Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

1915

George Harry Glover

by

G. H. Glover
Service no. 11773
Private, Border Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Died of wounds age 20 on 31 March 1915
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in London; lived in Stockwell
CWGC: “Son of George Harry and Mary Jane Glover, of Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Wimereux Communal Cemetery, France

At six foot two, George Harry Glover was one the tallest of the men on the Stockwell War Memorial. He would have towered over most of his fellow soldiers. He was well built too, for the time. 140 pounds, with a 36 inch chest which he could expand by 2 inches. Hazel eyes, brown hair and fresh complexion, complete a picture of an attractive, fit and healthy young man. He enlisted early in the war – 4 September 1914 – at the age of 20. Before the war, Glover was a furniture salesman. He had spent 2½ years in the National Naval Cadets (Wandsworth Battalion) and was discharged in 1910.

Glover was on the home front until 16 February 1915, joining the British Expeditionary Force on 17 February. He lasted just over a month on the Western Front, and after only 210 days as a British soldier succumbed to a gunshot wound to the shoulder sustained on 15 March 1915. After transferring to a hospital in Boulogne, he was deemed on 22 March he was deemed to be “improving”, but he died on 31 March.

His effects, sent to his parents, included
2 leather purses
1 keyring
5 keys
1 chain
1 watch key – broken
I combination ?
1 cigarette case containing 7 cigarettes
1 Gospel acc St John
4 letters
6 postcards
3 photos
Other items are unreadable – the records are badly damaged.

On 3 April 1915 Glover’s mother, Mary Jane, wrote to the Officer in Charge at the Record Office in Preston from her home at 19 Hargwyne Street, Stockwell, London SW:

Sir
I beg to ask if you can give me any information as to the whereabouts of Private G. H. Glover, No 11773, A Company, 2nd Batt. Border Regt, with the Expeditionary Force…

The rest of the letter is missing, but on 11 April Mary Jane wrote again:

With reference to your letter No 19550/17 of 6th April 1915 addressed to Mr Lee I wrote on behalf of my son death. He died died of wounds 31st March. Private George Glover 11773 of the Border Regt. I beg most respectfully to ask as I am his mother would you kindly say when I can have any further news regarding his death. I am sir your Obediant Servant M. J. Glover

The letter has all the appearance of having been written through tears. Even allowing for the damage to the original document, her expressions are garbled.

The army replied on 16 April: “If you write to the Officer in Charge of the hospital where your son died giving his Regiment, full name, Regiment [sic] and date of death they may be able to give some further information.”

Her son was buried at Wimereux Communal Cemetery, Grave No 303.

William Henry Murray Giles

by

W. H. M. Giles
Service no. G/4952
Private, Royal Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion
Died on 9 May 1915
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in London; lived in Stockwell
Remembered at Helles Memorial, Turkey

William Henry Murray Giles was born in Lambeth on 28 January 1885, the son of Walter George Giles, a carman from Godalming, Surrey, and Lillian Jane (née Ford) from Lambeth. The family lived in Waterloo.

In 1908 William married Florence Winifred Bartlett at St John the Evangelist, Waterloo. A son, Henry, was born in 1910 and a daughter, Mabel, in 1911. By 1911 the family were living in two rooms at 26 Burgoyne Road, Stockwell. He enlisted in London. William worked as a carman for Lambeth Borough Council. 

Victor Edwin Finch

by

V. E. Finch
Service no. 2829
Rifleman, London Regiment (Post Office Rifles), 1st/8th Battalion
Killed in action at around age 21 on 25 May 1915
Remembered at Le Touret Memorial, FranceInformation from the censuses

In 1911 Victor Edwin Finch was living in 2 rooms at 11 Stockwell Green with his family. Frederick James Finch, 46, was a brewer’s drayman, born in Surrey. His second wife Elizabeth Finch, 45, was from Headley, Surrey. Victor Edwin Finch, 17, was a telegraph messenger for the Post Office. His half-siblings were Edward James Finch, 9, Alexandra Hilda-May Finch, 8, Gilbert Arthur Finch, 6 and Margery Emily Elizabeth Finch, 4. All the children were born in Stockwell.

In 1901 Victor Finch was 7 and living at 47 Stockwell Green with his father, stepmother Elizabeth and two sisters Nancy Rebecca Finch, 11, and Dorothy A. Finch, 5.
Frederick Finch was married first in 1899 to Nancy Bella Pickard, mother of Nancy, Victor and Dorothy, at St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, in 1889. Nancy died in childbirth in 1895, and Frederick married Elizabeth May in 1900. The couple went on to have the four chiildren listed in the 1911 census.

Victor Finch’s great nephew Adrian Purkiss adds the following interesting information:

Victor Edwin Finch’s first cousin once removed was Albert George Richard Henley, Mayor of Bermonsey, who was killed on 11 May 1941 clearing incendiaries from the roof of the town hall during a bombing raid. Another first cousin once removed was Sir Cyril Stanley Pickard KCMG of the British Diplomatic service. Angela Simmons, a first cousin twice removed, married Canon Paul Simmonds, who was for many years the Vicar of St Andrew’s Church Stockwell Green where Victor Finch is remembered.

Jeffrey Ely

by

J. Ely
Service no. C/276
Private, Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 2nd Battalion
Killed in action at around age 25 on 25 September 1915
Remembered at Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1911 census and other sources

The Ely family lived in 4 rooms at 95 Paradise Road, Stockwell. Charles Ely, 47, a sewer flusher born in Horseheath, Cambridgeshire, and his wife, Alice, 50, who was born in Lambeth had 9 children (one had died). All were born in Lambeth:
William Ely, 27, a gold blocker
John Ely, 23, a carman
Jeffrey Ely, 19, labourer
Alice Ely, 17
Robert Ely, 15
Samuel Ely, 13
Arthur Ely, 11
Ada Ely, 9
The family were at the same address in 1901.

In 22 December 1912 Jeffrey Ely married Rose Leeves at All Saints, South Lambeth.

Albert Curtis

by

A. Curtis
Service no. SS/8149
Private, Army Service Corps
Died on 30 August 1915, aged 35
Remembered at Wandsworth Cemetery, Magdalen Road, Earlsfield, south-west London

Albert Curtis left a widow, Forence Maud Curtis, living at Paradise Road, Stockwell, and five young children.

Albert married Florence in 1906, and worked as an upholsterer and maker of portmanteaux (suitcases and travelling bags). The 1911 census shows that he, then 32, and Florence, 22, had been married for five years, and lived with their two young children in one room in Speke Road (which ran parallel with Grant Road) in Clapham Junction.

Albert’s medal card shows that he served in France from 26 April 1915. He died in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Southampton, three weeks after he was hit by a sack of flour, which fell from a crane. His death certificate gives fracture of the spine among the causes of death.

Florence remained in Paradise Road, remarried and had three further sons, who all served in World War Two.