Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

Stockwell War Memorial

Herbert Howard Crocker

by

H. H. Crocker
Service no. 203662
Private, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 1st Battalion
Killed in action age 29 on 7 April 1917
Son of Horace Howard Crocker, of 52 Hoppers Road, Palmer’s Green, London; husband of Edith Maud Crocker, of 13 Tregothnan Road, Clapham, London.
Remembered at Arras Memorial, France

Information from the 1911 census

Herbert Howard Crocker. Courtesy of Colin Crocker

Herbert Howard Crocker, 23 in 1911, was working as a dairy manager at 2 Myrtle Cottages, Park Road in Hillingdon, Uxbridge, north London. The house had 4 rooms, including kitchen. He and his wife, Edith Maud Crocker, 21, had been married a year and had a one-month-old baby, Evelyn Elsie Crocker, born in the borough of Uxbridge. Herbert was born in Paddington; Edith in Halesworth, Suffolk.

Meanwhile, his parents Horace Howard Crocker and Clara Sophia Crocker were living at 8 Moat Place, Stockwell where Horace was a dairy manager and Clara “assisting in the business”. Their remaining 4 children lived with them.

Information from the 1901 census

In 1901 Herbert Crocker (given as Hubert H. Crocker on the transcription of the census) lived at 131 Sugden Road, Battersea with his family. Horace H. Crocker, 40, was a dairy manager born in St Pancras; Clara S. Crocker, 39, was born in Plumstead, Kent. Each of the children on the census was born in a different location: Horace A. Crocker, 17, an electrical engineer, was born in Finsbury Park; Herbert H. Crocker, 13, was born in Paddington; Frank G. Crocker, 8, was born in Brixton; Gerald Crocker, 4, was born in Wanstead, Essex; Bessie P. Crocker, 2, was born in Battersea. Alice M. Alton, 20, born in Battersea, lived in as a general domestic servant.

Abraham Crocker

by

A. Crocker
Service no. 5308
Private, London Regiment, 1st/20th Battalion
Died aged about 33 on 1 October 1916
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, France

Information from the censuses

In 1911 Abraham Crocker, from Crewkerne, Somerset, was employed as a carman for a building contractor. He lived at 2 Layham Cottage, Stockwell with his brother, John Crocker, 45, a labourer at a brewery, and his sister-in-law Annie Crocker, 46, also born in Crewkerne. The family lived in 4 rooms. The children of John and Annie Crocker were
Elise Annie Crocker, 13
Mabel Elizabeth Crocker, 12
Gladys Sarah Crocker, 11
Florence Crocker, registered on the 1901 census as 2 months old, does not appear on the 1911 census. The family were then living at 22 Carroun Road. All the children were born in Lambeth.

William Edward Crabb

by

W. Crabb
Service no. M2/150639
Private, Army Service Corps, 618th M.T. Coy.
Died of cerebral malaria (“due to field operations”) on 23 May 1917, aged 39
CWGC: “Son of Richard and Mary Ann Crabb; husband of Alice Beatrice Crabb, of 19 Thorne Rd., South Lambeth, London. Born in London. Served in the South African Campaign.”
Remembered at Morogoro Cemetery, Tanzania

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

William Edward Crabb died on 23 May 1917 in the 15th Stationary Hospital at Morogoro, Tanzania. He had cerebral malaria caused by “field operations.” Crabb’s file offers few details on this, other than to note that he was admitted and that he was dangerously ill and subsequently died.

Malaria is transmitted by infected mosquitos and its presence in sub-Saharan Africa was and is endemic. Only some cases develop into celebral malaria, an acute disease of the brain that is accompanied by high fever and whitening of the retina. The mortality rate is currently between 25 and 50%, probably greater in 1917.

Crabb left a widow and four children, the youngest born in 1915. His pension records have not survived, so we cannot know how the local pension board treated his widow, Alice Beatrice. Crabb had, however, stacked up a number of years in the Army – with previous service in the South African campaign with the Royal Engineers.

An engineer’s fitter in civilian life, Crabb stood only 5 feet 2 inches tall, with a 34½ chest (to which he could add 3½ inches). He weighed under 8½ stone.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 William Edward Crabb, then 32, was working as an engineer’s fitter. He lived with his wife Alice Beatrice Crabb (née Stout), 24, at 44 Union Grove, Clapham, along with their two children, Alice Marie Crabb, 2, and Elsie Amelia Crabb, 1. Crabb was born in Southampton. The family lived in three rooms.

William Anthony Cox

by

W. A. Cox
Service No. L/15560
Private, Middlesex Regiment, 12th Bn.
Died 26 September 1916, aged about 21
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

Chris Burge writes:

William Anthony Cox was born in Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland in 1895, the first child of James and Alice Cox. William’s father was a serving soldier and all four of their children were born in Ireland. In 1901 the family were living in married quarters at the Shorncliffe Army Camp in Kent.  

In the 1911 census, James and Alice lived with their three surviving children, William, Elena and Jim in Ramsgate on the coast. William was working as gardener; his father, an Army Pensioner, worked was a valet attendant. It is not known when the family came to the Stockwell area, but James Cox appeared on the electoral roll in 1915, living at 15 Portland Place South, South Lambeth.

William Cox’s service number indicates he volunteered in either late April or early May 1915.  Ready, or not, he was posted to the 1st Middlesex in France on 29 September, just five days after the 1st Middlesex had suffered terrible losses at the Battle of Loos.  Several quiet months followed and the  early part of 1916 was mostly spent in the Cuinchy sector.  William Cox’s transfer to the 12th Middlesex by September 1916 suggests he may have been wounded at some stage and did not return to his original battalion. The 12th Middlesex were among the forces that attacked Thiepval on 26 September, advancing uphill under a creeping barrage with the support of a single tank, first used by the British Army in battle 11 days earlier.  The majority of the 138 men killed that day are remembered on the Thiepval Memorial.  

William Anthony Cox was initially posted missing, leaving his family in an emotional limbo his death was presumed to have occurred on 26 September 1916.

James and Alice Cox remained at 15 Portland Place South until at least 1927.