Stockwell War Memorial

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Stockwell War Memorial

John Barber

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J. Barber
Service no 551983
Driver, Royal Engineers, 47th Signal Coy.
Killed in action on 24 March 1918, age 24
Son of John and Lydia Barber, of Stockwell, London.
Remembered at Beaulencourt British Cemetery, Ligny-Thilloy, France, and at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9

Information from the 1911 census

The Barber family lived at 92 Landor Road, SW9. John Barber (senior), 52, was born in Brighton and worked as a butcher. Lydia Barber, 46, was born in Dymchurch, Kent. Six of their 10 children survived, including John, who is on the census as Jack:
Lydia Barber, 21, an artist working in dressmaking
Jessie Barber, 20, “at home in business” – no further details
Ethel Barber, 19, “at home in business”
Jack Barber, 17, “at home in business”
Hilda Barber, 12
Earnest Barber, 10

Arthur Edward Ball

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A. E. Ball
Service no. 10231
Serjeant, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, 1st Battalion
Killed in action on 23 July 1916, aged 23
Son of Charles and Sarah Ball, of 58 Tasman Road, Stockwell, London.
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France and at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Arthur Edward Ball, then 17, was working as a compositor’s apprentice and living at 58 Tasman Road, Stockwell with his father, Charles Ball, 47, a stone mason born in Isleworth, and his father’s second wife, Sarah Ball, 42, born in Chelsworth, Suffolk. Other members of the household were
William Ball, 21, a compositor, born in Kennington
Fredrick Ball, 16, a bag carrier for a gas company, born in Kennington
Frank Ball, 3, born in Stockwell

Leslie Frank Bailey

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L. F. Bailey
Midshipman, Royal Naval Reserve, H.M.S. “Bayano”
Died on 11 March 1915, aged 19
Son of Frederick Harvey Bailey and Maria Bailey, of 11 Belle Vue Gardens, Clapham Road, London. Served on H.T. “Huanchaco” on which he continued to serve when it was taken over as an Admiralty Transport in the first months of the war. Native of Brixton, London.
Remembered at Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Hampshire, at Putney Vale cemetery, and at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9

Midshipman Leslie Frank Bailey (HU 113154) CWGC family information: Son of Frederick Harvey Bailey and Maria Bailey, of 11, Belle Vue Gardens, Clapham Rd., London. Served on H.T. ‘Huanchaco’ on which he continued to serve when it was taken over as an Admiralty Transport in the first months of the war. Native of Brixton, London. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205289913

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Leslie Frank Bailey was 15 and at school. He lived in 5 rooms at 363 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton with his mother, Maria Bailey, 59, born in Croydon and sister, Edith Mary Bailey, 34, a fruiterer’s assistant born in Dalston, London. Frank was one of 5 children. He was born in Lambeth.

Information from the 1901 census

In 1901 Leslie Bailey was 5 and living at 50 Solon Road, Brixton, with his mother, then 49, a florist; sister, Nettie F. Bailey, 26, a florist; sister Edith F. M. Bailey, 24, a commercial clerk. Both sisters were born in Dalston. Visiting on the night of the census were Ellen R. Laurence, 41, married and born in Croydon, and Harold R. Laurence, 6, born in Long Acre, Covent Garden and presumably Ellen’s son.

Frederick Harvey Bailey, cited by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, was mentioned in neither the 1911 nor the 1901 census returns for this household.

William George Bacon

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W. G. Bacon
Service no 242252
Private, South Staffordshire Regiment, 2nd/6th Battalion
Died on 21 March 1918, aged 33
Husband of Alice Rachel Bacon, of 37 Kimberley Road, Stockwell, London.
Remembered at Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France and at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9

In 1911 Bacon was a tobacconist living with his brother and his wife at 86 St John’s Hill, Clapham Junction. He married Alice Rachel Potts and left a daughter Vera Alice.

Frederick Avis

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F. Avis
Service no 46278
Corporal, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, 4th Battalion
Died age 22 on 9 June 1918
CWGC: “Son of Mrs. R. Avis, of 37 Thorncroft Street, Wandsworth Road, South Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Franvillers Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France and at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9

Information from 1911 Census
In 1911 Frederick Avis was 16 and working as an errand boy. He lived in 2 rooms at 59 Lambeth High Street, SE1 with his father George Avis, 38, a compositor, and mother Rhoda Avis, 44, and his brothers: Joseph Avis, 14, and Charles Avis, 9. All were born in Lambeth.

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920
Frederick Avis, a 19-year-old single brewer, joined up barely a month after war was declared on 4 August 1914. Many assumed that the war would be short in duration (“home by Christmas”) and not particularly arduous. It would be like one big party – not to be missed. Avis must have been aware of the bitter irony of these hopes: he survived, possibly exhausted by stress and trauma, nearly to the end of the conflict, and his service included at least one major period of illness.

Initially Avis joined the Wiltshire Regiment but he was transferred to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in May 1916. He rose from Private to unpaid Lance Corporal and Corporal (attracting proper pay). Avis’s only transgression on record is a failure to comply with an order in November 1915 for which he forfeited 4 days pay.

Avis stood 5 feet 4½ inches, with a chest of 35½ (expandable by 2½ inches), and weighed 118 pounds. His hair was brown and his eyes blue. On enlistment he was described as fit, but after three years of gruelling warfare he was returned to England and spent at least 60 days in hospital. In September 1917 was receiving treatment at the Birmingham War Hospital for kidney stones, and he was also diagnosed with muscular rheumatism. He spent 38 days there, and a further 22 days in the Convalescent Hospital at Plymouth.

And then, on 31 March 1918, he was back at the front.

He died at the Somme after serving for 3 years and 275 days, on 9 June 1918.

