Stockwell War Memorial

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Stockwell War Memorial

George Edwards Verney

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G. E. Verney
Service no. G/13935
Private, Royal Sussex Regiment, 13th Battalion
Born in Brixton; enlisted in Lambeth
Killed in action on 26 September 1917, aged 33
CWGC: “Son of George Verney, of 53 Dalberg Road, Brixton, London.”
Remembered at Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium

Information from the censuses

Brixton-born George Edward Verney was a baker. Aged 26, he was living with his parents, George Verney, 53, a cab driver from WInslow, Buckinghamshire, and Annie Verney (née Edwards, 60, from Riverhead, Kent, and sister Rose Verney, 22, a general domestic servant born in Clapham, at 20 Gilbey Road, Tooting, where the family had five rooms. George and Annie had had six children, with five surviving. In 1901 the Verney family lived at 4a Park Place, Clapham.

Frederick Charles Vincent Upton

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F. C. V. Upton
Service no. 189301
Air Mechanic 2nd Class, Royal Air Force, 116th Squadron
Died on 11 November 1918 (Armistice Day), aged 18
CWGC: “Only son of Frederick William and Annie Upton, of 2 Portland Place South, Clapham Road, London.”
Remembered at Aylesbury Cemetery, Buckinghamshire

Information from the 1911 census

The Frederick Charles Vincent Upton who is in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database appears as Frederick William Upton on the 1911 census. This is somewhat confusing especially given that the census return was completed by his father. It is possible that the CWGC has made an error over the identity of this casualty as some details do match.

Frederick William Upton in the 1911 census was an 11-year-old schoolboy born in Farnham, Surrey, the only son (as corroborated in the CWGC database) of Frederick William Upton, 39, a coffee shop keeper from Betsham, Kent, and Annie Upton, 37, from Farnham, Surrey (she is described as “assisting in the business” on the census). They had three daughters: Ivy Blanche Upton, 14, born in Aldershot, Hampshire; Edith Gertrude Upton, 8; born in Farnham, Surrey: Hilda Annie Upton, 6, born in Farnham. The family lived in 5 rooms at 2 Portland Place South, near Clapham Road. This street has now disappeared (apart from a few houses) and has been replaced by Portland Grove. The area sits within the Mursell Estate.

Albert Edward Upton

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A. E. Upton
Service no. L/17507
Private, London Regiment, 7th Battalion, formerly Middlesex Regiment
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in London
Killed in action on 21 March 1918, aged about 23
Remembered at Chauny Communal Cemetery British Extension, Aisne, France

Information from the censuses

Albert Edward Upton, 16 in 1911, was described by his father Edward Upton as “youth – not settled” on the 1911 census. Edward repeated the word “unsettled’ in the next column (which is meant for information on the type of business a person is employed in) and added “butcher”, confusingly, to the next column (designed to record whether the business took place at home or outside the home). Edward Upton’s mistakes have given us a lot more information than most census returns. For instance, he tells us that he was born “between Brixton and Clapham Roads” and that he and his wife, Mary Ann Upton, at 54 the same age as her literal-minded husband and from Beaulieu, Hampshire, had been married 21 years last September. We also know that he worked as a goods guard for the London & South West Railway.  The couple had two children (one had died): Albert and Ada Mary Ellen Upton, 19, a service housemaid. Both were born, Edward tells us, were born at 7 Dawlish Street, South Lambeth, where the family still lived.

Herbert George Underwood

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H. G. Underwood
Service no. A/200471
Rifleman, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 10th Battalion
Enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Clapham
Killed in action on 10 August 1917, aged about 34
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ypres, Belgium

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911, Herbert George Underwood, a motor cab washer, was 28 and living with his widowed mother and siblings in four rooms at 4 Dorset Road. His mother, Anne Underwood, 69, was from Northamptonshire. She had had 9 children, six surviving. Herbert’s brother Albert George Underwood, 26, was a brass trimmer in a foundry, and his sister Rose Underwood, 30, was a domestic servant born in Shoreditch, east London. Dressmaker Edith Murray, 21, a niece to Herbert and his siblings, lived with the family.

William Evan Turpin

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william-evan-turpin2
Wiliam Evan Turpin. Photo courtesy of George Cody.

W. E. Turpin
Service no. 140311
Gunner, Royal Garrison Artillery, 172nd Siege Bty.
Born in Clapham; enlisted in Clapham
Killed in action on 31 May 1918, aged 32
Remembered at Montecchio Precalcino Communal Cemetery Extension, Italy

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

TURPIN, W. E., Gunner, R.G.A.
He joined in January 1917, and in the following May was sent to France, where he took part in the fighting at Bullecourt and Messines. Later he was transferred to Italy, where he was unfortunately killed in action on May 30th, 1918, and was buried at Montechiaro. He was entitled to the General Service and Victory Medals.
“Great deeds cannot die.”
15, Elwell Road, Clapham, S.W.4.

William Turpin (centre) at Young's on Larkhall Lane, at the corner of Gaskell Street
William Turpin (centre) at Young’s on Larkhall Lane, at the corner of Gaskell Street. Courtesy of George Cody.

