H. W. Chambers
Private no. 7216
Serjeant, Dorsetshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Died of wounds age 34 on 26 December 1915
Son of Alfred and Eliza Chambers, of 21 Binfield Road, Clapham Road
Remembered at Kut War Cemetery, Iraq
Stockwell War Memorial
Frederick Joseph Chaddock
F. J. Chaddock
Service no. 9238
Corporal, Gloucestershire Regiment, 1st Battalion
Died around age 33 on 31 October 1918
Remembered at Busigny Communal Cemetery Extension, Nord, France
Frederick Joseph Chaddock was born in late 1880 in Lambeth, the fourth child and third son of Augustus Chaddock, a stone mason, and Caroline Ellen Chaddock.
The family lived at 12 Esher Street (now Aveline Street) in Kennington, an area defined in 1899 by Charles Booth as ‘fairly comfortable: good ordinary earnings’ and populated by ‘labourers, cabmen, mechanics, police.’ By the time Frederick started attending Vauxhall Street School in 1885, the family had moved to 47 Bonnington Square. In 1891, when Frederick was 10, the Chaddocks had moved a few doors down, to No. 14. There were now seven children in the family (there were eventually eight).
In 1901, Frederick was lodging at Rowton House, a working men’s hostel in Vauxhall accommodating 470 men in ‘cubicles’, while his parents, four siblings including his married sister, her husband and their two young children, along with three people from another household, lived at 10 St Stephens Terrace. Frederick was then listed as having no occupation. It is possible that he was between jobs, unwell or the Chaddock household was simply too full to accommodate him.
Rowton House at Bondway, Vauxhall was the first of a new type of accommodation created by politician and philanthropist Montague William Lowry Corry (Lord Rowton), formerly a private secretary to Benjamin Disraeli. Rowton was previously involved in setting up the Guinness Trust, which aimed to provide low-cost housing for respectable working people in London and Dublin (there is a Guinness Trust estate on Kennington Park Road).
Frederick entered the Lambeth Infirmary on 26 September 1903, for unknown reasons and left nearly five weeks later. The reason for his stay is unknown, only that he was discharged at his own request and to the care of his father.
At an unknown date Frederick enlisted in the 1st Dragoon Guards. He was later transferred to the Gloucester Regiment. The 1911 census records him as a private with the 2nd Battalion, then stationed at the Verdala Barracks in Malta. At some point before 1911, his parents had separated, with Augustus, by then retired, lodging at 28 Tradescant Road and Caroline living with two daughters a three-minute walk away at 39 Guildford Road.
Frederick served from the beginning of the war, arriving in France in December 1914. In early 1918 he married Florence Victoria Ding. He was killed in action in the final push against the Germans near Busigny (south-east of Cambrai in Nord) less than two weeks before the end of the armistice. His widow Florence later married Frederick’s older brother Percy, and had two children.
Many thanks to the Chaddock descendants for this information. All images are © Stanley Fletcher
Thomas Cavalier
T. C. Cavalier
Service no. 468539
Able Seaman, Mercantile Marine Reserve, RFA Reliance
Died age 27 on 20 January 1918
Son of Mrs E. Cavalier, of 14 Irving Grove, Stockwell
Remembered at Plymouth Naval Memorial
Thomas Cavalier was killed on HMS Louvain after it was attacked by a U-boat (UC22) in the Eastern Mediterranean. The ship was employed in examination duties at sea to enforce a blockade. There is some information she was being used as a leave ship when torpedoed. Of the 151 on board only 10 survived.
William Archibald Edward Carter
W. A. E. Carter
Service no. J/25992
Ordinary Signalman, Royal Navy, HMS Queen Mary
Died age 18 on 31 May 1916
Son of Archibald and Florence Louisa Carter, of 113 South Lambeth Road
Remembered at Portsmouth Naval Memorial
The HMS Queen Mary was sunk by the SMS Seydlitz at the Battle of Jutland. Of the 1,266 crew only 21 survived. Wikipedia has an account. There is a good collection of photos at MaritimeQuest, including one of the ship exploding.
See also Harold Clough, who also died on HMS Queen Mary.
Henry W. Carter
H. W. Carter
Service no. L/6227
Fitter, Royal Field Artillery”C” Bty. 93rd Bde.
Killed in action age 33 on 24 November 1917
Son of Henry William Carter; husband of Grace Elizabeth Carter, of 25 Aldebert Terrace
Remembered at Ruyaulcourt Military Cemetery, France
Herbert Carey
H. Carey
Able Seaman (RFR/CH/B/5028), HMS India
Service no. 212125
Killed in action on 8 August 1915, aged 31
Remembered at Narvik Old Cemetery, Norway
Chris Burge writes:
Herbert Carey was born on 27 November 1883 in Holloway, north London, the third of Thomas George and Mary Carey’s five known children. Herbert was still living in Islington when he joined the Navy on his birthday in 1901. His occupation was recorded as ‘Engine Cleaner’ and Herbert was described as 5ft 11in tall, with brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion. Advancement in the Navy was slow and Herbert was not rated as AB seaman until 1903. He served on several ships with HMS Pembroke being the last before he was placed on fleet reserve and left the service on 6 April 1908.
On 2 May 1909 Herbert Carey married Susan Ethel Parnell St Barnabas, South Lambeth. He gave his address as 43 Lansdowne Gardens, and described himself as a labourer. Susan Ethel was from Bristol but had lived in Lambeth for at least a decade before they married.
In the 1911 census, Herbert and Ethel were living in just two rooms at 46 Priory Road off the Wandsworth Road. Herbert worked as a printers warehouseman. Their daughter Irene Maud Carey was born at home on 12 May 1912.
As a naval reservist, Herbert Carey was called up at the outbreak of war, serving on the old cruiser HMS Sutlej from 2 August 1914 until part of a draft of 88 men that joined the crew of the HMS India on 8 April 1915. The total crew numbered 32 officers and 270 men. The India was an Armed Merchant Cruiser, an ex-passenger ship, part of the 10th Cruiser Squadron Northern Patrol safeguarding shipping between Britain and Norway.
Official reports stated: ‘While on duty intercepting and inspecting neutral shipping, HMS India was torpedoed by German submarine U22 near Helligvaer, Norway, on August 8, 1915. The ship broke in two and sank quickly.’
Some 160 men were lost, and those washed ashore were buried at Narvik Old Cemetery.
After the war, Susan Ethel lived at 290 South Lambeth Road with her brother Frederick and his wife until just before she died in 1938, aged 53. Her daughter Irene, died aged 80 in 1992.