Stockwell War Memorial

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Stockwell War Memorial

John Alfred Stammers

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J. A. Stammers
Service no. 41606
Driver, Royal Field Artillery, “B” Bty. 155th Bde.
Enlisted in Deptford, south-east London; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 4 November 1918, aged about 23
Remembered at Vis-en-Artois Memorial, France and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

Few details of John Alfred Stammers’ Army career survive. We know he joined the 186th Howitzer Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery on 6 September 1915 at Deptford as a Driver. He was described as 20 years and 306 days, 5 feet 5½ inches tall, with a 34½ inch chest (expandable by 2½ inches). His general physical development as “good” but he had a slight varicose vein on his right leg.

Information from the censuses

Few details of John Alfred Stammers’ Army career survive. We know he joined the 186th Howitzer Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery on 6 September 1915 at Deptford as a driver. He was described as 20 years and 306 days old, 5ft 5½in tall, with a 37in chest. His general physical development was ‘Good’ but he had a varicose vein in his right leg.

The 1911 census shows John Alfred Stammers as a 16-year-old junior clerk living with his father, commercial clerk John William Stammers, 43, from Islington, north London and stepmother Phoebe Nellie (née Smith), 42, from Shoreditch, east London in four rooms at 64C Hackford Road, Stockwell. John Alfred’s mother Louisa (née Fowler) died in childbirth in 1901.

Alfred Ernest Stainer

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A. E. Stainer
Service no. 17371
Private, East Surrey Regiment, 9th Battalion
Lived in Walworth; enlisted in Clapham; lived in Clapham
Died of wounds on 13 August 1916, aged 20
CWGC: “Son of Mr and Mrs F. Stainer, of 1 Paradise Road, Clapham, London.”
Remembered at Carnoy Military Cemetery, France

Alfred Ernest Brooks Stainer (sometimes Stainer-Brooks), born in Walworth, southeast London on 1 May 1896, was the  sixth of nine children of Frederick Thomas Stainer, a fishmonger from Charminster, Dorset and Angelina (née Furzard), from Melcombe Regis, Dorset. He was baptised at St Matthew’s, Newington on 3 June, when his parents gave their address as 30 Weymouth Buildings, which were in Sayer Street, Southwark.

On the night of the 1911 census the Stainer family lived in five rooms at 87 Mann Street, Walworth. The household consisted of Frank and Angelina, aged 48 and 49, and eight of their children. Alfred was employed as an office boy for a printer. A family of four had another two rooms. 

Later, the Stainers moved to 1 Paradise Road, Stockwell.

Isaac Spooner

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I. Spooner
Service no. 25552
Private, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment), 9th Battalion, formerly 015439 R.A.S.C.
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Battersea; lived in Wandsworth
Killed in action on 1 September 1918, aged 24
CWGC: “Son of James and Matilda Spooner.”
Remembered at Vis-en-Artois Memorial, France

In 1911 ironmonger’s assistant Isaac Spooner, 17, lived at 39 Brooklands Road, Stockwell, where his family had six rooms. His father, James Spooner, 55, from Newham, Hampshire, was a train engine driver for London & South Western Railway; his mother, Matilda Jane (née Hector), 55, was from Brixton. Three of Spooner’s six siblings lived at home, his sister Norah, 31, a dressmaker’s assisant, and two brothers, Henry, 27, a carman, and Sidney James (Isaac’s twin), 17,  a draper’s assistant (who also served in the Army Service Corps, was wounded by a bomb and survived – he died in 1929, aged 36). 

Spooner enlisted in Battersea 0n 6 October 1914, giving his occupation as carman. He was 5ft 4½in, 8⅔st, with a 36in chest. He had blue eyes, brown hair and a sallow complexion, with a scar in the centre of his forehead and on his left cheek. His physical development was judged to be ‘Good’. On 8 July 1915 he joined the Expeditionary Force to France. On 20 August 1917 he was transferred to the West Riding Regiment.

Matilda, Spooner’s widowed mother, died aged 62 of sarcoma of the jaw on 20 November 1918, 11 weeks after her son was killed in action. 

Information from the 1911 census

Ironmonger’s assistant Isaac Spooner, 17, lived at 39 Brooklands Road, Stockwell, where his family had  6 rooms. His father James Spooner, 55, from Newham, Hampshire, was a train engine driver for London & South West Railway; his mother Matilda Spooner, 55, was from Brixton. Three siblings (of six) lived at home: Henry Spooner, 27, a carman in Walworth; Norah Spooner, 31, a dressmaker working in Oxford Street; Sidney Spooner, 17, a draper’s assistant in Balham (and possibly Isaac’s twin). James and Matilda had a total of eight children (one died).

