Stockwell War Memorial

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Stockwell War Memorial

Harry (Henry) Saunders

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H. Saunders
Service no. 9254
Private, Royal Fusiliers, 9th Battalion
Born in Shoreditch; enlisted in London; lived in Stockwell
Died on 7 July 1916, aged 20
CWGC: “Son of Henry and Georgina Louisa Saunders, of 26, Viaduct Buildings, Charterhouse St., Holborn, London”
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

Information from the 1911 census

This identification is somewhat tentative, as the Henry/Harry Saunders detailed here was not living in Stockwell at the time of the census. However, it fits the known information in key points: date and place of birth, names of parents.

A Harry Saunders, then aged 15 and working as a vanboy. He lived with his parents, Henry Saunders, 48, a blacksmith from St Mary’s Redcliffe, Bristol, and Georgina Saunders, 50, from St Luke’s, east London. Harry had three surviving siblings (five having died): May Saunders, 20, a silversmith’s polisher, born in St Mary’s Haggerston, east London; Daisy Saunders, 16, a sewing machinist, born in Walworth; and James Saunders, 13, also born in St Mary’s Haggerston. The family lived at 6 Howley Place, Lambeth, where they had four rooms. The Haggerston area of east London adjoins Shoreditch.

Albert George Victor Sales

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A. G. V. Sales
Service no. 242156
Private, Leicestershire Regiment, “A” Coy. 2nd/5th Battalion
Killed in action on 26 September 1917, aged 33
Born in Battersea; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Clapham.
CWGC: “Son of Mrs T. Sales, of 36 Peardon Street, Clapham, London.”
Remembered at Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

On 18 April 1918 Albert Sales was “regarded for official purposes as having died on or around 26/9/17”. He had gone missing during the chaos of battle. He had been at the front for three months.

Sales, a sheet metal worker, presented himself at the recruiting office on 24 February 1916. He gave his address as 82 Larkhall Lane, Clapham. He was measured (5 feet 6¼ inches, with a 35-inch chest expandable by 3 inches), over 10 stone. The Army observed that he had a squint in his right eye.

Like many other conscripts, he went into the Army Reserve, waiting his turn to be mobilised. There he stayed until 4 October 1916. Then he was trained and packed off to France in February 1917. However, Sales had repeated trouble with a septic foot. He was injured on 28 April, but did not receive treatment until 9 May. It continued to give him trouble throughout May. Then in late June he was sent to the Front, and went missing.

Information from the 1911 census

Albert George Victor Sales’s mother, Theresa Sales, a 56-year-old railway waiting room attendant from Doncaster, was living at 172 Stewart’s Road with her youngest child, Archibald Oliver Sales, 15, and married daughter Elizabeth Gertrude Riley, 29, and her two children.

George Frederick William Sach

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G. F. W. Sach
Service no. 470989
Rifleman, London Regiment (The Rangers), 12th Battalion
Born in Ealing; enlisted in London; lived in Stockwell
Killed in action on 21 September 1918, aged 21
CWGC: “Son of George and Emily E. Sach, of 28 Edithna Road, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Villers Hill British Cemetery, Villers-Guislain, France and St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

SACH, G.F.W., L/Cpl., 12th London Regt., (Rangers).
He volunteered in February 1915, and after completing his training served at home until 1917, when he was drafted to France. Whilst overseas, he fought on the Somme, at Ypres, Arras, Albert, St. Quentin, St Eloi and Lille. He also served in the Retreat of 1918, and on September 21st of that year was unfortunately killed in the Allied Advance. He was entitled to the General Service and Victory Medals.
“Whilst he remember, the sacrifice was not in vain.”
28, Edithna Street, Stockwell, S.W.9.

