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A names

Frederick Avis

4 August 2015 by SWM

F. Avis
Service no 46278
Corporal, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, 4th Battalion
Died age 22 on 9 June 1918
CWGC: “Son of Mrs. R. Avis, of 37 Thorncroft Street, Wandsworth Road, South Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Franvillers Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France and at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9

Information from 1911 Census
In 1911 Frederick Avis was 16 and working as an errand boy. He lived in 2 rooms at 59 Lambeth High Street, SE1 with his father George Avis, 38, a compositor, and mother Rhoda Avis, 44, and his brothers: Joseph Avis, 14, and Charles Avis, 9. All were born in Lambeth.

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920
Frederick Avis, a 19-year-old single brewer, joined up barely a month after war was declared on 4 August 1914. Many assumed that the war would be short in duration (“home by Christmas”) and not particularly arduous. It would be like one big party – not to be missed. Avis must have been aware of the bitter irony of these hopes: he survived, possibly exhausted by stress and trauma, nearly to the end of the conflict, and his service included at least one major period of illness.

Initially Avis joined the Wiltshire Regiment but he was transferred to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in May 1916. He rose from Private to unpaid Lance Corporal and Corporal (attracting proper pay). Avis’s only transgression on record is a failure to comply with an order in November 1915 for which he forfeited 4 days pay.

Avis stood 5 feet 4½ inches, with a chest of 35½ (expandable by 2½ inches), and weighed 118 pounds. His hair was brown and his eyes blue. On enlistment he was described as fit, but after three years of gruelling warfare he was returned to England and spent at least 60 days in hospital. In September 1917 was receiving treatment at the Birmingham War Hospital for kidney stones, and he was also diagnosed with muscular rheumatism. He spent 38 days there, and a further 22 days in the Convalescent Hospital at Plymouth.

And then, on 31 March 1918, he was back at the front.

He died at the Somme after serving for 3 years and 275 days, on 9 June 1918.

His widowed mother, Ada, received his effects: letters, photos, a wallet, two religious books, a watch and watchstrap. And later, in 1919, with the help of the Rev Helm, the vicar at St. Anne’s Church, South Lambeth Road, she filled in the Army form declaring next of kin who may have a claim for pension: Charles, 17; Joseph, 22 (now living in Balfour Street, Nine Elms), and Edward, 24.

Filed Under: A names, Stockwell War Memorial Tagged With: 1918, age 22, Died, France

William George Avenill

4 August 2015 by SWM

Avenill WG Lijssenhoek
Photo © Marietta Crichton Stuart

W. G. Avenill
Service no. 87965
Gunner, Royal Garrison Artillery, 1st/1st (Wessex) Heavy Bty.
Died of wounds age 40 on 6 June 1917
CWGC: “Son of Jane Charlotte Avenill, of 57 Thorne Road, South Lambeth Road, London.”

Remembered at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Poperinge, Belgium

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

The early 20th century certainly had strong social conventions. For most, marriage came before children for most people, for instance. Many were regular church goers. Social classes were not immutable but were certainly more fixed than they are now. Sexual and social respectability was more important to one’s self-esteem.

However, it is a mistake to think that everyone stuck by society’s rules or that families always fitted into neat shapes, that people were any healthier than they are now or indeed that life was generally any “better” then.

Some of the brief biographies I have written on the men of the Stockwell Memorial and the St Mark’s Memorial point this up well. They are a mixed group: old, young, English, Scottish, of German parentage, Church of England, Jewish, Baptist, middle-class, manual workers, tall, short, wide, puny. Not only that, they were not universally “good” or well-behaved. Ernest Bailey was repeatedly punished for absences. Henry Alfred Styles was so troubled he blew his brains out at the trenches. Seasoned soldier Harry Nixon was treated for syphilis.