Alfred Frank Spice

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A.F. Spice
Service no. M/1766
Cook’s Mate, Royal Navy, HMS Good Hope
Killed in action on 1 November 1914 at the Battle of Coronel off the coast of Chile, aged 23
Remembered at Portsmouth Naval Memorial
See LondonWarMemorial.co.uk

This identification was made by Chris Burge, who writes:

Albert Frank Spice was born on 9 March 1891 in Clapham, the third child of James Spring and Julia Spice. The family were living in Larkhall Lane at the time. Albert’s father worked as a house painter and decorator and by 1901 there had been two further additions to the family at Larkhall Lane. But fortunes changed with the death of Albert’s father in 1905.

The 1911 Census shows Albert’s widowed mother Julia was employed at home as a sewing machinist doing piecework, and Albert’s sisters Florence and Elsie worked as cardboard box makers. A cousin of Albert’s mother was staying with them, together with a paying boarder. Five people where sharing five rooms at 133 Larkhall Lane, Clapham.

Albert was not to be found at the family home in 1911, he was in the Navy. Albert joined on 11 April 1910, as a 2nd Class Cook’s Mate and had progressed to Cook’s Mate in the intervening year. He served on HMS Dreadnought for two years and moved to HMS Ariadne in 1913 when he had passed for Leading Cook’s Mate. At the outbreak on the war, Albert had been on the armoured cruiser HMS Good Hope since 31 July 1914. Later that year, HMS Good Hope was part of the 4th Cruiser Squadron, which engaged the enemy off the coast of Chile on 1 November. Outnumbered and outgunned, the HMS Good Hope was lost with all hands, a total of 926 officers and ratings.

Albert’s mother and sisters were left to mourn his loss as the war dragged on with no end in sight. The creation of the Stockwell War Memorial offered them a lasting act of remembrance. It had been a long wait.

Frederick James Edmund Spencer

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F.J. Spencer
Second Lieutenant, Wiltshire Regiment
Died of influenza as a prisoner of war on 9 November 1918, aged 23
Remembered at Niederzwehren Cemetery, Kassel, Germany 

Chris Burge writes:

Frederick James Edmund Spencer was born on 25 September 1895 in the Manchester area (Date of birth as in CWGC records, alternatively 25 September 1896 as recorded in German POW records. No registration of birth found in the GRO index.)Frederick’s half-bother Reginald Spencer Wilson was born on 31 October 1900 in Pimlico, London, after Frederick’s mother Maud Spencer married William Wilson on 25 July 1899 at All Saints Church, Stretford, Lancashire. William was an Army tailor and Maud was described as a 27-year-old spinster at the time of her marriage, which was witnessed by her sister Adeline. Maud’s address was 22 Sydney Street and she had worked as a dressmaker before her marriage. Reginald Spencer Wilson was baptised on 27 November 1900 at St Saviour’s, St George’s Square, Pimlico, London, when William and Maud lived at 22 Aylesford Street. Their address was close to the Royal Army Clothing Depot in Pimlico.

In the 1901 census, William, Maude and baby Reginald were in Lancashire again, recorded as boarders at 20 Sydney Street, Stretford, next door to Maud’s widowed mother and siblings. William Wilson was now a lance corporal. Frederick Spencer did not appear in the 1901 census. 

Maud Spencer died on 15 December 1907, while her husband was based in Aldershot. William Wilson was married for a second time in 1908 to Margaret Elizabeth McPherson on 23 July at Holy Trinity, Vauxhall Bridge Road. Margaret gave her address as 3 Bessborough Place and William his as ‘Borden Camp Hants’. 

In the 1911 census, Sergeant William Wilson was a master tailor with the 2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment at St George’s Barracks, Malta. His wife Margaret and their children were in the married quarters, along with Reginald Spencer Wilson. Frederick Spencer’s whereabouts in 1911 are unknown. 

William Wilson left the Army in 1912 on the termination of his second period of service, with the intention of returning to 3 Bessborough Place. He had been in Egypt before his final discharge in Jersey. He soon moved his family across Vauxhall Bridge to Lambeth and was in Kennington by 1913 and first appeared at 22 Guildford Street in 1915, an address close to St. Barnabas Church. It was in March 1915 that Frederick’s half-brother Reginald joined the Army as a boy solider and was with the 5 Coldstream Guards. Reginald was an office boy at the time of joining and gave 22 Guildford Street as his home address. The recurrence of a childhood ailment was not helped by an operation to drain an abscess on his right kidney and Reginald was discharged unfit on 29 December 1916.