Information from the censuses

George Frederick William Sach was 13 in 1911. Born in Ealing, he lived at 28 Edithna Street with his parents milkman George Sach, 39, from Ealing, and Emily Elizabeth Sach (nee Betts), 45, from Litcham, Norfolk, and brother James Walter Sach, 9, born in Clapham. Three aunts (sisters of his mother) from Norfolk lived with the family, Louisa Harriett Betts, 46, Alice Ann Betts, 42, a lady’s maid, and Florence Betts, 40, as well as Ivy Alice Betts, 9, born in Clapham.
In 1901 the Sachs were  living in 36 Wirtemburg Street, Clapham, and a decade earlier they were in Twyford Abbey, Ealing.

Frank William Edmund Russell

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F. W. E. Russell
Service no. 302875
Rifleman, London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade), “D” Coy. 1st/5th Battalion
Born in Southwark; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Stockwell
Killed in action on 16 August 1917, aged 26
CWGC: “Son of Mr and Mrs F. Russell, of 89, London Rd., Southwark, London; husband of Katherine L. Russell, of 33 St Martin’s Rd., Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ypres, Belgium

Information from the 1911 census and other sources

Frank Russell with his wife Katherine Louisa Kies

Commercial clerk Frank William Edmund Russell, 20, was the youngest child of Farnham-born Francis Russell, 49, the owner of a coffee shop at 89 London Road, Southwark, and Catherine Russell, 49, from Camberwell. He had two siblings, Catherine Annie Elizabeth Russell, 24, an assistant in the coffee shop, born in Walworth, and Emily Rosian Lucy Russell, 22, a milliner. The family lived in five rooms.

On 2 August 1915, at the Church of St Saviour with St Thomas in Southwark, Frank, aged 24 and working as a book-keeper, married 28-year-old typist Katherine Louisa Kies, of 34 Newcomen Street, Southwark, the daughter of Jacob Kies, German baker. She later gave her address as 33 St Martin’s Road, Stockwell. 

Frank’s family have preserved some postcards and letters from Frank. On 25 August 1916 Frank wrote to his sister’s fiancé Jack (John Thomas Moore) from the training camp at Havant in Hampshire:

I have just found out that I can get leave and will act as your best man, I hope your ankle is better than that you are able to use it. I am sorry Ern has to go under another operation, He seems to be having a rough time with his leg, I hope he will soon be better although I hardly think he will be able to go out again. A good thing too so long as he does not have any trouble in the future. I expect he will get off with a slight limp. 

A letter from Quartermaster Segeant Denny of ‘D’ Company to Katherine reads:

…I am reluctantly writing to inform you that your husband […] has been reported “MISSING” since Aug. 16 in an attack on the Prussian trenches East of Ypres. He may possibly gave gone down to a hospital through the dressing station of another battalion, in which case you shall be informed.

In the summer of 1929 Katherine married Albert A. Anderson. She died in Bromley, Kent in 1965.

With thanks to family members Andrew Tate and Stephanie Higgins.

Thomas William Rudge

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T. W. Rudge
Service no. S/6582
Private, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), 7th Battalion
Killed in action on 18 November 1916, aged about 28
Born in Stockwell; enlisted in Maidstone
Remembered at Stump Road Cemetery, Grandcourt, Somme, France and at St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Thomas William Rudge, the son of Richard Daniel Rudge and Isabella (née Baker) was baptised at St Paul’s, Clapham on 11 December 1887 when his parents were living at 7 Trollope Street.

Information from the 1911 census

Brewer’s labourer Thomas William Rudge, 23, lived at 8 Eastcote Street, Stockwell (it runs behind the Stockwell YMCA), where his family had four rooms. His widowed father, Daniel Rudge, 59, from Dedham, Essex, was a pipe joiner for the Metropolitan Water Board. There were three siblings: Annie Isabel Rudge, 26, at home; Thomas William Rudge; Arthur Ernest Rudge, 19, a railway porter; Percy Rudge, 16, a bookstall boy for Willings Ltd. Annie was born in Clapham, Thomas and Arthur in Battersea; and Percy in Stockwell.