Information from the censuses

In 1911 William Evan Turpin was a 25-year-old grocer’s assistant, living in three rooms at 15 Elwell Road, Clapham, with his wife Emma Turpin (née Guy), 25, from Wolverhampton, and their young son William Joseph Turpin, 11 months, born in Clapham.Meanwhile, his parents, Jesse Turpin, a 48-year-old bricklayer’s labourer from Little London, Essex, and Mary A. Turpin, 48, from Averayon, Cardiganshire, were living at 62 Paradise Road, Stockwell.

William attested on 8 December 1915. He was 5ft 11in tall, with a 43in chest. His Service record states that he died of shell injuries to the right side of body, particularly his stomach and hand. After an Enquiry in the Field, these injuries were judged to be   ‘negligently self-inflicted’, ‘an accident due to disobedience to orders’.Lieutenant Colonel W.D. Alexandia came to the conclusion that Turpin died after ‘scraping the nose of an old Austrian fuze and having done that he walked away and the explosion took place in his hand.’ Alexandia stated that ‘all  men in the battery have been warned repeatedly not to tamper with enemy duds, fuzes etc.’

Emma was awarded a widow’s pension of 27s 7d a week for herself and her three children.

George Cody (Emma’s great nephew) adds: “Sadly William and Emma’s son Ernest Walter was also killed in action, in WW2, and is interred in a military cemetery also in Italy.”

William Evan Turpins Memorial Plaque, issued to his widow Emma. The plaques were made of bronze and popularly known as the Dead Man’s Penny because of their similarity to penny coins. Courtesy of George Cody.
william-and-emma-with-bill-and-ernie
William Evan Turpin with Emma and their sons William and Ernest. Courtesy of George Cody.

Arthur George Tuffrey

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A. G. Tuffrey
Service no. 93886
Gunner, Royal Field Artillery (3rd Prov Battery)
Died age 35 on 17 December 1917

Information from Mike Tuffrey (no relation to Arthur George Tuffrey)

Arthur George Tuffrey (1881-1917) enlisted 29 November 1915 and served as a gunner in the Royal Field Artillery. He was discharged in April 1917 as permanently unfit to serve due to tuberculosis and bronchitis on both lungs. A widower when he volunteered, Tuffrey left two young sons, then aged 8 and 6.

Arthur George Tuffrey was born on 16 Dec 1881 to John Tuffrey and Mary (née Parnham), in Brompton London, and grew up in and around Chelsea, where his father was a coachman. Before the war he worked as a bank messenger.

He and Madeline Ruth Barnes were married at St Barnabas, Pimlico on 8 August 1908. Madeline’s father, John Barnes, was a coachman, originally from Walsingham, Norfolk.

Madeline and Arthur moved to Stockwell and lodged at 49 Thorne Road. Two sons followed – Alec Arthur John, born 12 April 1909, and Mervyn Harry, born on 12 November 1911. However Madeline died just days after Mervyn’s birth, presumably due to complications, leaving Arthur with two small children. 

The family moved in with Tuffrey’s parents at 30 Edithna Street, off Landor Road, Stockwell. Also in the neighbourhood was his older brother William Frank, a postman, living at 43 Tradescant Road with his wife, Ellen.

Under these circumstances, it is all the more remarkable he decided to enlist. Perhaps the answer lies in him having previously served, before the war started, four years in the 2nd Middlesex Artillery Volunteers. After signing up in November 1915 he was mobilised in June 1916. The records are silent about his service during his short period; not overseas, apparently. They do however tell us he was of fair complexion, with grey eyes and light hair, standing 5 feet 9 inches tall. His military character was ‘good’, described as steady and sober.

Illness cut short his service, albeit assessed as not the result of ordinary military service but aggravated by it, resulting in total disablement and entitling him to a pension. 

He was discharged from Norfolk War Hospital, Norwich on 26 April 1917, as permanently unfit to serve.  He did not recover and died at Greenwich on 17 December 1917, aged 35.

Just a few months before that, Arthur’s younger brother Harry had died, aged 33 in May 1917, also of illness aggravated by active service. He had served in the East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) and was buried in Herne Bay cemetery, leaving a widow and two young children. 

John Tuffrey continued living at Edithna Street, after the wartime death of two sons and then of his wife Mary in 1919. He died in 1924, aged 73. His son William, the postman, stayed in the neighbourhood, moving to Coronation Buildings on South Lambeth Road with his wife and children. He lived through the second war, dying in 1946.

And what of Arthur George Tuffrey’s orphaned sons, Alec and Mervyn? They moved to Oxfordshire, to be cared for by Hannah Turner, a cousin, who received the widow’s pension. The 1921 census finds them in Ambrosden, Bicester, with Hannah and her father, James – Arthur George’s uncle and brother-in-law to John Tuffrey, having married his sister, Eliza. Alec and Mervyn were described as nephews and presumably regarded Hannah as aunt, or surrogate mother. Both later married, had their own families and lived until 1978 and 1986 respectively.

Sources

British Army World War I Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920

British Army World War I Pension Records 1914-1920