Stockwell War Memorial

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D names

Henry Richard Dooley

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H. R. Dooley
Service no. 701393
Private, London Regiment, 1st/23rd Battalion
Died age 22 on 16 September 1916
Son of Richard and Mary Dooley, of 4 Smedley Street, Larkhall Lane, Clapham, London.
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

Henry Richard Dooley joined the Territorial Force on 25 May 1915 at Clapham Junction. He described himself as a plumber’s mate. The Army described him as 20 years old, 6 feet and a half-inch tall, weighing 164 pounds (11½ stone) with a 36 inch chest, which he could expand by 2½ inches. His physical development was judged to be “good”. The Army must have been very happy to receive into its ranks such a strapping young man.

The Army perhaps was not so pleased when Dooley started to go sick and then to challenge the authority of his superior officers. After a period at Home (in England) that ended on 26 October, he was shipped to France. On the 5 February 1916 he reported with “pyrexia” (this means that he was running a fever) and lumbago (pain of the lower back). Just 2 days later he was complaining of something “N.Y.D.” (not yet diagnosed), and on 24 February he had myalgia (muscle pain), after which he was sent back to his unit. The record states that on 27 February he was sent to “join the Base Depot (T.B.)”. It is unclear whether this means that Dooley was suffering from tuberculosis. Whatever, the situation, he rejoined his unit on 15 April and by 25 June he was in trouble for using “improper language to an N.C.O. [non-commissioned officer]”. The punishment is recorded but is difficult to read (the record has suffered water damage).

Not long afterwards, on 2 August Dooley was again in trouble, this time more seriously. He was tried by F.G.C.M. (Field General Court Martial) on 2 counts: using insubordinate language to his superior officer and disobeying an order given by his superior officer. He was found guilty and sentenced to a year’s hard labour which was almost immediately commuted to 3 months. The Army, after all, needed all available men at the front. He did not complete his sentence. On 16 September he was missing , “death being presumed”. He had served a total of 1 year and 115 days.

Information from the 1911 census

Henry Richard Dooley’s parents were from Ireland. Richard Dooley, 64, was a pensioner; Mary Dooley, 57, was probably a charwoman (her occupation has been scrubbed out, possibly because wives’ occupations were not counted). Joe Dooley, 19, a grocer’s boy, was born in England, as was Henry Dooley, then 17 and working as a plumber’s assistant. The family lived in 3 rooms at 153 Larkhall Lane, SW4. Richard Dooley signed his name with a cross (mark), indicating that he was probably illiterate.

Frederick John Doel

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F. J. Doel
Service no. 31188
Private, East Surrey Regiment, 8th Battalion
Killed in action aged about 20 on 3 May 1917
Remembered at Arras Memorial, France

Information from the censuses

In 1901 Frederick J. Doel, 4,  was living at  5 Spring Gardens with his mother, Ada Jane Doel (née Scrine), 23, a washer and ironer born in Lambeth, and his younger brother, Walter H. Doel, 2. The boys were born in Lambeth. There is no mention of their father.

In 1911 the family was living in 3 rooms at 29 Fountain Street (now gone), Lambeth. Frederick is listed as Fredrick. There were 3 sons: Frederick, 14, Walter, 12, and Arthur, 9, the latter born in Brixton. Again, Ada describes herself as married and a “wife” rather than “head” but there is no husband on the census.

James Albert Dixon

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J. A. Dixon
Service no 9159
Private, East Surrey Regiment, 7th Battalion
Died age 27 on 13 August 1916
Son of Mr and Mrs Browell, of 69 Stewart Road, Battersea, London; husband of Isabel Constance Dixon, of 17 Camellia Street, Wandsworth Road, South Lambeth, London.
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, France

George Dimond

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G. Dimond
Service no. L/6478
Private, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 2nd Battalion
Died of wounds age 18 on 9 November 1914
Son of Charles and Clara Dimond, of 44 Priory Road, South Lambeth, London.
Remembered at Poperinghe Old Military Cemetery, Belgium

Information from British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1918 and 1911 census

George Dimond joined up at the age of 18 just before the war started, on 27 April 1914. He lived for only 194 days after that, dying of wounds to the legs on 9 November 1914 at Poperinghe. Allied forces commandeered this town, the primary military centre for British forces located in Flanders and only 10km from Ypres, as a base from the early days of the war. It remained in Allied command, apart from a period between May and October 1914.

Dimond, blue-eyed with dark brown hair, was 5 feet 7½ inches, weighing 116 pounds, with a 33 inch chest he could expand by 2½ inches. In civilian life he was a sawyer’s assistant. The Army records show that Dimond’s parents were separated. In 1911 his mother Clara, then 50, is listed as a boarder at 104 Hartington Road – her occupation is “charwoman” and she is described as “married but separated”. Dimond’s father, Charles, 49, meanwhile was boarding in 27 Dawlish Street. Between them they had five daughters and George.

George is cited in De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour 1914-1918.

Henry James Dighton

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H. J. Dighton
Service no. 8159
Private, Lincolnshire Regiment, 2nd/5th Battalion
Died aged about 22 on 29 April 1918
Son of Clara Dighton, of 68 Crimsworth Road, South Lambeth, London.
Remembered at Arneke British Cemetery, Nord, France

Information from the 1911 census

Henry (or Harry) Dighton was 15 and working as a grocer’s assistant in 1911. He lived with his family in 4 rooms at 35 a Crimsworth Road, off Brixton Road. His father, James Dighton, 46, who was born in Pimlico, worked as a caterer’s porter. His mother, Clara Dighton (née Baxter), 47, was born in Paddington. They had 6 surviving children (of 8):
William Dighton, 21, a railway van shifter, born in Hammersmith, west London
Isabelle Dighton, 20, a laundry ironer, born in Kensington
Dorothy Dighton, 18, a layer-on for a printer, born in Lee
Harry (Henry) Dighton, 15, a grocer’s assistant, born in Forest Hill
Albert Dighton, 10, born in Lambeth
Stanley Dighton, 7, born in Lambeth

Frederick John Dicker

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F. J. Dicker
Service no. 295165
Private, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 1st/4th Battalion
Killed in action 19 August 1917
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Frederick John Dicker, 31, was living in 4 rooms at 8 Beech Street, Dorset Road with his wife, Susan Dicker, 30. He was born in South Lambeth and was working as a general labourer. Susan was born in Battersea. They had had one child, who had died.

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

DICKER, F. J., Private, 4th London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers)
He joined in April 1917 and at the close of his training was drafted overseas in the following July. During his brief service on the Western Front he was engaged in much heavy fighting on the Ypres sector, where he was unfortunately killed in action on August 16th, 1917. He was entitled to the General Service and Victory Medals.
8, Beech Street, Dorset Road, S.W.8.