Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

1915

George Charles Toze

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G. C. Toze
Service no. 9451
Serjeant, King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment), 1st Battalion
Born in Kennington
Died on 24 May 1915, aged 27
CWGC: “Son of John and Nellie Toze, of 11 Stockwell Green, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ypres, Belgium

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 George Charles Toze, aged 21, was registered as a Lance Corporal in the King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment), at the Clarence Barracks, at Spithead Forts, Portsmouth, Hampshire. He was born in Kennington. He was born in Kennington and baptised at St Peter’s, Vauxhall on 5 February 1890, the son of John Toze, a harness maker, and Ellen (known as Nellie) (née Fisher), from Bampton, Devon. The family lived at 236 Upper Kennington Lane. 

Meanwhile, at 11 Stockwell Green, his widowed mother (John Toze died in 1907), Nellie Toze, 43, a housekeeper from Bampton, Devon, shared her two-roomed home with two sons, Cyril Stanley Toze, 19,  an unemployed labourer, and Frank Albert Edgar Toze, 16, an errand boy, and a boarder: Arthur Miles, 43, a married brewer’s labourer from Watford. Hertfordshire. Nellie had had 10 children; only four survived. George’s father John Toze is on the 1901 census.

Francis William Thurgood

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F. W. Thurgood
Service no. G/1529
Private, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), 8th Battalion
Killed in action on 25 September 1915, aged about 20
Remembered at Loos Memorial, France

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918
THURGOOD, F. W., Pte., The Buffs (East Kent Regiment).
Mobilised at the outbreak of war he immediately proceeded to France, and fought gallantly in the Retreat from Mons, and in the Battles of the Marne and Aisne. He also took part in the severe fighting as Ypres, and was unhappily killed in action at Loos in September 1915. He was entitled to the Mons Star, and the General Service and Victory Medals.
“He passed out of the sight of men by the path of duty and self-sacrifice.”
11, Arlesford Road, Stockwell, S.W.9.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Francis William Thurgood was a 16-year-old doctor’s page living at 11 Arlesford Road, Stockwell. He lived with his parents, William Francis Thurgood, 42, a night inspector for trams employed by London County Council, and Ellen Thurgood, 40. They were both originally from Terling Witham, Essex. Francis’s six siblings were:
Gertrude Gladys Thurgood, 20, and Kathleen Eunice Thurgood, 20, both dressmakers born in Peckham
Francis William Thurgood
Mildred Emily Thurgood, 14
Irene Madeline Thurgood, 12
Leslie Alfred Thurgood, 9
Muriel Lilian Thurgood, 6
One child had died. The family had 5 rooms.

Joseph Charles Terrett

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J. C. Terrett
Service no. 2746
Private, London Regiment, “C” Coy. 1st/23rd Battalion
Killed in action on 26 May 1915, aged 40
Enlisted at Clapham Junction; lived in Brixton
CWGC: “Son of Mrs C. Terrett, of 58 Dalyell Road, Stockwell, London; husband of Mary Anne Terrett, of 187 Arthur Street, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.”
Remembered at Le Touret Memorial, France and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA (which gives the name as Joseph Terratt)

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

When Joseph Charles Terrett joined enlisted on 8 September 1914 at St John’s Hill, Clapham Junction he left behind a wife, Mary Ann, and three boys: 14-year-old Joseph, 10-year-old Reginald, and Geoffrey, who was 2.

The Service Record file for Joseph Terrett does not contain much information about him. We know that he was 39 and that had previously served in the 4th Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment, but the file includes no physical description of him or his medical state, his behaviour or his movements other than that he joined his “service battalion” on 12 November 1914.

There is a torn scrap of paper listing some of his effects: photo, knife, torch, mineral (a lump of unusual rock, I am supposing).

Most of the file is taken up with letters concerning the whereabouts of Joseph’s widow Mary Ann Terrett in order that the authorities could forward her husband’s medals. Efforts to find her via her solicitors, the rather wonderfully named Balderston, Warren and Pothecary of Bedford Row, W.C.1, drew a blank, as they were not even sure who Terrett was. On 3 April 1922 they wrote to the Infantry Record Office: “Shall be glad if you will give us any further information re the identify of Private Terrett. We do not appear to know him but our address may have been give on..” and here the letter ends – the bottom has been torn off. Another small mystery.

