Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

W names

Frank Wybrew

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F. Wybrew
Service no. 10622
Private, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own), 1st Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Lambeth
Killed in action on 18 September 1916, aged 23
CWGC: “Son of Maria Rose Whitehouse (formerly Wybrew), of 11 Irving Grove, Stockwell, London, and the late William Wybrew.”
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France and at St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Frank Wybrew was baptised at St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, Stockwell on 14 May 1893, the second of three children of William Joseph Wybrew, a saddler, and Maria Rose (née Millett). They gave their address as 65 Andalus Road, Stockwell. 

Frank’s father died in 1896, at around the time Maria Rose gave birth to their third child. She subsequently married James Edward Whitcombe, a harness maker.

In 1911, Frank Wybrew lived with his mother, stepfather James Edward Whitcombe, a harness maker, a younger sister, three of his five half-siblings and his maternal grandfather in a four-roomed flat, 12 Emily Mansions on Landor Road, Stockwell.  He worked as a ‘general hand’ for a seed merchant.

Arthur George Wright

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A. G. Wright
Service no. 1633
Private, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 2nd Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Westminster; lived in Lambeth
Died of wounds on 9 August 1916, aged 20
CWGC: “Son of Arthur John Wright, of 34 Thorncroft Street, Wandsworth Road, London.”
Remembered at Warlincourt Halte British Cemetery, Saulty, France

Arthur George Wright, with kind permission of the Wright family.

Arthur George Wright was born in South Lambeth on 8 November 1895 and baptised at St Anne’s, South Lambeth Road on 20 March the following year. He was the second child of Arthur John Wright, a carman born in Clapham, and Mary Ann (née Lanfear)  from Rockley, Wiltshire, who lived at 1 Wyvil Street. 

On 26 August 1901, when the family was living at 14 Kenchester Street, Arthur George and his older sister Beatrice were admitted to St Barnabas School. 

The couple had a total of eight children. Beatrice died at the age of ten in 1907 and another child, Ellen, died as an infant. On the 1911 census Arthur John listed all his children, alive and dead, but scored through the lines for Beatrice and Ellen. 

The census shows that Arthur George  was working as an errand boy and that the  family of eight lived in three rooms at 62 Goldsborough Road. Another household of seven lived in a further four rooms at the same address.

Arthur George enlisted in Westminster. After the war, his father gave his address as 34 Thorncroft Street, Wandsworth Road.

John Thomas Wotton

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J. T. Wotton
Service no. 13413
Corporal, East Surrey Regiment, 13th Battalion
Died on 6 March 1917, aged 29
CWGC: “Husband of A. L. Wotton, of 65, Cottage Grove, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Abbeville Community Cemetery Extension, France

Wotton was born in Herne Bay, Kent, the son of Thomas Wotton, a carriage painter from Birchington, Kent, and Mary Ann (née Mount), from Herne Bay. By 1901 the family had moved to 187 Wirtemberg Street, Clapham and John’s father was working as a railway guard. Two siblings had joined John and the household included two boarders.

In 1911 John Thomas Wotton, then 22, was working as a potman and barman at the Wirtemberg Arms at 165 Wirtemberg Street, Clapham. He lived above the premises with the licensee and three other staff. The street was renamed Stonhouse Street in 1919 — and the pub has likewise been renamed The Stonhouse. His parents had moved to Tennyson Street, Battersea.

 In 1913, aged 24, when Wotton married Annie Lillian Ellis, 26, at St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, he gave his address as 65 Cottage Grove, Stockwell. The couple had two children: Howard John Wotton (born 1914) and Iris Constance Wotton (born 1915). Annie died in 1975, aged 88.

Frank Worthy

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F. Worthy
Service no. 4785
Rifleman, London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles), “D” Coy. 1st/21st Battalion
Enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 15 September 1916, aged 19
CWGC: “Son of Alfred James and Matilda Clara Worthy, of 12 Normandy Road, Brixton, London.”
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

In 1911 Frank Worthy was a 14-year-old schoolboy. He lived at 5 Addison Place, Brixton (now part of Normandy Road) with his parents, Alfred James Worthy, 45, a sign writer for the council, and Matilda Clara Worthy, 37, both born in Lambeth. Frank had two siblings. The family occupied four rooms. 

Frank, who was born on 23 October 1898, attended Stockwell Road School and moving on in 1908 to Battersea Polytechnic Boys’ Secondary School, for which he received a bursary. He left in July 1914 to train as a teacher at London Day Training College. 

Frank Worthy enlisted on 27 January 1916 in Lambeth, giving his age as 19, occupation as teacher and address as 5 Addison Place (since renamed Normandy Road), Brixton. He had previously been rejected for service. Frank stood 5ft 11in tall, with a chest measurement of 33½in. His moles on his upper right arm and abdomen were noted. He joined the British Expeditionary Force on 15 June 1916 and survived exactly three months after that.

The Worthys were members of the Plymouth Brethren. 

Thomas Isaac Worley

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T.I. Worley
Service no. 613802
Private, London Regiment, 1st/19th Battalion
Born in Camberwell; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Stockwell
Died of wounds on 8 December 1917, aged 34
CWGC: “Son of Isaac Brames Worley and Margaret Worley, of 47, Lansdowne Gardens. Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Etaples Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1911 census

Thomas Isaac Worley, 27 in 1911, was an auctioneer’s clerk. Born in Camberwell, he lived at 47 Lansdowne Gardens, Stockwell with his parents, Isaac Brames, 56, a cook from Pimlico, Margaret Worley, 53, from Coventry, and brother James J. R. Worley, 29, a pastry cook born in Newington. The family shared nine rooms. One sibling lived elsewhere and another had died.

Arthur Worby

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A. Worby
Service no. G/61093
Private, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
Died on 16 November 1918, aged 20
CWGC: “Son of John and Mary Ann Worby, of 76 Crimsworth Road, Wandsworth, London.”
Remembered at Lambeth Cemetery, Tooting, London SW17

Brother-in-law to Thomas James Woodley

Information from the 1911 census

Arthur Worby, 12 in 1911, lived at 76 Crimsworth Road, South Lambeth. His father widower John Worby, 53, was an Army pensioner from Cambridge. There were five siblings on the census return – their places of birth reflecting their father’s Army career. Emma Worby, 24, was born in Chatham, Kent; Jessie Worby, 20, a laundress, was born in Port Royal, Jamaica; John Worby, 15, an errand boy, was born in Dublin; Frank William Worby, 16, an errand boy, was born in Middlesbrough; Arthur Worby, 12, was born in South Lambeth. Arthur’s nephew, Arthur Worby Gridner, 1, lived with the family.

Information from Howard Anderson, great-nephew

“Arthur Worby came from a military family, his father John Worby was career soldier, leaving the Royal Engineers as a Quarter Master Serjeant (the old spelling) after 21 years service. Arthur was one of 11 children, most born in barracks around the world, one was my grandmother Jessie, born on a troop ship in Kingston, Jamaica.

“Arthur Worby’s sister Jessie married Albert Allen (a common Stockwell name) who was an Old Contemptible who survived the war. In the 1st Middlesex Regiment, he was Mentioned in Despatches 3 times for staying behind with the wounded. His son Ted repeated that at Arnhem in 1944, being awarded the Dutch Bronze Cross for gallantry, for staying with the wounded when the Germans overran the town.”

Arthur Worby was brother-in-law to Thomas James Woodley, who married his sister Ethel Maude Worby.
Visit 1stmiddlesex.com for more information.