Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

W names

Henry Ingham White

by

H. I. White
Service no. 550898
Rifleman, London Regiment, 12th Bn (Queen’s Westminster Rifles)
Died 15 August 1917, aged about 30
Remembered Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belguim
Son of William George and Emma White, of 11, Stirling Rd., Stockwell, London.

This identification was made by Chris Burge, who writes:

Henry Ingham White was born in 1887, the youngest of William George and Emma White’s two sons. He was baptised on 20 July 1887 at St Barnabas, Pimlico, where William and Emma had been married seven years before. The family lived at 3 Union Street, Pimlico Bridge. Henry’s father worked as a ‘shopman’.  Within a decade the White family had moved to 11 Stirling Street, off Clapham Road. Young Henry was still at school, this brother William John, then aged 17, assisted their father who managed a trunk shop.

In the 1911 census, the four members of the White family were living in relative comfort as occupants of the seven-room property at 11 Stirling Street. The census revealed that only two of William and Emma’s six children had survived into adulthood. William John, then 28, and Henry, then 22, were part of the family business. Henry’s father was the manager of a trunk and bag manufacturer, his brother William John was the secretary, while Henry was a ‘fancy leather worker’. The location of their premises and full extent of their business is not known.

The key surviving document in understanding the war service of Henry Ingham White is his entry in the Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects. A low service number of 3308 was added beneath the 550898 number and his war gratuity amounted to £13. The 3308 service number may not appear on Henry’s medal records, but the Soldiers’ Effects information indicates someone who joined in 1914.

When Henry Ingham White decided to volunteer, his links with Pimlico drew him to 58 Buckingham Gate, Westminster, home of the Queen’s Westminster Rifles, the 16th Battalion County of London Regiment. The QWR had departed for France on 1 November 1914 and were recruiting for their reserve. Perhaps Henry met Frederick Watson Haggett from Clapham as he stood in line on 7 November 1914. New recruits were posted to the battalion’s 2nd or 3rd reserve for training. Henry White became private 3308, and Frederick Haggett private 3309. Frederick Haggett and men with similar numbers were drafted in France at the end of June 1916, soon to be on the Somme. It is possible Henry was held in England for other duties. It is certain that Henry was in France by 19 April 1917, a replacement for men lost in the Arras offensive.

The QWR were in action in July and August 1917 near Ypres in what is commonly known as Passchendaele. Henry was wounded on, or shortly before, 15 August after trenches held by the QWR were heavily shelled. He was evacuated to the 3rd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station at Remy sidings, some five miles behind front lines. Hundreds of casualties passed through the Station between 14-16 August. Henry Ingham White was one of the five deaths noted on the 15 August 1917.

It was a bitter blow for Henry’s father who had lost both his wife Emma and sister Caroline in 1916. William George White passed away in 1924, aged 65. An image of Henry’s CWGC headstone and the White family grave may be found here: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10778460/henry-ingham-white.

Albert Victor Owers White

by

A.V.O. White
Private, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 1st Bn
Service no. G/3438
Died on 25 September 191, aged 22
Remembered at Loos Memorial, France

CWGC: “Son of Mrs. Florence White, of 66, Wilcox Rd., South Lambeth Rd., London.”

Albert White was born in 1894 in the village of March, Cambridgeshire. His parents Edward White and Florence Mary Owers had married in 1875 and Albert was the youngest of nine children when he was born. In the 1901 census the White family were living in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in Fen Country, where both his parents and the majority of his siblings had been born. His father was working on steam-driven threshing machines. 

Florence Mary White first appeared in Lambeth on the Electoral Rolls of 1907 and 1908 living at 58 Walnut Tree Walk in Kennington. By the time of the 1911 census, Florence was living nearby at 123 St George’s Road, Southwark, a busy thoroughfare running from Westminster Bridge Road to the Elephant and Castle. Florence was now 49 and in 25 years of marriage had borne 13 children, three of whom had died as infants. Florence neglected to state the ‘relationship’ of the individuals she named on her census form, but two were clearly her youngest children, Albert Victor White, 17, and Mildred Victoria Landlord White, 13. The enumerator later pencilled in the relationships, wrongly identifying widow Florence Clarissa Hayhoe as Florence’s sister; she was Florence’s daughter, who had married horse dealer Harry Hayhoe in 1898. He died in 1909 when the couple were living in Borough Road. 

Florence White earned her income as a landlady. Her own father and brothers had been piano-tuners. Perhaps it was her love of music and the theatre which led her to seek ‘theatrical types’ as her guests. Her boarders in 1911 were two actors and a music-hall artist. Albert had also been attracted to the world of theatre and Florence described her son’s occupation, confusingly, as ‘super-theatrical’. The White family and their three guests lived in six rooms of the property with a young couple and their baby son in three other rooms. 

An entry in the Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment Rough Register of Recruits shows 3438 Private White A. aged 21 enlisted on 16 November 1914. Albert volunteered in central London and probably trained with the 3rd Royal West Surrey Reserve based at the Chatham Lines before he was sent to France on 11 March 1915. A draft of 50 men reached the 1st RWS on Sunday 14 March when the battalion was in billets in the Bethune area. The battalion was held in reserve and on standby during March and April. More routine work followed in May. One man was killed and five wounded in a party helping to collect the wounded and bury the dead during the night near Givenchy on 26 May. June and July were months of providing various working parties before the battalion entered trenches near Cuinchy in the last week of July, sustaining small numbers of casualties on most days before returning to billets on 15 August 1915. More trench duty followed before the battalion prepared for their part in the offensive on 25 September. They advanced under cover of smoke wearing rudimentary gas helmets. Counterattacked, they were forced to retire under heavy machine-gun fire. Nine officers were killed or wounded, a total of 226 other ranks were killed, wounded or missing. Private 3438 White A. was posted missing that day.