It appears that back in 1920 Mrs. Terrett’s neighbour at Knowle Road (that letter is torn too, so we cannot be sure of her name but it looks like she may have been a Mrs Lawrence) put the authorities right: “Mrs. Terrett has sailed with the children for Canada June 18th 1920,” she told them. She had given Mrs Lawrence permission to open her letters. “I know that she will be glad to receive any decoration that may be awarded to her late husband. … I have also written to her.”

These small scraps (literally) of documents do not together tell much of a narrative. Perhaps, however, they illustrate in a personal way how the war caused, not just loss of life on an unprecedented scale, but disruption and and dispersal. Would Mary Ann Terrett have taken her three sons to Canada at her time of life (she was nearly 50) if Joseph had not died and options for her in London been limited? We may never find out.

Mary Ann died in Canada in 1948.

Joseph Charles Terrett was one of seven  of Joseph Benjamin Dobell Terrett , a cabinet-maker, and Louisa (née Butler), both from Newington, southeast London. 

Information from the censuses

Joseph Charles Terrett, who was 36 in 1911, was a school attendance officer working for London County Council. He lived with his wife, Mary Ann Terrett, 38, at 65 Knowle Road (now gone but Knowle Close, at the back of Wynne Road, remains), Brixton, where they had four rooms. There were two sons: Joseph St. John Terrett, 10, born in Wandsworth and Reginald St. John Terrett, 6, born in Clapham. Another child born to the couple had died, and a son was born shortly after the 1911 census. Ten years previously, Joseph Charles Terrett was described as a “gas meter index taker”. He was born in Bermondsey. At that time he, Mary Ann and son Joseph lived at 122 New Kent Road, Newington. In 1891 he worked as a printer’s assistant. His father, also called Joseph, was an envelope cutter, from Newington (married to Caroline Terrett, from Southwark, the Mrs. C. Terrett on the War Graves database).

Leonard Hastings Teakle

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L. H. Teakle
Service no. 157
Lance Corporal, London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade), “D” Coy. 1st/5th Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in London; lived in Clapham
Killed in action on 2 May 1915, aged 25
CWGC: “Son of Elizabeth Mary Ann Teakle, of 10 Rhodesia Road, Clapham, London, and the late Hastings Charles Teakle.”
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ypres, Belgium and St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Information from the censuses

Leonard Teakle, 21 in 1911, was a bank clerk. He lived with is widowed mother, Elizabeth Teakle, 47, from Hackney, and at 26 Finchley Road, Walworth. There were four siblings: Henry Teakle, 23, was an insurance clerk; Wilfrid Teakle, 19, was a bank clerk; John Teakle, 11, Ethel Teakle. Harry Collis, 48, a married printer’s warehouseman from Southwark, boarded with the family, who shared six rooms. Leonard’s deceased father Hastings C. Teakle was a wheelwright from Avening, Gloucestershire.

Horace Stillwell

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H. Stillwell
Service no. G/6781
Private, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), 2nd Battalion
Born in 1890 in Bethnal Green
Killed in action on 28 September 1915, aged about 25
Remembered at Loos Memorial, France

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

The file for Horace Stillwell is very damaged, with ripped pages and what looks like water damage. A few details emerge. He joined at Lambeth on 5 September 1914, weighing a little over 8½ stone. He was 5 feet 5 inches tall. Unmarried.

Information from Stillwell family member Glynis Park

“Horace was the youngest of eight children. His father’s first wife, Eliza Charlotte, died of TB in 1873 aged just 36. In 1911the family were living at 93 Old South Lambeth Road. Thomas aged 76 was a beer retailer, wife Emma was 63. Edwin Ernest, aged 23, and Horace, 21, were both assistant retailers in the business.”
Information from the censuses
Horace Stillwell, 21 in 1911, was an assistant retailer of beer, as was his older brother Edwin Ernest Stillwell, 23. They lived in 4 rooms with their parents, Thomas Stillwell, 76, a beer retailer born in Bethnal Green, east London, and Emma Stillwell, 63, from Birmingham. There were three other children.