Stockwell War Memorial

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John Charles Miller

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J. C. Miller
Service no. 7267
Private, Australian Infantry, A.I.F., 21st Battalion
Died of wounds 19 May 1918 aged 21
CWGC: “Son of Amy Miller, of 296, Clapham Rd., London. Native of Middlesex, England.”
Remembered at Querrieu British Cemetery, Somme, France

Information from the Australian National Archives

John Charles Miller, a single man earning his living as a clerk, lived at 300 Queens Street, Melbourne, Australia when he signed up for service in the Infantry on 12 December 1916. Within days he was on the troop ship Ballarat heading for Devonport, England, where he arrived in late April 1917.

Miller was 5 feet 10 inches and 148 pounds (10½ stone), his chest measured 36 inches and he could expand it by an impressive 5 inches. He had a scar on his right knee. He had blue eyes, brown hair and his complexion was described as “mid”, whatever that means. His father was deceased, but his mother lived at 296 Clapham Road.

The journey was not without events. Miller was hauled up twice – once for failing to report for duty when warned and once for going absent without leave, for which he was punished with 24 hours detention. He was also made to forfeit two days’ pay (10 shillings).

By September 1917 he had joined his battalion. We know he had a period of leave to England between 16 January and 16 February 1918, and on 19 May he suffered a shell wound to his left leg, which shattered. He died of wounds in the 5th Australian Field Ambulance.

Before he died, Miller wrote a will leaving all his possessions to his mother, Amy Miller. This was dated 4 August 1917, that is before he went to France. It was witnessed by Laura Miller of 35 St Stephens Terrace, South Lambeth, who stated that she was involved in “war work at the Admiralty” and by a police constable, Stephen Staughton, who lived in the same house as Amy.

George Sidney Miller

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G.S. Miller
Petty Officer Stoker, Royal Navy, HMS Vanguard
Service no. 311632
Died in an explosion on 9 July 1917, aged 27
Remembered at  Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent

Chris Burge writes:

George Sidney Miller was born in Willesden, northwest London in 1892, the second child of parents George Henry and Elizabeth Miller, who were both originally from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. At the time of the 1901 census, George, 33, and Elizabeth, 29, lived in four rooms at 47 High Street Clapham with their three children: Irene, 12; George, nine; and Samuel, five. George Snr, a police sergeant, died in 1903, aged 36. On 16 January 1909 Irene married Talbert Vincent Wilcocks at St Mark’s Church, Kennington, giving their addresses as 74 and 76 Clapham Road. The marriage was witnessed by Talbert’s sister and Frederick Staughton.

By the time of the 1911 census, Irene was living in four rooms at 26A Mandalay Road, Clapham, with her husband and their two baby daughters. George Sidney Miller appeared in the census at the Royal Navy Torpedo School Ship HMS Vernon, Portsmouth, listed as ‘Stoker 1st Class’. He was listed as 22 and single, both of which were untrue. 

George Sidney Miller had joined the Navy on 1 May 1907, signing for 12 years. He claimed to have been born in Willesden on 25 November 1888. He was described as 5ft 6in tall with dark brown hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion. He married Laura Hazelden on 17 November 1910 at St Barnabas, South Lambeth, where Laura had been baptised as a child. Her family home was at 8 Horace Street. At the time of the wedding George gave his true age, which was 18, and HMS Vernon as his place of residence. Frederick Staughton was one witness of their marriage. George and Laura’s first child, George Frederick Sidney Miller, was born on 25 April 1911 and baptised on 10 May 1911 at St Stephen’s, South Lambeth, at which time Laura gave her address as 76 Clapham Road, where she lived in one room and had been working as a laundress. 

In the 1911 census, policeman Frederick Staughton was living at 74 Clapham Road with his wife ‘Amy’ and 15-year-old stepson John Miller, born in Harlesden, northwest London. Amy Staughton was 38 and from Great Yarmouth. Frederick had married an ‘Amy Miller’ in 1906. While it’s not certain that George’s mother Elizabeth and Amy were the same person, his younger brother was baptised Samuel John Miller, which suggests Frederick Staughton may have been more than a family friend.

At the of outbreak of war, George Miller had risen to Leading Stoker and already educationally passed for Petty Officer; he was at the Pembroke II shore station. Between July 1914 and May 1916, he served on HMS Stour, part of the 9th Destroyer Flotilla that patrolled home waters. George and Laura’s second child, Eileen Laura,  was born on 7 December 1915 and baptised at St Stephen’s, South Lambeth, on two weeks later, when their home address was 35 St Stephen’s Terrace, which was virtually opposite the church.

