Stockwell War Memorial

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James Larcombe

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J. Larcombe
Service no. R/14879
Rifleman, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 7th Battalion
Killed in action aged 20 on 15 September 1916
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

Information from British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

James Larcombe, a 19-year-old compositor from Stockwell, joined the King’s Royal Rifle Brigade on 3 August 1915 at Battersea. He stood 5 feet 3½ inches tall and weighed 112 pounds. His chest measured 35½ inches, which he could expand by 3 inches. He wore glasses.

There was just one disciplinary matter in his file. In March 1916 he was disciplined for hestitating to obey an order. His punishment was three days CB (confined to barracks).

His short Army career ended just over a year later at the Battle of the Somme, where he was missing in action and then declared dead.

On 2 November 1916,  Louisa Larcombe, his bereaved mother, wrote to the Rifles Record Office from her home in Hubert Grove, confused by information she had been given and clinging to hope.

Dear Sir,
I regret to inform you that I have been notified from the War Office that my son, Private J. Larcombe, R/14879, B. company, 7th Platoon, 7th Battalion, K.R.R., was missing after being in action on 15th Sept. last, there has also being [sic] one of his letters returned marked on the outside wounded on the 21st/9/16 and present location uncertain. Dear Sir as I am very anxious to know what has become of him, I should be most gratefully obliged if you could [make a] few inquiries about him off some of the lads that was with him on that date or any other possible way and kindly oblige.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs. L. Larcombe

There is no record of the Army’s reply, if any.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 James Larcombe was a 13-year-old schoolboy, living with his family in 5 rooms at 21 Hubert Grove, Stockwell. Robert Larcombe, 58, was a tram conductor, born at Crewkerne, Somerset. Louisa Larcombe, 49, was born in Bow, east London. His parents had had 5 children (2 had died). The children on the census were:
Robert Larcombe, 18, a clerk at the Conservative Club, born in Newington, London
Louisa Larcombe, 16, a machinist (blouse-making), born in Newington
James Larcombe, 13, born in Lambeth

Henry Langford

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H. Langford
Private, Royal Sussex Regiment, 11th Bn.
Service no. 36921
Died on 8 May 1919, aged about 39
Remembered at Murmansk New British Cemetery, Russia 

Chris Burge writes:

Henry Langford was born in 1879 in the village of Midgham, Berkshire, the second child of Jemima Hannah Hunt and master brewer Alfred Langford, who had married four years earlier. Henry’s sister Emma was born in 1877. Alfred died in the winter of 1881 and Jemima married Charles Goodman the following year.

By 1891, Emma was 14 and in service, while schoolboy Henry was living with his parents and stepsiblings in Three Chimneys Lane, Thatcham. By the time of the 1902 census, aged 22, he was a serving soldier. 

Henry joined the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment Militia on 3 December 1895, aged 17, when he was described as 5ft 2in tall, 103lbs, with a fresh complexion, blue eyes and fair hair. He served in the militia until 3 February 1897, transferring to a regular battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment. He served in both Boer Wars and Egypt for two years and was decorated before extending his home service from 1905 to 1909. 

Shortly after leaving the Army, Henry moved to London. In 1910, he married Louisa Elizabeth Eyles in Lambeth. In the 1911 census, they were living in two rooms at 83 Jeffreys Road, off Clapham Road. Louisa was expecting their first child and Henry worked as a cook. The property was shared by two other families, with 11 other people occupying the eight remaining rooms. Phyllis Louisa Langford was born on 3 November 1911. 

Henry Langford appears to have been conscripted late in 1917 or early 1918. Records show that he enlisted in Battersea but not how he came to be in the 11th Sussex. The battalion he joined had returned from France to England in June 1918 after suffering heavy losses during the enemy’s spring offensive. After many compulsory transfers to the battalion, the 11th Sussex departed from Leith, sailing to north Russia on 19 September to support the White Russian forces against the Bolshevik Red Army in the Russian Civil War. We can speculate that Henry may have experienced the novelty of skiing lessons during the winter months, before the weather permitted them to move to Murmansk in March 1919. On 8 May it was reported that ‘36921 L. Cpl H. Langford had died from burns at Murmansk’. No details of his accidental death were given. Henry was buried in the English sector of the Russian cemetery at Murmansk on 10 May 1919.

Henry’s widow Louisa started a new life when she married William Henry Hunt on Christmas Day 1920 at St Jude’s, Kensal Green in north London. William was Henry’s second cousin, and the marriage was witnessed by Henry’s sister Emma Hider. Tragedy struck in the 1940 Blitz when a high explosive bomb dropped near Louisa and William’s home in Marmion Road, Battersea. Louisa died in the Bolingbroke Hospital on 12 September 1940. Henry’s married daughter Phyllis Turner passed away in Wandsworth in 1985, aged 73. 