Frederick Spencer volunteered at the end of 1915, or early January 1916, and served as Private F/2792 in the Middlesex Regiment (data from Medal Index card of Frederick James Edmund Spencer). His service number and first date of entry in France on 4 May 1916 indicate he served in the 23rd Battalion, nicknamed the 2nd Football Battalion, of the Middlesex Regiment. Frederick Spencer served for around a year on the Western Front before he was recommended for a commission. He was gazetted on 1 August 1917 as a temporary 2nd Lieutenant in the Wiltshire Regiment, the notice appearing in the 1 September 1917 issue of the London Gazette. 

F.J.E. Spencer was one of several junior officers who joined the 2nd Wiltshire at the Wytschaete Sector from the Rouen base in October 1917. The keeper of the battalion’s war diary noted on 6 October 1917 that: ‘2/Lts G.R Gosling, G.D. Chapman, C.D. Baker, G.M. Jeans and C. Hirschhorn joined from Rouen and posted to “C”, “B”, “D”, “A” and “D” Coys. respectively.

Frederick Spencer’s arrival was noted on the 10 October 1917: ‘2/Lt F.J.E. Spencer arrived from Rouen & posted to “B” Coy.’

Like Frederick, William Robert Gosling (MM) and Cecil Hirschhorn were commissioned from the ranks. All had been the afforded the status, privileges and responsibilities of officer gentlemen, literally on a temporary basis for the duration of the war. As far as the battalion’s war diary is concerned, 2/Lt F.J.E. Spencer remained an anonymous figure for many months until he was noted as being on leave on 16 March 1918, one of the last of his original group to be granted leave. A fact that saved his life, at least in the short term. 

The 2nd Wiltshire were holding a part of the front in the Savy area, south-west of St Quentin when they were in the path of the enemy’s spring offensive which broke on 21 March 1918. Subjected to an intense five-hour bombardment, they faced an infantry assault of overwhelming numbers and were forced to give ground over the coming days. They were not relieved until 1 April 1918, by which time the battalion had lost 23 officers either killed, wounded or missing. Of other ranks, four were killed, nine wounded and 597 were missing. The battalion had in many senses ceased to exist. 

Among the missing were Frederick’s fellow officers 2/Lts W. R. Gosling and C.D. Baker. It had been a fluid and chaotic period, but there was no indication when, or if, Frederick Spencer had rejoined, what remained of his battalion by April, or when they had moved north again in mid-April. A composite battalion was formed from what was left of the 2nd Wiltshires and 2nd Bedfordshire on 19 April 1918. Between 25 and 28 April this composite formation was heavily engaged in the area south of the Yser Canal near a feature called the ‘spoil bank’. According to the 2nd Bedfordshire war dairy, ‘Captain Smith (Wilts R.) and part of his company were captured on 26 April 1918’ after the enemy crossed the canal. It is possible 2/Lt. F. J. E. Spencer was taken prisoner here, but his name does not appear in either the 2nd Wiltshires or 2nd Bedfordshire official war diaries. It is only German records which show he was taken prisoner in the Wytschaete area on 25 April 1918. 

Frederick was held at the Offizierlager, Mainz, a camp housing up to 700 prisoners. His records gave his address as 22 Guildford Road and incorrectly referred to his father as W. Spencer. Frederick James Edmund Spencer died in the camp hospital on 9 November 1918 of ‘infolge lungenentzundung und grippe’– he had contracted influenza. A death certificate was issued at the Festungslazarette I.Mainz dated 11 November 1918, the date of the ceasefire, and a copy passed to the International Red Cross, stamped ‘Comminqué famille 29.11.18’. 

At the end of the war, the balance of Frederick James Edmund Spencer’s account and war gratuity, which amounted to £98 15s 1d, was paid to his only blood relative, his half-brother Reginald Spencer Wilson. A RNVR record dated April 1919 shows Reginald Wilson had been a ship’s steward and part of the Mercantile Marine Reserve when he volunteered to work on mine clearance for a period of six months. Reginald passed way in Essex in 1927, aged 27. 

When the Stockwell War memorial was unveiled in 1922, William Wilson and family were still living at 22 Guildford Road, which remained their home until at least 1939.