Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

SWM

Charles William Curtis

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C. W. Curtis
Service no. 8672, Lance Serjeant, Worcestershire Regiment, “D” Coy., 3rd Bn.
Killed in action on 12 April 1918, aged 34
Remembered at Ploegsteert Memorial, Comines-Warneton, Hainaut, Belgium

Son of Charles Curtis; husband of Mary Curtis, of 22, Hargrave Rd., Highgate, London.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Charles William Curtis, a blacksmith’s striker, lived with his family at 37 Union Street, Clapham, were nine people shared four rooms. His father, Charles Henry Curtis, 48, was a laundry carman married to Harriet Emily, an ironer. Curtis had six siblings.

Albert Curtis

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A. Curtis
Service no. SS/8149
Private, Army Service Corps
Died on 30 August 1915, aged 35
Remembered at Wandsworth Cemetery, Magdalen Road, Earlsfield, south-west London

Albert Curtis left a widow, Forence Maud Curtis, living at Paradise Road, Stockwell, and five young children.

Albert married Florence in 1906, and worked as an upholsterer and maker of portmanteaux (suitcases and travelling bags). The 1911 census shows that he, then 32, and Florence, 22, had been married for five years, and lived with their two young children in one room in Speke Road (which ran parallel with Grant Road) in Clapham Junction.

Albert’s medal card shows that he served in France from 26 April 1915. He died in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Southampton, three weeks after he was hit by a sack of flour, which fell from a crane. His death certificate gives fracture of the spine among the causes of death.

Florence remained in Paradise Road, remarried and had three further sons, who all served in World War Two.

Edward Arthur Cunningham

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E.A. Cunningham
Rifleman, London Regiment (City of London Rifles), 1st/6th Bn.
Service No. 3362
Died 15 September 1916, aged about 21
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

Chris Burge writes:

Edward Arthur Cunningham was born in Stockwell in 1895, the only child of Arthur and Fanny. He was baptised in Kent, his mother’s place of birth, with the given names Arthur Edward Reuben on 20 October 1895.  In 1901, the family lived at 8 Burgoyne Road along with eight members of the Higgs family. 

In the 1911 census, the  Cunninghams were still with his parents at 8 Burgoyne Road, where they occupied three rooms.  Edward was a Law Stationer’s apprentice and his father Arthur worked as a weighbridge clerk for Lambeth Borough Council.  

In early 1915 Edward, then aged 20, went to the drill hall at 57a Farringdon Road to volunteer for the City of London Rifles (CLR), referred to as the ‘printers’ battalion’ because many of its members were recruited from Eyre & Spottiswoode’s printing works. The battalion was already in France but was recruiting for the 3rd line reserves. Edward was with a draft of men sent to France on 28 October, a month after the CLR had suffered terrible casualties at the Battle of Loos.  Periods of line holding were interspersed with rest and training. On 30 April the following year a mine exploded under their position near Vimy Ridge causing over 80 casualties. In July 1916 they moved south to begin training for the ongoing Somme offensive. On 15 September, 47th Division attacked High Wood to cover the left flank of the tank-led attack of the adjacent divisions at Flers. The 1/6th pressed on, but ‘whole waves of men were mown down in line’ by machine-gun fire.  Edward was killed in action on that day. 

Edward’s parents moved to Dulwich  after the war. Arthur is thought to have died in 1937, aged 67.  Fanny died in 1942, aged 69.

James William Cummins

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J. W. Cummins
Service no. 2033
Corporal, London Regiment, 22nd Battalion
Died age 31 on 20 May 1916
Husband of Edith Cummins, of South Lambeth, London.
Remembered at Bruay Communal Cemetery Extension, France

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 James William Cummins, then 26, born in Lambeth, was married and living with his family in 2 rooms at 191 South Lambeth Road. He was a foreman in a coffee husking mill. His wife, Edith Cummins, 25, was born in Battersea. Their baby son, Leslie Cummins, 4 months, was born in Lambeth. Margaret Stevens, a 29-year-old single domestic cook from Dundalk, County Louth, was visiting.

James and Edith had three further children, born between 1912 and 1916. 

Arthur Stephen Crumpler

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A. S. Crumpler
Service no. SS/112057
Leading Stoker, Royal Navy, H.M.S. Cornwallis
Died on 9 January 1917, aged 22
Remembered at Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent
Crumpler was one of 15 men who died when the Cornwallis was torpedoed by the German U-boat (U-32) off Malta. He had previously survived the sinking of the Cressy, which went down in the North Sea in less than 30 minutes on 22 September 1914, after an atttack by the U-boat U-9.

Information from the 1911 census

In civilian life, Crumpler was a plumber’s mate working in the building trade. One of five children, he was born in Charminster, Dorset. In 1911, he lived with his family in five rooms at 41 Dorset Road, Stockwell. Crumpler’s widowed mother, Mary Ann, was a newsagent and tobacconist, from Martinstown, Dorset.

William Alfred Crowther

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W. A. Crowther
Service no. K/27519
Stoker 1st Class, Royal Navy, HMS Vanguard.
Died age 19 on 9 July 1917
Son of Mrs. M. Flowerdew (formerly Crowther), of 16 Birds Hill, Railway Side, Letchworth, Herts. Native of Clapham, London.
Remembered at Chatham Naval Memorial

The Vanguard exploded on 9 July 1917. You can read about it at www.gwpda.org/naval/vanguard.htm.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 William Alfred Crowther lived with his family in 4 rooms at 48 Cottage Grove, London SW4 – his father, George Crowther, 39, a coal porter and his mother, Elizabeth Crowther, 38; his siblings George, 18, a milkman “on round”; William, 15, an errand boy; Alfred Crowther, 13, and Albert Crowther, 10, at school; and the youngest Nellie Crowther, 4. All were born in Clapham, except William who was born in Lambeth.