Stockwell War Memorial

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Stockwell War Memorial

Arthur Brooker

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A. Brooker
Service no. 30907
Private, Devonshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Died of wounds at about age 18 on 24 April 1918
Remembered at St Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France

Information from the 1911 census

rthur Brooker is the youngest person in his household at 36 Rutland Street, South Lambeth. His mother, Annie Brooker, 53, was a widow from Wroughton in Wiltshire. Annie had had 10 children (all survived) and she lived with 7 of them (6 sons and a daughter) in 5 rooms. The children on the census were:
Joseph Brooker, 27, a locomotive fireman
John Brooker, 23, a goods porter
Charles Brooker, 21, a bricklayer’s labourer
Frederick Brooker, 19, an office boy
Albert Brooker, 17, a messenger
Elsie Brooker, 15
Arthur Brooker, 12
All but Annie were born in Lambeth.

Mark Harry Briggs

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H. Briggs
Private, London Regiment, ‘A’ Coy. 23rd Bn.
Service no. 701038
Died on 5 April 1918, aged 19
Remembered at Martinsart British Cemetery, Somme, France

Chris Burge writes:

Mark Harry Briggs was born in Lambeth on 14 May 1898 and was baptised at All Saints’, South Lambeth on 12 June. He was named after his father, and his parents Mark Harry and Elizabeth Jane Briggs were living in three rooms at 5 Madrid Place, off Dorset Road, which was still the family home in 1911. Six of Elizabeth’s eight children had survived infancy and in the 1911 census, Mark’s father had placed his son, now aged 12, above all his sisters names in the census return. They were: Elizabeth Jane, 17; Esther Amy, 11; Phyllis Winifred, six; Florence Gertrude, five; and Ruby Ellen, just eight months old. Mark’s father was working as a house painter and his sister Elizabeth as a domestic servant. There was one final addition to the family when Ernest John Briggs was born in 1912. 

Mark was 16 at the outbreak of war and was underage when he volunteered at St John’s Hill, Clapham Junction on 18 April 1915, the administrative base of the 23rd London Regiment. He claimed to be over 19 and at 5ft 6in in height passed the medical with ease.  He was posted to the 2/23rd London Regiment as 3556, Pte. Briggs. His parents informed the authorities of his true age and prevented him from going overseas until he was over 19. Mark spent time in the 108th Provisional Battalion before being sent to France on 29 September 1916. In the summer of 1917 he was hospitalised in France with pleurisy, suffered an arm wound in November 1917 and was unfit for duty for a month. He was granted home leave in January 1918. In March and April 1918 the 1/23rd London regiment were on the old Somme battlefield near Aveluy Wood, north of Albert. They were in the path of the enemy’s spring offensive and suffered hundreds of casualties at the end of March and particularly on 5 April 1918.  

In early May 1918 Mark’s parents received notice that he had been reported missing and his name subsequently appeared in British Red Cross & Order Of St John Enquiry List of missing or wounded on 2 August and 20 November 1918. When the military authorities presumed Mark’s death had occurred on, or since, 5 April 1918, the Briggs family were left to come to terms with their loss

It was Mark’s father who completed Army Form W5080 naming himself before his wife and children in order of precedence of the relatives of a deceased soldier. It was witnessed and countersigned at St Anne’s, South Lambeth, on 27 October 1919.The family’s address was now 2 Madrid Place. In another blow to the family, Mark’s father died late in 1921, aged 48. Mark’s mother Elizabeth only received her son medals after providing evidence of her husband’s death. 

Mark’s mother Elizabeth remained at 2 Madrid Place into the 1930s before moving to Tooting. She passed away in 1946, aged 71.