A year later George Sidney Miller was involved in an incident that threatened to end his naval career. He appeared in court accused of the manslaughter of Herbert Jones. George Sidney Miller, 24, stoker, had been bailed in a police court on 23 November 1916 after a Coroner’s Inquest into the death of Herbert Jones. The case was heard by Justice Avory on 13 December 1916 at the Old Bailey where George pleaded guilty, and was reported in newspapers soon after:

A NAVAL WHIRLWIND. A naval stoker, aged 23, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to-day to the manslaughter of Herbert Jones, whom he was said have struck outside a public-house. It was alleged that an insulting remark had been used to him and he ran amok. Mr. Justice Avory said that he doubted whether the prisoner intended to hit the deceased. You were the victim of that mistaken kindness which people show men in the services home on leave. I wish it could be made a more serious offence than is now to treat soldiers and sailors. You were mad with drink for the time being, and you ran amok. “I understand that someone called you a coward. Anything more calculated to irritate a man like you I don’t know. You ran about waving your arms like a whirlwind, striking anyone and not caring who it was.” Prisoner was bound over.

Justice Avory’s sympathetic hearing saved George from disgrace and worse. Whether it was chance or the Navy deliberately keeping George out of further trouble, he found himself sent far from London to the Fleet at Scapa Flow where he joined the crew of HMS Vanguard on 1 January 1917 and by April was an acting petty officer (stoker). HMS Vanguard was the Royal Navy’s seventh dreadnought battleship when launched in 1909, part of the Naval Arms Race that had preceded the war when the public were associated with the chant ‘We want eight and we won’t wait!’ The only time HMS Vanguard fired her guns in anger was during the battle of Jutland in 1916. In the Fleet anchorage in Scapa Flow on the evening of Monday 9 July 1917, it was overcast, with a gentle northeasterly. Vanguard and her neighbours carried out their usual evening routines until about 11.20pm when, without warning, flames became visible abaft Vanguard’s foremast, followed immediately by two heavy explosions, and the battleship disappeared under a pall of smoke. When the smoke lifted the great ship had gone. Of the 845 onboard, only two survivors were found. George Sidney Miller had died that day. 

The Naval Court of Inquiry was unable to determine any definite cause to the explosion. It was only able to conclude that it may have been due to the ignition of cordite from an ‘avoidable cause’, or the deterioration of perhaps unstable cordite. No blame was attributed to any one person. 

By the time the loss of the Vanguard was widely reported in the British press on 14 July 1917, the next of kin had been notified and Laura Miller was still at St Stephens Terrace, South Lambeth Road, SW8. When the Stockwell War Memorial was unveiled in 1922, Laura had been living at 111 Gaskarth Road, near Clapham South since 1918. It was the home of George’s married sister Irene, whose husband Talbert had served in the Royal Garrison Artillery during the war. 

Laura Miller was married for a second time in 1925 to Edward Henry Gardener, an older man who had served in the Royal Navy between 1897 and 1906 and during the war. They lived in Boyd Road, Colliers Wood, from 1925, where Laura was still living when Gardener passed away in 1954. Laura passed away in Merton in 1971, aged 78. 

George and Laura’s daughter Eileen Laura Miller died in 1934, aged 18. His son George Frederick Sidney Miller died in 1989, aged 78.

Arthur Morley Miller

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Arthur Morley Miller
Arthur Morley Miller

A. M. Miller
Service no. C/4039
Lance Serjeant, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 20th Battalion
Born in Clapham; enlisted in Battersea; lived in Clapham
Died of wounds on 30 September 1917 age 27
CWGC: “Son of William and Emma Miller, of Clapham; husband of K. F. Miller, of 50, Chelsham Rd., Clapham, London.”
Remembered at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium

Arthur Morley Miller
Arthur Morley Miller. Photo (c) Marietta Crichton Stuart

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920
Arthur Morley Miller joined the King’s Royal Rifle Corps at Battersea on 28 June 1915. He gave his address as 27 Courland Grove, Clapham and described himself as a clerk. The Army assessed him as being 5 feet 5 inches, with a 34½ inch chest which he could expand by 2½ inches. His one distinguishing mark was two moles under his left nipple.

