Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

H names

William George Hilton

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W. G. Hilton
Service no. 688
Private, East Surrey Regiment, 7th Battalion
Died of wounds age 21 on 5 October 1915
CWGC: “Son of Sarah Annie Hilton, of 1 Trigon Road, Clapham, London.”
Remembered at Chocques Military Cemetery, France

Brother of Frederick Hilton

Information from the 1901 census

In 1901 William Hilton was 8 and living with his family at 70 Harleyford Road. His father, also called William, was 36 and working as a house porter. William (Senior) was born in Worcester. His wife, Sarah A. Hilton, 30, was born in Lambeth. Annie E. Hilton, 10, William G. Hilton, and Frederick Hilton, 4, were all born in Lambeth.

John Thomas Hills

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J. T. Hills
Rifleman, London Regiment, 1st/17th Battalion
Born in Chelsfield, Kent; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Stockwell
Died of wounds age 38 on 30 November 1917
CWGC: “Son of Tom and Elizabeth Hills, of Well Hill, Chelsfield, Kent; husband of Emma Harriet Hills, of 31 Hargwyne Street, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Orival Wood Cemetery, Flesquieres, France

NATIONAL ROLL OF THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918

HILLS, J. T., Rflmn., 1/17th London Regt. (Rifles)
He joined in 1916, and in the same year embarked for France. Whilst on the Western Front he fought in the Battle of the Somme and in an engagement at St. Eloi. He died gloriously on the Field of Battle at Arras in November 1917, and was entitled to the General Service and Victory Medals.
“And doubtless he went in splendid company.”
31, Hargwyne Street, Stockwell Road, S.W.9.

Information from the 1911 census

John Thomas Hills was a dustman. In 1911, aged 31, he lived with his wife Emma Hills, who was from Crockenhill, Kent in 3 rooms at 31 Hargwyne Street, Stockwell. They had one child: Dorothy Hills, 6, who was born in Lambeth.

Albert Edward Hills

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A. E. Hills
Service no. 62590
Private, Royal Fusiliers, 9th Battalion
Died 15 June 1917, aged about 21
Remembered at Niederzwehren Cemetery, Kassel, Germany

This identification was made by Chris Burge, who writes:

Albert Edward Hills was born in 1896, then the youngest of the six children of parents Eugene Frederick (aka Thomas) and Sarah Hills. Albert was baptised as an infant on 20 May 1896 at St Stephen’s Church, South Lambeth. The family were then living in Beech Street. Albert’s sister Ethel, born around 1899, was the final addition to the family.

The 1911 census finds Albert living with his father, sisters Alice and Ethel, and older brother James. His father worked as a slater, James as a bricklayer’s labourer and Albert was 14-year-old office boy. The five adults occupied five rooms at 7 Beech street, South Lambeth (the address no loner exist but it was off the south side of Dorset Road), an area of social deprivation according to Charles Booth’s earlier poverty map.

Whether Albert was conscripted in 1916 or volunteered at the end of 1915 is not known. In any case, he appears to have initially enlisted at Westminster, London, joining the 2 Battalion, County of London Yeomanry as Private 2829, Hills. This was a training unit sending drafts of men to the front at regular intervals. The medal roll entry for Albert shows he was in France by 10 January 1917 and posted to the 9/Royal Fusiliers on 6 February as private 62590, Hills. It was Albert’s fate to be thrown into the cauldron of the Arras offensive in April and May of 1917.

Albert Edward Hills was taken prisoner near Monchy on 3 May 1917 with a grenade wound in the right knee. He was moved from Limberg to Hameln POW camp. He developed tetanus and died in the camp hospital on 15 June 1917 and was originally buried in the Hameln camp cemetery.

Albert’s father and sister Alice continued to live at 7 Beech Street in the 1920s, and later at Alverstone House, Lambeth. Albert’s father Eugene Frederick Hills passed away in 1941, aged 82.

Charles F. P. Hillier

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C. F. P. Hillier
Service no. L/7574
Private, Royal Fusiliers, 4th Battalion
Born in Cork, Ireland; enlisted in London
Killed in action on 27 October 1914, aged 35
CWGC: “Son of Daniel and Ellen Hillier, of 9 Hemans Street, Lambeth, London. Served in the South African Campaign.”
Remembered at Le Trouret Memorial, France

Tentative identification

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission database lists a Charles Hillier, whose parents lived at 9 Hemans Street, off Wandsworth Road. However, this man was christened Charles James John in Cork, Ireland, the son of Daniel Hillier, a coal porter from  Stratfield Saye, Berkshire, and Ellen (née Pierce)
from Cork. 

The CWGC database also states that Hillier served in the Boer War. On 24 October 1900 Charles  Hillier, a private with the South West Borderers, was admitted, for unknown reasons, to Brookwood Asylum in Surrey.