Walter Branson

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W. Branson
Service no. 204513
Private, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 1st Battalion posted to 1st/2nd Battalion
Killed in action 27 August 1918
Remembered at Summit Trench Cemetery, Croisilles, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1911 census

Walter Branson lived with his family in 4 rooms (including kitchen) at 71 Dorset Road in 1911. His father, John Branson, 51, was a baker, born in Clapham; his mother Emily, 40, was born in Lambeth. Emily was, possibly, not John’s first wife – they had been married 14 years, and the census gives the oldest child as 19 (the census shows relationship to the head of the household only). Of Emily’s 8 babies, only 4 survived.
The children on the census were
Bertram Branson, 19, a bottler in a distillers, born in Lambeth
William Branson, 17, an errand lad, born in Lambeth
Ellen Branson, 15, born in Lambeth
Walter Branson, 12
Ellen Farley, a 76-year-old widow, described as a “relative” and born in Mitcham.

British Army WWI Pension Records 1914-1920

Walter Branson joined the Army twice. He enlisted first in the East Surrey Regiment (Service no. 13223), but after 180 days’ service was discharged at Witley on 21 January 1916, “having made a mis-statement as to age.” He was only 17 but claimed to be 19.
Branson was 5 feet 6 inches tall, weight 9 stone 9 pounds, was 34 inches around the chest (with 3½ inches expansion), had a fair complexion, with blue eyes and light brown hair. Despite his youth, he managed to impress his officers. They judged him to have a “good’ military character.

Frank Bowring

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photo of frank bowring ww1 soldier
Frank Bowring Photo: Kind permission of Ian R. King

F. Bowring
Service no. 115005
Private, Royal Army Medical Corps, 6th Stat. Hosp. (Antwerp)
Died age 24 on 26 October 1919
Son of Mr and Mrs Henry John Bowring, of 41 Priory Grove, South Lambeth
Buried at Schoonselhof Cemetery, Belgium

Frank died of pneumonia (information from family members).

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

BOWRING, F., Private, R.A.M.C.
Joining in 1916, he was sent overseas in the same year. He was engaged on important duties at the 6th Stationary Hospital whilst in France, but in October 1919 unfortunately died at Antwerp of an illness which he contracted while in the Service. He was entitled to the General Service and Victory Medals.
41, Priory Grove, Lansdowne Road, S.W.8.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 the Bowring family were living at 41 Priory Grove, London SW8. Henry John Bowring, 49, was a goods porter from Dorchester, Dorset. His wife, Ellen Maria Bowring, 47, was from Kent. Frank Bowring, then 15, was an apprentice engineer, born in Battersea. His sister Elizabeth, 12, was born in South Lambeth, as was his brother Charles Bowring, 7. Elizabeth Haysman, 49, Frank’s aunt (sister of Ellen), a single servant from Kent, was visiting on the night of the census.

John Bowden

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J. Bowden
Service no. 118026
Private, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), 157th Coy.
Died age 19 on 5 March 1918
Son of Mr. and Mrs. John Bowden, of 2 Ely Place, Dorset Road, Clapham, London.
Remembered at Cairo War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 John Bowden, then 12, lived with his widowed mother, Harriet Bowden, 38, a laundress at 2 Ely Place, off Dorset Road. His elder sister, Rose Bowden, 14, was a tobacco packer for Lambert & Butler; his younger sister, Grace Bowden, was 9. All were born in Lambeth.

Herbert Alfred Blick

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H. A. Blick
Service no. 295157
Private, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 2nd/4th Battalion; formerly 553758, 16th London Regiment
Killed in action on 21 September 1917, aged 37
CWGC: “Son of John and Jessie Blick, of 128 Grove Road, Balham, London; husband of Emily Elizabeth Blick, of 202 Clapham Road, Stockwell, London. Served with the City Imperial Volunteers in the South African Campaign.”
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ypres, Belgium

Information from the 1911 census

Herbert Alfred Blick, 31, a ladies and gents tailor born in Stockwell, lived in 6 rooms at 202 Clapham Road, London SW9, with his wife, Emily Elizabeth Blick, also 31 and born in Clapham, and 8-month old son, John Herbert Blick, who was born in Clapham. Baby John Herbert died in April 1917.