Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

1915

Percy William Arthur Philcox

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P. W. A. Philcox
Service no. 3252
Rifleman, London Regiment (The Rangers), “C” Coy. 1st/12th Battalion
Killed in action on 8 May 1915, aged 24
CWGC: “Son of Alice E. Philcox, of 15 Palace Rd., Streatham Hill, London, and the late Alfred James Philcox.”
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium, on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA, and on a family memorial at West Norwood Cemetery

In 1911 19-year-old Percy William Arthur Philcox was living with his family at 255 South Lambeth Road and working as a clerk in his father’s timber business.

Brother of Cecil Ernest Philcox

Eli John Palmer

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E. J. Palmer
Private, Devonshire Regiment, 9th Battalion
Died 30 September 1915, aged about 20
Remembered on the Loos Memorial, France

This identification was made by Chris Burge, who writes:

Eli John Palmer was born in 1895, the sole child of parents Eli John and Julia Susan Palmer. Eli’s mother was 45 at the time of his birth and had several children from a previous marriage before she was widowed. Eli grew up with his older half-siblings, living at 55 Lambeth Road.

By the time of the 1911 census, Eli’s mother had been widowed for second time when Eli’s father died in 1910. Julia Susan Palmer was now sixty years old and no longer working. Two of her sons from her previous marriage still lived with her, Albert and Francis Hewett. Young Eli worked as an errand boy for a hosier’s. The four adults shared just three rooms at 3 DeLaune Street, Kennington.

Perhaps spurred by the heady mix of patriotism and a sense of adventure, Eli John Palmer volunteered in London early in the war and joined the 9/Devons in 1914. This ‘New Army’ battalion was finally ready to move to France on 27 July 1915. After a few weeks of trench holding, the 9/Devons were at the first day of the Battle of Loos on 25 September 1915, facing a hail of fire when assaulting the enemy lines. During the bitter fighting, the 9/Devons were ‘stood to’ in the front line trench from 6.30pm on the 29 September to 2.30am on the 30th, under intermittent shelling. Eli John Palmer was killed on this day. Over a few days, the battalion’s total casualties were 15 officers and 461 men, close to 50 per cent of its strength.

Eli had nominated his mother Julia as his next of kin and sole legatee. She would receive his £3 10s war gratuity and a small pension at the war’s end. Julia lived at 16 Prideaux Road SW9, near Clapham North, from 1919 until she passed away in 1924, aged 76.

Herbert Charles Nuthall

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Herbert Charles Nuthall in uniform
Herbert Charles Nuthall. By kind permission of Brian Denny

H. C. Nuthall
Service no. 7498
Private, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, 1st Battalion
Born in Camberwell; enlisted in London; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 25 April 1915, age 31
CWGC: “Son of Henry and Jane Nuthall, of Lambeth, London; husband of Gertrude Beatrice Nuthall, of 12, Lingham Street, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Seaforth Cemetery, Cheddar Villa, Belgium

Herbert Charles Nuthall.
Herbert Charles Nuthall. Photo © Marietta Crichton Stuart. The headstone has the following inscription: “From strife to the peace and love of God” Marietta Crichton Stuart writes: “The cemetery is a fairly rare instance of a battlefield cemetery, originally called Cheddar Village, the Commanding Officer of the 2nd Bn Seaforth Highlanders later asked if the name could be changed to Seaforth as 100 of the 127 burials belonged to that Battalion. Herbert’s headstone was very clear and so must have been recently cut.”

Brian Denny, Herbert Charles Nuttall’s great-grandson, says he may have been a witness to the Christmas truce of 1914 and the first gas attack in April 1915, as his regiment was in the vicinity of both. Brian has written this beautiful song in memory of Nuthall.
http://youtu.be/4slLT8aC3sA

 

William Lawrence Murray

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W. L. Murray
Service no. 2251
Rifleman, London Regiment (City of London Rifles), 6th Battalion
Killed in action on 25 September 1915 at age 21
CWGC: “Son of Alec and Elizabeth Alice Murray, of 37, Kay Rd., Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Maroc British Cemetery, Grenay, France

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 William Lawrence Murray was a junior clerk working for the Amalgamated Press and living in a three-roomed apartment at 15 Rhodesia Road, Stockwell. The census return included William and his mother, Elizabeth Alice Murray, 44, born in St Giles in the Fields, London. Alec Murray is not on the return.

Henry Louis Moss

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H. L. Moss
Service no. 11338
Private, Duke of Edinburgh’s (Wiltshire Regiment), 5th Battalion
Born at Walworth; enlisted at St. Paul’s Churchyard, London; lived at Clapham
Killed in action at Gallipoli on 10 August 1915 at about age 23
Remembered at Helles Memorial, Turkey and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA. (Note: The listing gives the name as Henry Moss, which could be either Henry Louis Moss or his father, Henry Thomas Moss. As Henry Louis Moss died before his father, our guess is that the listing refers to Henry Louis.)

Son of Henry Thomas Moss (their names are, uniquely, listed side by side).

Thomas Henry Mizen

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natal
The Natal

T. H. Mizen
Service no. 202018
Able Seaman, Royal Navy, H.M.S. “Natal”
Died 30 December 1915 aged around 32
Remembered at Chatham Naval Memorial and at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9

The Natal was a Duke of Edinburgh class armoured cruiser, built by Vickers Maxim of Barrow and launched on 30 September 1905. She was sunk by an internal explosion near Cromarty on 30 December 1915.

Information from Wikipedia:

On the 30th December 1915 Natal was lying in the Cromarty Firth with her squadron, under the command of Captain Eric Back RN. Shortly after 3.20pm, and without warning, a series of violent explosions tore through the ship. She capsized five minutes later. The most probable explanation was that a fire had broken out, possibly due to faulty cordite, that ignited a magazine. The exact number of casualties is still debated, and ranges from 390, up to 421. Some were killed in the immediate explosions, others drowned as the ship capsized, or succumbed to the freezing water of the Cromarty Firth. Most of the bodies which were recovered from the sea were interred in Rosskeen Churchyard, Invergordon. A small number of casualties were interred in the Gaelic Chapel graveyard in Cromarty.
The picture shows her upturned hull, visible at low water.
There is an interesting thread about the explosion at www.black-isle.info

Thomas Henry Mizen was born on 25 January 1883 in Brixton to Albert Duncan Mizen and Emma Amelia Turner. Thomas is listed on the 1891 census as visiting with his father, a carman, and younger sister at 38 Ingleton Street, Stockwell. In 1904, at St Paul’s, Lorrimore Square, Walworth (Southwark) Thomas married his first cousin Edith Miriam Payne.

The couple had six daughters (five surviving):

Doris Hetty, born 1905
Elsie, born 1906
Edith Miriam, born 1908
Alice Frances, born 1909
Helen Elizabeth, born 1912
Grace Henrietta, born 1912, died 1913

At the time of Thomas Mizen’s death his family address was recorded as 7 Moat Place, Stockwell Road. Edith died in 1929.