The physical state of these young men is apparently from reading the stories. Many of the men were under 5 feet 5 inches and 120 pounds. George Avenill was an exception – his record brings to mind a well-made fit man, 37 when he signed up on 27 May 1916. He stood 5 feet 8¾ inches tall, with a 37½ chest (with 2½ inches expansion). His tattoos were noted: an eagle on his left forearm and a tea rose plant on his left.

cadogan court gardens
Cadogan Court Gardens © Photo copyright Basher Eyre and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

He left behind a job as head porter at Cadogan Court Gardens (on the right in the picture), Sloane Square, London SW3, and a wife, Edith Elizabeth Avenill (nee Robinson), formerly of 141 Sidney Street, King’s Road, Chelsea. Edith Elizabeth Robinson – 30 when she married Avenill at St Anne’s Church, South Lambeth Road on 8 June 1912 – was a manageress. Avenill was then living at 52 St Agnes Place, London SE11.

Avenill had served 12 years (1896 to 1908) with the Royal Marine Artillery, so he must have known the score, but this did not help his disciplinary record. While in England he transgressed several times. An unknown crime noted on 17 January 1917 led to a forfeit of pay. His absence from 13 to 22 February 1917 was punished with 168 hours in detention and 10 days loss of pay. He lost another 10 days’ pay and was given 120 hours detention on 26 February. We cannot know what caused him to be so erratic. However, in the records the name of his wife as next of kin has been scored through and his mother’s written in the space.

The next we know about Avenill is he is posted on 19 March 1917, transferred to the Wessex Heavy Battery on 2 May and dangerously wounded on 5 June. He died the following day at the 10 Ambulance. He was 40.

The Army set about contacting his widow. A note in the record says: “From Police. 11/6/17 No trace of Mrs. Edith Avenill.”

Then another note: “Miss V. Broughton, 3-0 Block, Sutton Buildings, Chelsea SW states she was living with Pvt Avenill since Oct 1916 and that he was married and wife died on 5 Dec. She was supported by him and was known as Mrs Avenill. Asks for his case to be enquired into.”

It seems that Avenill had been carrying on while his wife was still alive.

The 1911 census has two women who could fit “V. Broughton,” the most likely being Violet Broughton, a 20-year-old servant from Plumstead who was then working (and living) at an old people’s home at 34 Nottingham Place, Marylebone.

We will never know the outcome of the Army’s enquiry into the status of Miss Broughton.

William’s Next of Kin record was amended to his mother – Jane Charlotte Avenill, 57 Thorne Road, South Lambeth Road. She, presumably, received her son’s effects: letters, photos, card, disc, pipe, pouch, whistle and pertinently enough, marriage certificate.

Poor Mrs Avenill. In 1921 Mrs. Avenill received William’s medals. She wrote on the receipt that she carefully sent back to the War Office: “War medals with very grateful thanks.” There is something poignant about her emphatic gratitude – for she had very little left. The Army pension claim form (W5080) of 1919 provides a simple outline of the shape of her family. William was dead, of course, and another, 43-year-old mother-of-four Edith Brewer, was in a mental asylum in Portsmouth and had been at least since 1911 (she can be found on the census there). There was no one else.

Avenill’s file shows that not all families were standard. Avenill’s biography – with his military misdemeanours, his mentally ill sister, and his ill-fated wife and needy mistress – did not fit a the usual pattern of respectability and order. Life was ever thus.
Information from the 1911 census
The 1911 census shows a William George Avenill, 33, at 53 Hartington Road, London SW8, out of employment and living with his parents and sister. He was born in Lambeth.

