Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

E names

Leonard Eldridge

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E. Eldridge

Service no. 304022
Rifleman, London Regiment, 1/5th Batallion (London Rifle Brigade)
Killed in action on 9 October 1916, aged about 19
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

In 1911, Leonard Eldridge worked as a messenger for the General Post Office. He lived with his parents and five of his eight siblings at 14 Aldebert Terrace, South Lambeth where the family occupied five rooms. Leonard’s father Harry Eldridge, 51, was a carman, transporting milk for a dairy. He was originally from New Cross, south-east London. His mother, Martha Eldridge, 50, was from Norfolk. 

Frederick Eversfield

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F. Eversfield
Service no. J/12826
Able Seaman, Royal Navy, H.M. S/M “D6.”
Died age 24 on June 1918
Husband of Kathleen Christina Eversfield, of 19, St. James Rd., Carshalton, Surrey.
Remembered at Chatham Naval Memorial

Information from the censuses

In 1911 Frederick Eversfield, a 16-year-old stores porter lived at 6 Emily Mansions, Landor Road, SW9 with his family: parents Harry Eversfield, 46, a stone maston born in Wrotham, Kent and Mary Eversfield, 45, from Dover; and siblings   Eliza Eversfield, 25, a restaurant counter hand, and Hilda Eversfield, 12. All three children were born in Dover.
In 1901 Frederick Eversfield was 6 and living at 1 Alexandra Cottages, Tower Street, in Dover, Kent, with his mother and siblings. Mary J. Eversfield was 34 and born in Dover. The children on the census were
Harry Eversfield, 16, foundry labourer
Elizabeth Eversfield, 12
Alfred Eversfield, 9
Frederick Eversfield, 6
Hilda Eversfield, 2
Winifred Eversfield, 1
Sarah A. Burbridge, 84, a widow living on her own means and born in Alkham, Kent, lived with the family.

Alfred Thomas Evans

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A. T. Evans
Rifleman, London Regiment (London Irish Rifles), 2nd/18th Bn.
Service no. 593075
Died 23 December 1917, aged 19
Remembered at Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel

Alfred Thomas Evans was born in 1898 and baptised at St Paul’s, Clapham on 1 May. He was the youngest of William Charles and Mary Evans’ four sons. The family lived in six rooms above their grocery shop at 270 Wandsworth Road.  

In the 1911 census, Alfred, then 13, lived at home with this parents and older brothers William Charles, Bertram Horace and Henry Edgar.  His father, a tea dealer and grocer, ran the family business with the assistance of his son William. Bertram worked as an engineer, and Henry was a leather worker. 

The shop lay between New Road and Howard Street, with a butcher and baker to either side. The Bell public house was two doors away and is still standing. The atmosphere of the area can be judged from this 1910 photograph.

October 1911 brought sadness for the family when Bertram, the second son, died aged 21. He was buried at Norwood Cemetery. Happier times followed when Alfred’s older brother William married Ada Florence Hall at St Philips, Balham, on 23 March 1913. Their first child was born in January 1914.  

William seems to have made a last-minute decision to attest on 9 December 1915, under Lord Derby’ scheme, two days before its closure. The scheme, devised because recruitment was not keeping pace with casualties, urged men aged 18 to 41 who were not in a reserved occupation to come forward, on the understanding that single men would be called up before married men or widowers with children. William was not called up until the beginning of 1917.

Alfred was conscripted in mid-1916, enlisting in London. His first destination was Salonika by ship across the Mediterranean, landing on 30 March 1917.  His battalion moved to Egypt on 12 June, landing at Alexandria, and entrained for Ismalia where they settled in at Moscar Camp the following day. 

The comforts of the camp were described by one soldier: ‘Moscar, itself, was a permanent camp of tents with ample accommodation for everyone and water to be had by merely turning on a tap. Melons and fruit in abundance and in great variety and ideal swimming in Lake Timsah only a short distance away…’

What followed was the Battle of Sheria in November and the assault to capture Jerusalem in December.  

News reached the Evans family that Alfred’s older brother William had been wounded in the head and was invalided to England on 16 December 1917.  A week later,  at Christmas time, William and Mary received the news that Alfred had been killed in action on Christmas Eve, near Jerusalem.  

Alfred’s brothers William and Henry ran the family business in the Wandsworth Road for many years after the war. His father died in 1931, aged 67,  Henry in 1940, aged 47, and William in 1963, aged 75.

Leonard George Henry Erdbeer

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L. G. H. Erdbeer
Service no. 30085
Private, Grenadier Guards, 4th Battalion
Died age 21 on 13 April 1918
Son of Henry and Helen Erdbeer, of 9 Stockwell Grove, Stockwell, London.
Remembered at Merville Communal Cemetery Extension, Nord, France

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 the Erdbeer household of 9 Stockwell Grove consisted of Henry Erdbeer, 43, a “general tinsmith” born in Poplar; his wife Ellen Elizabeth Page Erdbeer, 34, born in Brighton; Charles Morris, 72, Helen’s father and a retired tram conductor from Guestling, Sussex; Leonard George Henry, 13 and still at school; Doris Jessie, 12; and Alec Charles, 10. All the children were born in Stockwell. The family occupied 6 rooms.

Erdbeer means strawberry in German.

Jeffrey Ely

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J. Ely
Service no. C/276
Private, Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 2nd Battalion
Killed in action at around age 25 on 25 September 1915
Remembered at Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1911 census and other sources

The Ely family lived in 4 rooms at 95 Paradise Road, Stockwell. Charles Ely, 47, a sewer flusher born in Horseheath, Cambridgeshire, and his wife, Alice, 50, who was born in Lambeth had 9 children (one had died). All were born in Lambeth:
William Ely, 27, a gold blocker
John Ely, 23, a carman
Jeffrey Ely, 19, labourer
Alice Ely, 17
Robert Ely, 15
Samuel Ely, 13
Arthur Ely, 11
Ada Ely, 9
The family were at the same address in 1901.

In 22 December 1912 Jeffrey Ely married Rose Leeves at All Saints, South Lambeth.

Frederick Thomas Elson

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F. T. Elson
Service no. 62188
Lance Corporal, Royal Fusiliers, 4th Battalion
Died of wounds, age 32 on 11 May 1917
Son of Thomas and Louisa Elson, of London. Husband of Laurel Elson, of 5, Grove Rd., Brixton, London.
Remembered at Etaples Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London 0DA.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Frederick Thomas Elson, 25, was living with his family in 6 rooms at 74 Victoria Avenue, Plashet Lane, East Ham. His mother, Louisa, a 56-year-old widow born in Stepney, had 6 children surviving (of 7). Five of these were on the census.
Frederick Thomas Elson, born in Leyton, Essex
Alice Rosina Elson 23, a draper’s clerk, born in Leyton, Essex
Henry Charles Elson, 22, an invoice clerk, born in Leyton, Essex
Herbert James Elson, 20, a motor mechanic, born in Leytonstone, Essex
Florence May Elson, 18, a shorthand typist, born in Leytonstone, Essex

On 21 November 1915 Frederick married Laurel James at St Michel’s Church, Stockwell. Laurel lived at 5 Grove Road.