Florence made enquiries via the Red Cross, hoping that Albert was a prisoner of war. The related card record showed her son had served in ‘D’ company, but there was no trace of the missing soldier who had ‘disparu [disappeared] 25 Sept 1915’. Florence gave her address as ‘Mrs. F. M. White, 3 Lansdowne Gardens, Stockwell, London S.W.’. The reply was ‘rien [nothing] 17.11.15’. After some months, Albert White was officially presumed to have died on or since 25 September 1915.

After 1918 Florence moved from Lansdowne Gardens to 66 Wilcox Road where she remained until 1928. There are no existing public records that show Albert’s initials as A.V.O.; to the Army he was plain Albert. Florence may have added two initials to make her son’s name more prominent on the Stockwell War Memorial. chris burge 

a.v.o. white. Private, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 1st Bn. Service no. G/3438. Died on 25 September 191, aged 22. Remembered at Loos Memorial, France

Clarence George Wheeler

by

C. G. Wheeler
Service no. L/21895
Driver, Royal Field Artillery, “A” Bty. 162nd Bde.
Died of wounds on 4 April 1917, aged 24
CWGC: “Son of George Henry and Fannie Wheeler, of 35 Holland Street, Brixton, London.”
Remembered at Faubourg d’Amiens Cemetery, Arras, France

Information from the censuses

In 1911 Clarence George Wheeler, 18, was a grocer’s assistant. He lived with his parents, George Henry Wheeler, 46, a glass cutter from Sevenoaks, Kent, and Fanny Wheeler, 48, from Canterbury, Kent, in four rooms at 35 Holland Street (now Caldwell Street), Stockwell, as well as his four siblings: Albert Henry Wheeler, 15, a shop boy; Margaret Wheeler, 12; Hilda May Wheeler, 9, Edgar Ralph Wheeler, 4. An older sibling, Nina, who appears on the 1901 census, had died. Clarence was born in Stepney, east London, his siblings in Brixton.

Thomas Frederick Wellington

by

T. F. Wellington
Service no. 70152
Driver, Royal Engineers, L.Z. Cable Section
Born in Southwark; enlisted in Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire; lived in Lambeth
Killed in action on 2 July 1915, aged 26
CWGC: “Son of Mrs Rose Cockman, of 22 Horace Street, South Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ypres, Belgium

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

On 10 August 1915, less than a month after Thomas Frederick Wellington was killed in action at Ypres, the Royal Engineers Records Office wrote to his bereaved mother, Rose Cockman: “Special information has been received,” they said, ” … He was killed in action 2/7/15 and was buried behind Signal Station at Zillebeke, appros: Square L.22.D Map Belgium Sheet 28. 1/40,000.” But somehow Wellington’s remains ended up missing, and he is remembered instead on the panels of the Menin Gate Memorial and at Stockwell.

The Records Officer’s letter crossed with one of Mrs. Cockman’s in which she asked about the whereabouts of her son’s will and “small book”. These were not in his custody, the officer told her, in a letter sent the following day. However, Wellington’s personal effects were sent on. They indicate a man of careful and organised habits. As well as the usual watch, pipe, diary, letters, handkerchiefs, gloves, and so on, they included a holdall containing a razor, two toothbrushes, a lather brush, shaving soap and housewife (a small sewing kit for making repairs to uniforms). And, naturally, his driver’s licence.

Wellington’s Army career was solid, with no conduct issues. He started out in the London Army Troops of the Royal Engineers. He stayed 139 days and was discharged “in consequence of joining regular army.” He transferred to the London Signals Training Centre and from there on 16 December 1914 went to Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire, where the Electrical Signalling Branch the School of Military Engineering was based. He went to France on 26 December.

Thomas Frederick Wellington, 5 feet 6 or 8 inches tall (depending on who was doing the measuring – both heights are given in his records), weighing over 10½ stone, with a 36 inch chest (which he could expand by 3 inches), was judged “good” in physical development. He had a fair complexion, dark grey eyes and light brown hair. In civilian life he had a varied career: from “ticket printer” in 1911, to engineer’s photographer when joining the Army in 1914. He also described himself as a draughtsman. He left 8 siblings (full and half).

Information from the 1911 census

Thomas Wellington, a 21-year-old ticket printer, lived with his mother, stepfather, sister and step-siblings at 15 Horace Street (now gone – replaced by a Local Authority housing estate), Stockwell. Charles Booth, in his poverty map of 1886-1903 described Horace Street as “poor and crowded”. Thomas’s mother, Rose Cockman, 44, from Torrington, Essex, had married Ernest Cockman, 39, a timber carman from Wandsworth, in about 1894. She had at least two children from her previous marriage: Thomas and Rose Wellington, 10, both born in Southwark. With Ernest she had a further three: Ernest Cockman, 6; Dorothy Cockman, 4; and Edith Cockman, 2, all born in South Lambeth.