell (senior), was a 48-year-old plumber, who was born in Lambeth, as was his wife Jane, also 48. Of their 12 children, these were at home on the night of the census:

Frederick Dartnell, 28, a plumber’s mate
Albert Dartnell, 26, another plumber’s mate
James Dartnell (Jim in the memoir his sister wrote), 24, a stationer’s clerk
Ellen Dartnell, 18, a “driver maker”
Lydia Dartnell, 16
Chris Dartnell, 13 (who later died in the Great War and is listed on the Stockwell War Memorial)
Reginald Dartnell, 12
Florence Dartnell, 6 (who wrote the reminiscence of her brother Christopher)

The 1901 census gives the Dartnells’ address as 34 Hartington Road, so either they moved from No 24 or 34 is a transcription error.
Frederick Dartnell senior’s name is given as Christopher F. Dartnell. It also lists the other Dartnell children:
William Dartnell, 11, born 1890
Helen M. Dartnell, 10, born 1891
Sidney Dartnell, 4 months, born 1901

In 1891 the Dartnell family were living at 34 Hartington Road. Frederick and Jane Dartnell and their (then) four children lived with Frederick senior’s mother Eliza Dartnell, 62, who was born in Chelsea. In addition, there was a married couple lodging with them – Richard Chamberlain, 58, a general labourer, and his wife Martha, 57, both born in Lambeth.

1881 Before Frederick married Jane, he lived at 34 Hartington Road with his parents, Edward J Dartnell, a 56-year-old compositor born in Lambeth, and Eliza, 50, whose birthplace is given as “Westminster” (rather than Chelsea as in the 1891 census). Frederick, then 18, was working as a carpenter (he later became a plumber) and his sister, Harriet, 16, was a dress-maker.
1871: In 1871 the Dartnell family, Edward and Elizabeth (grandparents to Christopher Dartnell, who died in 1917 and is named on the Stockwell War Memorial) and four children,
Mary Dartnell, 14
Harry Dartnell, 11
Christopher (Frederick) Dartnell, 8 (later the father of ‘our’ Christopher)
Harriet Dartnell, 6
lived in Spring Grove, Lambeth.
1861: In 1861 Edward and Elizabeth Dartnell family were living at 71 Vauxhall Street, with four children
Edward George Dartnell, 9
Lizzie Dartnell, 7
Mary Ann H Dartnell, 4 (listed in the 1871 census)
Harry Dartnell, 1

Harry Cutmore

by

gravestone of harry cutmore
Harry Cutmore Photo © Marietta Crichton Stuart

H. Cutmore
Service no. 720754
Lance Corporal, London Regiment, 24th Battalion
Died age 36 on 2 January 1917
Son of Anne Cutmore, of 13, St. Martin’s Road, Stockwell, London, and the late William Cutmore.
Remembered at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Poperinge, Belgium and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA

Information from the 1911 census

Like his father, Harry Cutmore was a house decorator. In 1911 he was living with his parents and siblings in a 9-roomed house at 13 St Martin’s Road. William Cutmore, 60, had a firm of house decorators and was married to Annie Cutmore, 61. They were both from Lambeth. Harry, then 31, worked in his father’s firm. His brother Horace Cutmore, 25, ran a greengrocers and his sister Ethel Annie Cutmore, 23, was a sorter for the G.P.O (General Post Office). Harry, Horace and Ethel were born in Clapham. Winifred Maud Cutmore, 18, had no employment. She was born in Lambeth.

Harry Cutmore’s brother James Cutmore also died during the war and is listed on the wooden war shrine in the chapel at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell but not on Stockwell War Memorial. There are many possible reasons why names were not put forward to the Memorial Committee for inclusion, among them the feeling that to be listed once was ‘enough’, anger with the authorities and subsequent reluctance to engage with them, and simply not hearing about the Memorial project.

Information from Marietta Crichton Stuart

James Cutmore
Service no. 321775
Rifleman D Company, 6th Battalion London Regiment (City of London Rifles)
Died of wounds 23 March 1918, aged 40
Remembered at Chauny Communal Extension Military Cemetery on the Aisne (he was previously buried in a battlefield cemetery) and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA

According to the CWGC, he was the son of William and Annie Cutmore, St Martin’s Road, Stockwell, husband of Florence Cutmore.

On the CWGC paperwork for the cemetery register, it gives an address for Florence of 7 Linden Avenue, Thornton Heath, Surrey, formerly of Stockwell and also Gisborne, New Zealand.

They had been married at St Michael’s Stockwell Park Road on 9 April 1905 and their daughter Hilda was christened there in early 1906, James’ occupation was given as Law Writer, his address 13 St Martin’s Road. They had a daughter Anne in 1909.

On James’ probate record, his address is given as 25 Burnley Road, Stockwell.