Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

D names

Reginald Percy Dickason

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R. P. Dickason
Second Lieutenant, Middlesex Regiment, 6th Battalion attd. 1st Battalion
Died age 20 on 14 February 1917
Son of Harold Burfield Dickason, of 155 Clapham Road, London.
Remembered at Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension, France

British Army WWI Officers Service Records 1914-1920

Reginald Percy Dickason was educated at King’s College School and Pitman’s Metropolitan School. Pitman’s, opened in 1870, was the first school of business education in the world, and covered office routine, accounting and law, and shorthand and typing. Possibly Dickason was training to be a court reporter, for he transferred out of the 3/25th London Cyclists, which he joined as a private on 1 April 1915, to the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps at Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire.

This corps was originally part of the London Territorial Force and consisted mainly of men connected with the law courts. On 4 August 1916 he was accepted for admission to No. 8 Officer Cadet Battalion at Lichfield, and a little over three months later he left for France, serving with the Middlesex Regiment.

He survived for just under four months, dying near Clery-sur-Somme. In July 1920 the Army wrote to Dickason’s father Harold Burfield Dickason to tell him that his son’s body had been moved to the cemetery at Peronne, assuring him that the removal was done “carefully and reverently.”

Dickason, born on 3 December 1896 and an only child, was 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighed over 10½ stone and measured 40½ inches around the chest. He had the distinction of being the only man on the Memorial whose family included an elephant hunter.

Information from the 1911 census

Reginald Percy Dickason was 14 in 1911 and living with his family at 155 Clapham Road, where they occupied 10 rooms. Reginald was an only child. His father, Harold Burfield Dickason, 36, was an orchestral musician who was born in Highgate. His mother, Esther Dickason, 35, was from Lambeth. Harold’s brother, Percy Dickason, 34, an elephant hunter, and an aunt, Charlotte Hare, 69, lived with the family, along with a boarder, John Greenslade, 35, a stone and wood carver. Lily Cawley, 15, a general domestic servant born in Lambeth, lived in.

Information from the family
After Reginald died, his parents Harold and Esther went on to have another child, a son. This son later joined the Army and fought in World War 2. Esther died in the 1930s.

Jules Benjamin Alfred Desaleux

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listing of desaleux brothers on stockwell war memorial
The Desaleux brothers are listed on Stockwell War Memorial

J. B. A. Desaleux
Service no. 1250216
Gunner, Canadian Field Artillery, 76th Bty. Reserve Bde.
Died age 29 on 25 May 1917
Son of J. B. A. and Edith Desaleux, of London, England; husband of Alice E. Desaleux, of 1399, Winnipeg Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Remembered at Shorncliffe Military Cemetery, Kent

Brother of Ernest William Desaleux and Frederick Desaleux

Shorncliffe Barracks, on the Kent coast close to Folkstone and Dover, was inhabited mainly by Canadian troops, and subject to airborne attacks by German bombers. The most devastating came on 25 May 1917 when two bombs fell on the huts occupied by 18 soldiers, of whom 16 were Canadian. There were 71 military and civilian casualties, including Jules Benjamin Desaleux.

Jules had emigrated with his wife to Canada and lived with at 253 Park View Street, St. James, Winnipeg. He attested on 8 January 1917, stating that he had previously served in the Territorials with the Royal West Surreys. Jules was described as brown-eyed with dark brown hair and a fair complexion, and 5 feet 9 inches tall, with a 36-inch chest.

Census and family information

Frederick J. Desaleux

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listing of desaleux brothers on stockwell war memorial
The Desaleux brothers are listed on Stockwell War Memorial

Amongst the names on the Stockwell War Memorial are three brothers, Ernest, Frederick and Alfred Desaleux. They all died in 1917 – Frederick in February, Ernest in April and Alfred in May. The brothers joined different brigades, although two, Ernest and Frederick, were riflemen. Alfred may have moved to Canada before the war: he joined the Canadian Field Artillery and his widow, Alice, is listed as living in Winnipeg in 1917. She was certainly in London during 1911. In 1911 the Desaleux family were living at Fountain Street (now gone), Stockwell.