William Alfred Lamerton

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W. A. Lamerton
Service no. 217128
Sapper, Royal Engineers, 48th Divisional Signal Coy
Born in Camberwell; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Stockwell
Killed in action age 35 on 2 July 1918
CWGC: “Son of James Edward and Emily Lamerton, of Peckham; husband of Louisa Lamerton, of 6, Emily Mansions, Landor Road, Stockwell.”
Remembered at Magnaboschi British Cemetery, Italy

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

William Lamerton, a skilled bricklayer (who also described himself on his enlistment papers as a house agent), attested at Lambeth Town Hall on 10 December 1915, just before the national compulsory call-up came into force. He was described as 5 feet 8¼ inches tall with a 37 inch chest (which he could expand 3 inches) and weighing 140 pounds (10 stone); his physical development was judged to be “fair”.

He was assigned to the Army Reserve and mobilised in December 1916. He joined the 48th Divisional Signal Company on 6 May 1917 and was killed in action in Italy in July 1918, leaving Louisa Lamerton a widow.

After Lamerton’s death, Louisa applied for a pension. On 31 October 1918 the Form was returned to the local pensions board, which was based at Hammerton Hall, Stockwell Green, as the Ministry of Pensions was not satisfied with the signature of the person who countersigned it. They responded with information that Dr. Cross of 51 High Street, Clapham had signed.

We do not know if Louisa had any special occupation or whether she was able to supplement the weekly widow’s pension of 20 shillings and 5 pence (just over one pound) she was awarded. Louisa was lucky in one way – she had only one child (seven-year-old Doris Louisa) to care for.

In March 1920, Louisa filed her Form W.5080, in which she listed the relatives of the late soldier. She almost forgot herself by signing herself “wife”, which she scrubbed out and replaced with “widow”.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 William Lamerton, then 27, and his wife Louisa Lamerton, 27, were living in 6 rooms at 54 Lugard Road, Peckham with William’s older brother Harry Lamerton, 30, and his wife Eliza Lamerton, 37. Louisa was from Nunhead and Eliza from Peckham, while the Lamerton brothers were both born in Camberwell. Doris Lamerton had just been born.

Henry William Laidler

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H. W. Laidler
Service no. 188508
Sapper, Royal Engineers, Gen. Base Depot
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Stockwell
Died age 38 on 25 July 1918
Remembered at Basra War Cemetery, Iraq

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Henry William Laidler, then 31 and working as a plumber, lived in 3 rooms at 42a Lingham Street, Stockwell. He and his wife, Emily Laidler, 28, were born in Lambeth. Emily worked as a cigarette box maker, and they had a 3-year-old daughter, Lilian, who was born in Stockwell.

Information from the 1901 census

In 1901 Henry William Laidler was a 21-year-old plumber living with his family at 13 Brooklands Road. The household consisted of his father, William H. Laidler, 44, also a plumber, born in Hampton Wick; mother, Sarah J. Laidler, 41, born in Islington; brother Arthur L. Laider, 14, shop assistant; and great-aunt, Marion Lamb, 62. Henry and Arthur were both born in Lambeth. A sister, Rose Laidler, born in 1883, is listed on the 1891 census.

Henry Thomas Lackey

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H. T. Lackey
Service no. 235398
Private, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment), 10th Battalion
Born in Walworth; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Stockwell
Died of wounds on 21 September 1917, aged about 33
Remembered at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium

gravestone of Henry thomas lackey
Henry Thomas Lackey Photo © Marietta Crichton Stuart

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

LACKEY, H. T., Private, 10th Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment).
He joined in September 1916, and in the following year was sent to the Western Front. He served with his Battalion in many parts of the line and fought at the Battles of the Somme and Ypres, and was severely wounded at the Menin Road. Unhappily he died from effects of his wounds on September 21st, 1917, and was buried in Passchendaele Cemetery. He was entitled to the General Service and Victory Medals.
“Thinking that remembrance, though unspoken, may reach him where he sleeps.”
6, Mary’s Cottages, Eastcote Street, Stockwell, S.W.9.

Information from the 1911 census

The information from the census is confusing. There was a Lackey family living in 6 rooms at 9 Industry Terrace, Brixton, that included Henry Lackey, 27, a carman born in Brixton. The household consisted of George Lackey, 48, a general carrier’s carman from Walworth, and Louisa Lackey, 44, from Bankside, Southwark. They stated that they had 7 children: Ellen Lackey, 19; Thomas Lackey, 17, and John Lackey, 15, both greengrocer’s assistants; Rose Lackey, 13; Joseph Lackey, 11; another Henry Lackey, 6; James Lackey, 3. All were born in Brixton except the younger Henry. It looks like the enumerator has made a mistake and described the older Henry Laskey as a son of George and Louisa (perhaps he was a nephew).

There is also a discrepancy between place of birth for Henry. The Soldiers Died in the Great War database gives this as Walworth; this Henry was born in Brixton.

This family provided a testimonial for greengrocer’s assistant Albert Laskey when he joined the Army in 1909.