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.