F. J. Desaleux
Rifleman, London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles), 21st Battalion
Service no. 653511
Died age unknown on 25 February 1917
Remembered at Railway Dugouts Burial Ground, near Ypres, Belgium

Brother of Ernest William Desaleux and Jules Benjamin Alfred Desaleux.

Census and other Desaleux family information

Ernest William Desaleux

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listing of desaleux brothers on stockwell war memorial
The Desaleux brothers are listed on Stockwell War Memorial

Amongst the names on the Stockwell War Memorial are three brothers, Ernest, Frederick and Alfred Desaleux. They all died in 1917 – Frederick in February, Ernest in April and Alfred in May. The brothers joined different brigades, although two, Ernest and Frederick, were riflemen. Alfred may have moved to Canada before the war: he joined the Canadian Field Artillery and his widow, Alice, is listed as living in Winnipeg in 1917. She was certainly in London during 1911. In 1911 the Desaleux family were living at Fountain Street (now gone), Stockwell.

E. W. Desaleux
Service no. S/14522
Rifleman, Rifle Brigade, 1st Battalion
Died age 23 on 15 April 1917
Son of Son of Jules B. and Edith Desaleux
Remembered at Arras Memorial, France

Brother of Frederick Desaleux and Jules Benjamin Alfred Desaleux

At least one other Desaleux brother served in the war: Albert. Dan Desaleux, his great-grandson, provided the following information.

You might like to know that my grandfather Reginald Desaleux is one of the children of Albert Desaleux who you have listed above. He too was born in Lambeth, as was my father, Barry.

I do have some more information on Albert Desaleux: Volunteering in March 1915 he embarked for France six months and served throughout the war. During this period he was engaged on light railway construction and in laying tracks for guns, and was present in the Battles of Arras, Albert and Vimy Ridge. He was buried by a shell explosion in the course of operations and on recovery served with the signal section until hostilities ceased. Demobilised in May 1919, he holds the 1914-15 Star, and the General Service and Victory Medals.

Jules Desaleux was a map publishing assistant who lived in 73 Tavistock Street, Westminster and married Edith (unknown maiden name). This information is from a census page. However, we have no information of what year the page is actually from.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 the Desaleux family lived at 20 Fountain Street, Stockwell.

Jules Desaleux, the father, is listed as a 45-year-old warehouseman born at “St George, Hanover Square”, London. His wife, Edith Desaleux, was born in Dover, Kent.

Living with them were nine of their many children:
Albert Desaleux, 18, a general labourer with the railway, born at Pimlico (more details below)
Ernest Desaleux, 17, a warehouseman, later to die in the war
Frederick Desaleux, 14, also a warehouseman and also to die in the war, born in Lambeth
Bertha Desaleux, 12, still at school, born in Lambeth
Henry Desaleux, 11, born in Lambeth
Hilda Desaleux, 8, born in Lambeth
Emma Desaleux, 6, born in Lambeth
Ethel Desaleux, 4, born in Lambeth
Gertrude Desaleux, 2, born in Lambeth

Also, in the 1911 census, at 8 Pownall Terrace, Stockwell, Alice Eleanor Desaleux, 20, wife of Jules Benjamin Alfred Desaleux and her six-month-old son Alfred Hugh were listed as visiting Henry James Kemp (described as an “attendant”) and his wife Alice and their five children.

Information from the 1901 census
Ten years previously, in 1901, the family were living at 186 Upper Kennington Lane, in the parish of St Peter’s, Vauxhall, with eight children (the other four were not yet born), including:
Louise Desaleux, born 1886, then aged 15 (listed in the 1891 as ‘Edith’)
Alfred Desaleux, born 1888, aged 13 (listed in the 1891 census as ‘Jules’)
Ellen Desaleux, born 1890, aged 11
All were listed as having been born in Holborn.

Jules Desaleux’s parents Benjamin, born 1815, a journeyman lamp-maker and Maire (or possibly Eliza), born 1821, a corset-maker, came from France. In 1881, according to that census, they were living at 36 South Molton Street, “St George, Hanover Square” with their 24-year-old daughter, also called Maire and also a corset-maker. They had lived at this address for at least 20 years (they are there on the 1861 census). Meanwhile, Jules, then 22, was a Private in the Army Hospital Corps and living at the South Camp at Aldershot.

John James Derry

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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

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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