The family included Henry Avenill, 65, a street sweeper born in Lambeth; Jane Charlotte Avenill, 58, widowed by the time her son William was killed in 1917, born in St Luke’s; and Annie Deverill, 40, described as “daughter” (born before her parents married, so possibly illegitimate at the time or the product of Henry’s previous relationship), who worked as a laundry hand.
© Photo copyright Basher Eyre and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Filed Under: A names, Stockwell War Memorial Tagged With: 1917, age 40, Belgium, DOW

Robert Atkins

4 August 2015 by SWM

R. Atkins
Service no S/23067
Rifleman, Rifle Brigade, 8th Battalion
Died of wounds on 16 September 1917, aged about 30
Remembered at Trois Arbres Cemetery, Steenwerck, France and at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9
British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920
Printer Robert Atkins married Emily Louisa Umpelby in June 1913 at All Saints Church, Lambeth. The couple lived at 14 Horace Road and their sons Robert Thomas and Thomas John Atkins were born in 1913 and 1915.

In December 1915 Robert joined the Reserve at Lambeth, and in June the following year he joined the regular Army. He was described as 29 years, 5 feet 8¼ inches, 38 inches around the chest (with 3 inches expansion), and 10 stone.

Atkins’ file records just one misdemeanour: In November 1916 “when on active service [he was] absent without leave from tatto, 9.30pm until 8.30pm,” for which he forfeited 3 days pay.

When Atkins died of gunshot wounds to the neck, legs and left arm at the 2nd Australian Casualty station he had served 1 year and 280 days. In January 1918 his effects were sent to his widow: “2 playing cards, 1 pipe, 1 knife, 1 cig box, 1 pr scissors, 2 Rifle Brigade numerals”.

In May 1919 Emily Louisa, 29, married Henry Edward Powell, 30 . She lived 14 Luscombe Street, Lambeth.
Information from the 1911 census
Robert Atkins and his two brothers were printers’ labourers in 1911, living with their sister and widowed mother, Mary Jane Atkins, 53, at 43 Neptune Street, Lambeth (near Spring Gardens). Mary Jane was from Cullum, Devon.
Robert Atkins, 24
Charles Atkins, 22
Thomas Atkins, 20
Elizabeth Atkins, 26, a domestic worker
All were born in “Wandworth Road.”
Mary Jane signed the form with her mark.

Filed Under: A names, Stockwell War Memorial Tagged With: 1917, age 30, DOW, France

A. Ashby

4 August 2015 by SWM

No information

Filed Under: A names, Stockwell War Memorial Tagged With: No information

Frederick Alfred Ansell

4 August 2015 by SWM

F. A. Ansell
Service no. S/16820
Rifleman, Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort’s Own), 1st Battalion
Born in Stockwell, lived in Balham
Killed in action on 21 August 1916, aged 24
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium and St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 the Ansell family was living at 39 Willington Road, Stockwell. Frederick William Ansell, 51, was a printer’s compositor, born in Westminster; Clara Ansell, 48, was also born in Westminster. Of her 7 children born alive, 6 survived. All were born in Stockwell.
Frederick Alfred Ansell, 19, was an apprentice compositor
Amy Ansell, 18, was a dressmaker
Sidney Edwin Ansell, 16, umbrella maker
Florence Victoria Ansell, 14
Arthur Charles Ansell, 10
Harold Irvin Ansell, 2

Information from the 1901 census

In 1901 the Ansell family lived at 30 Arlesford Road.

Filed Under: A names, St Andrew's War Memorial, Stockwell War Memorial Tagged With: 1916, age 24, Belgium, KIA

James Albert Andrews

4 August 2015 by SWM

J. A. Andrews
Service no 6703
Private, 1st (Royal) Dragoons
Formerly 6703, 2nd Dragoons (Scots Greys)
Killed in action on 12 November 1914, aged 22
Son of James and Rose Rebecca Andrews, of 60 Wilcox Road, South Lambeth, London.
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ieper, Belgium and at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9

Filed Under: A names, Stockwell War Memorial Tagged With: 1914, age 22, Belgium, KIA

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  • All the men
  • Died on 1 July 1916
  • Brothers
  • Listed on St Mark’s War Memorial
  • Listed on St Andrew’s War Memorial
  • Listed on St John’s War Memorial