He had no charges on his conduct form and by the time he died of wounds on 20 September 1917 he had risen to become Lance Serjeant. In October 1916 he was wounded and was sent back to England for treatment. At the London General Hospital at Poplar, east London, a doctor described the shrapnel wound to his left hand as a flesh wound with the bones not affected but the tendons exposed. He was discharged after three months and sent back to the front.

He must have had another period of leave because he married Kathleen Florence Cherrill on 16 February 1917. She later received his effects: a crucifix, 2 razors, a French book, letters, a religious book, a cap badge, dentures, diary, a wrist watch and strap, photos, a fountain pen and a whistle. When the Army sent Arthur’s medals, they described him as a Corporal. Florence wrote back: “Am sorry to note you have put Cpl. Miller on both my husband’s medals. He was a L. Sgt.”

Information from the 1911 census

Arthur Morley Miller, 20, was a builder’s clerk. He lived at 27 Courland Grove, where his large family occupied six rooms – he had 11 siblings and half-siblings. His father, Arthur William Miller, 53, worked as a carman. He was born in Lambeth. His mother, Emma Eliza Miller, 49, was from Marylebone, central London. An aunt, Alice Kate Miller, 55, a single machinist of underclothing, lived with the family. Eight children of Arthur William Miller were on the census return:
Alice Kate Miller, 31, born in Lambeth
Albert Ernest Miller, 24, a carpenter, born in Clapham
Arthur Morley Miller, 20, born in Clapham
Louise Emma Miller, 19, a laundry packer, born in Clapham
Elsie Elizabeth Miller, 17, a book folder, born in Clapham
Frederick John Miller, 14, an office boy to an electrical engineer, born in Clapham (he also served in the Army)
Dorothy Ethel Miller, 9, born in Clapham
Amy Eliza Miller, 6, born in Clapham

Ernest John Milborrow

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E. J. Milborrow
Service no. 93005
Gunner, Royal Field Artillery, 17th Bty. 83rd Bde
Enlisted in Brixton; lived in Stockwell
Died on 11 July 1918 aged 28
CWGC: “Son of Mr and Mrs E. Milborrow, of 83, Hargwyne Street, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at St Souplet British Cemetery, Nord, France

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

In 1911, Ernest John Milborrow, 20, was an unemployed laundry warehouseman, living with his parents and six of his seven siblings in four rooms at 83 Hargwyne Street, Stockwell.  His father, Ernest Alfred, 43, a silk tie cutter, and his mother, 45, were both born in Lambeth.

Ernest Milborrow’s service history has not survived but those for his brothers William and Arthur Milborrow have. They both joined the Royal Field Artillery, 162nd (Howitzer) Brigade in Camberwell on the same day, 27 March 1916, and were given adjacent Service numbers.

William (L13105), aged 23 and working as a butcher when he enlisted, rose through the ranks and was demobbed in 1920 as a Serjeant. His career included two disciplinary issues. He was reprimanded in October 1915 for insubordinate conduct to an officer and again in July 1918 for absence from parade. His medical history included having his infected teeth removed (November 1915) and inoculations against typhoid. He caught flu in March 1919, just at the start of the pandemic. He was 5 feet 5¾ inches tall.

Arthur Thomas (L13106) described himself as a bank messenger, and was 19 when he enlisted. He was demobbed as a driver in 1919. He was disciplined in February 1917 for being absent from parade, and in March 1918 for going absent from leave for one day. He was hospitalised for two days with diarrhoea and for eight with a sprained foot (“nothing found,” said the doctors). He was 5 feet 3 inches tall.

Information from the censuses

In 1911, Ernest John Milborrow, 20, was an unemployed laundry warehouseman, living in four rooms at 83 Hargwyne Street, Stockwell (where they had been since at least 1901), with his parents and siblings. All nine children (eight of whom are on the census) and the parents were Lambeth-born:
Ernest Alfred Milborrow, 43, a silk tie cutter
Ellen Milborrow, 45
Ernest John Milborrow, 20
Willie (William) Milborrow, 19, a butcher’s roundsman (employed to make rounds or deliveries)
Nellie Elizabeth Milborrow, 14
Arthur Thomas Milborrow, 12, at school and working as a newsboy
Elsie Phoebe Milborrow, 11
Edith Milborrow, 9
Edward Milborrow, 6
George Milborrow, 2