His widowed mother, Ada, received his effects: letters, photos, a wallet, two religious books, a watch and watchstrap. And later, in 1919, with the help of the Rev Helm, the vicar at St. Anne’s Church, South Lambeth Road, she filled in the Army form declaring next of kin who may have a claim for pension: Charles, 17; Joseph, 22 (now living in Balfour Street, Nine Elms), and Edward, 24.

William George Avenill

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Avenill WG Lijssenhoek
Photo © Marietta Crichton Stuart

W. G. Avenill
Service no. 87965
Gunner, Royal Garrison Artillery, 1st/1st (Wessex) Heavy Bty.
Died of wounds age 40 on 6 June 1917
CWGC: “Son of Jane Charlotte Avenill, of 57 Thorne Road, South Lambeth Road, London.”

Remembered at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Poperinge, Belgium

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

The early 20th century certainly had strong social conventions. For most, marriage came before children for most people, for instance. Many were regular church goers. Social classes were not immutable but were certainly more fixed than they are now. Sexual and social respectability was more important to one’s self-esteem.

However, it is a mistake to think that everyone stuck by society’s rules or that families always fitted into neat shapes, that people were any healthier than they are now or indeed that life was generally any “better” then.

Some of the brief biographies I have written on the men of the Stockwell Memorial and the St Mark’s Memorial point this up well. They are a mixed group: old, young, English, Scottish, of German parentage, Church of England, Jewish, Baptist, middle-class, manual workers, tall, short, wide, puny. Not only that, they were not universally “good” or well-behaved. Ernest Bailey was repeatedly punished for absences. Henry Alfred Styles was so troubled he blew his brains out at the trenches. Seasoned soldier Harry Nixon was treated for syphilis.

The physical state of these young men is apparently from reading the stories. Many of the men were under 5 feet 5 inches and 120 pounds. George Avenill was an exception – his record brings to mind a well-made fit man, 37 when he signed up on 27 May 1916. He stood 5 feet 8¾ inches tall, with a 37½ chest (with 2½ inches expansion). His tattoos were noted: an eagle on his left forearm and a tea rose plant on his left.

cadogan court gardens
Cadogan Court Gardens © Photo copyright Basher Eyre and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

He left behind a job as head porter at Cadogan Court Gardens (on the right in the picture), Sloane Square, London SW3, and a wife, Edith Elizabeth Avenill (nee Robinson), formerly of 141 Sidney Street, King’s Road, Chelsea. Edith Elizabeth Robinson – 30 when she married Avenill at St Anne’s Church, South Lambeth Road on 8 June 1912 – was a manageress. Avenill was then living at 52 St Agnes Place, London SE11.

Avenill had served 12 years (1896 to 1908) with the Royal Marine Artillery, so he must have known the score, but this did not help his disciplinary record. While in England he transgressed several times. An unknown crime noted on 17 January 1917 led to a forfeit of pay. His absence from 13 to 22 February 1917 was punished with 168 hours in detention and 10 days loss of pay. He lost another 10 days’ pay and was given 120 hours detention on 26 February. We cannot know what caused him to be so erratic. However, in the records the name of his wife as next of kin has been scored through and his mother’s written in the space.

The next we know about Avenill is he is posted on 19 March 1917, transferred to the Wessex Heavy Battery on 2 May and dangerously wounded on 5 June. He died the following day at the 10 Ambulance. He was 40.

The Army set about contacting his widow. A note in the record says: “From Police. 11/6/17 No trace of Mrs. Edith Avenill.”

Then another note: “Miss V. Broughton, 3-0 Block, Sutton Buildings, Chelsea SW states she was living with Pvt Avenill since Oct 1916 and that he was married and wife died on 5 Dec. She was supported by him and was known as Mrs Avenill. Asks for his case to be enquired into.”

It seems that Avenill had been carrying on while his wife was still alive.

The 1911 census has two women who could fit “V. Broughton,” the most likely being Violet Broughton, a 20-year-old servant from Plumstead who was then working (and living) at an old people’s home at 34 Nottingham Place, Marylebone.

We will never know the outcome of the Army’s enquiry into the status of Miss Broughton.

William’s Next of Kin record was amended to his mother – Jane Charlotte Avenill, 57 Thorne Road, South Lambeth Road. She, presumably, received her son’s effects: letters, photos, card, disc, pipe, pouch, whistle and pertinently enough, marriage certificate.

Poor Mrs Avenill. In 1921 Mrs. Avenill received William’s medals. She wrote on the receipt that she carefully sent back to the War Office: “War medals with very grateful thanks.” There is something poignant about her emphatic gratitude – for she had very little left. The Army pension claim form (W5080) of 1919 provides a simple outline of the shape of her family. William was dead, of course, and another, 43-year-old mother-of-four Edith Brewer, was in a mental asylum in Portsmouth and had been at least since 1911 (she can be found on the census there). There was no one else.

Avenill’s file shows that not all families were standard. Avenill’s biography – with his military misdemeanours, his mentally ill sister, and his ill-fated wife and needy mistress – did not fit a the usual pattern of respectability and order. Life was ever thus.
Information from the 1911 census
The 1911 census shows a William George Avenill, 33, at 53 Hartington Road, London SW8, out of employment and living with his parents and sister. He was born in Lambeth.

The family included Henry Avenill, 65, a street sweeper born in Lambeth; Jane Charlotte Avenill, 58, widowed by the time her son William was killed in 1917, born in St Luke’s; and Annie Deverill, 40, described as “daughter” (born before her parents married, so possibly illegitimate at the time or the product of Henry’s previous relationship), who worked as a laundry hand.
© Photo copyright Basher Eyre and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence