Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

1916

Leonard Eldridge

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E. Eldridge

Service no. 304022
Rifleman, London Regiment, 1/5th Batallion (London Rifle Brigade)
Killed in action on 9 October 1916, aged about 19
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

In 1911, Leonard Eldridge worked as a messenger for the General Post Office. He lived with his parents and five of his eight siblings at 14 Aldebert Terrace, South Lambeth where the family occupied five rooms. Leonard’s father Harry Eldridge, 51, was a carman, transporting milk for a dairy. He was originally from New Cross, south-east London. His mother, Martha Eldridge, 50, was from Norfolk. 

Frank Wybrew

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F. Wybrew
Service no. 10622
Private, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own), 1st Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Lambeth
Killed in action on 18 September 1916, aged 23
CWGC: “Son of Maria Rose Whitehouse (formerly Wybrew), of 11 Irving Grove, Stockwell, London, and the late William Wybrew.”
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France and at St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Frank Wybrew was baptised at St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, Stockwell on 14 May 1893, the second of three children of William Joseph Wybrew, a saddler, and Maria Rose (née Millett). They gave their address as 65 Andalus Road, Stockwell. 

Frank’s father died in 1896, at around the time Maria Rose gave birth to their third child. She subsequently married James Edward Whitcombe, a harness maker.

In 1911, Frank Wybrew lived with his mother, stepfather James Edward Whitcombe, a harness maker, a younger sister, three of his five half-siblings and his maternal grandfather in a four-roomed flat, 12 Emily Mansions on Landor Road, Stockwell.  He worked as a ‘general hand’ for a seed merchant.

Arthur George Wright

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A. G. Wright
Service no. 1633
Private, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 2nd Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Westminster; lived in Lambeth
Died of wounds on 9 August 1916, aged 20
CWGC: “Son of Arthur John Wright, of 34 Thorncroft Street, Wandsworth Road, London.”
Remembered at Warlincourt Halte British Cemetery, Saulty, France

Arthur George Wright, with kind permission of the Wright family.

Arthur George Wright was born in South Lambeth on 8 November 1895 and baptised at St Anne’s, South Lambeth Road on 20 March the following year. He was the second child of Arthur John Wright, a carman born in Clapham, and Mary Ann (née Lanfear)  from Rockley, Wiltshire, who lived at 1 Wyvil Street. 

On 26 August 1901, when the family was living at 14 Kenchester Street, Arthur George and his older sister Beatrice were admitted to St Barnabas School. 

The couple had a total of eight children. Beatrice died at the age of ten in 1907 and another child, Ellen, died as an infant. On the 1911 census Arthur John listed all his children, alive and dead, but scored through the lines for Beatrice and Ellen. 

The census shows that Arthur George  was working as an errand boy and that the  family of eight lived in three rooms at 62 Goldsborough Road. Another household of seven lived in a further four rooms at the same address.

Arthur George enlisted in Westminster. After the war, his father gave his address as 34 Thorncroft Street, Wandsworth Road.

Frank Worthy

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F. Worthy
Service no. 4785
Rifleman, London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles), “D” Coy. 1st/21st Battalion
Enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 15 September 1916, aged 19
CWGC: “Son of Alfred James and Matilda Clara Worthy, of 12 Normandy Road, Brixton, London.”
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

In 1911 Frank Worthy was a 14-year-old schoolboy. He lived at 5 Addison Place, Brixton (now part of Normandy Road) with his parents, Alfred James Worthy, 45, a sign writer for the council, and Matilda Clara Worthy, 37, both born in Lambeth. Frank had two siblings. The family occupied four rooms. 

Frank, who was born on 23 October 1898, attended Stockwell Road School and moving on in 1908 to Battersea Polytechnic Boys’ Secondary School, for which he received a bursary. He left in July 1914 to train as a teacher at London Day Training College. 

Frank Worthy enlisted on 27 January 1916 in Lambeth, giving his age as 19, occupation as teacher and address as 5 Addison Place (since renamed Normandy Road), Brixton. He had previously been rejected for service. Frank stood 5ft 11in tall, with a chest measurement of 33½in. His moles on his upper right arm and abdomen were noted. He joined the British Expeditionary Force on 15 June 1916 and survived exactly three months after that.

The Worthys were members of the Plymouth Brethren. 

Henry James Robert Woodcock

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H. J. R. Woodcock
Service no. 6951
Private, London Regiment (London Scottish), 1st/14th Battalion
Killed in action on 9 September 1916, aged 21
CWGC: “Son of Mrs Eliza Woodcock, of 15 Meadow Place, South Lambeth Road, London.”
Remembered at Serre Road Cemetery No 2, France

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

The Service history file for Henry James Robert Woodcock contains few details. Woodcock enlisted in the Territorial Force on 28 February 1916 and was posted on the same day.

1911 Census

Henry James Robert Woodcock, 16 in 1911, was one of eight children of Henry Woodcock, 44, from Gorleston, Norfolk, and Eliza Woodcock, 41, from Donhead St. Mary, Wiltshire. He lived with his family at 125 Lavender Hill, Battersea, and worked as a book assistant. Six of Henry’s siblings are on the census return: Gertrude Marion Woodcock, 18, a scullery maid; Godfrey Randall Woodcock, 13; Gordon Harold Woodcock, 10; Gwendoline Woodcock, 8, Walter Herbert Woodcock, 5; Marjorie Woodcock, 1. All but Gertrude, who was born in South Lambeth, were born in Battersea. Blanche Woodcock, 17, was a domestic servant in Mayfair. In 1901 the family lived at 26 Grayshott Road, Battersea.

William Henry Wilson

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W. H. Wilson
Service no.66127
Bombardier, Royal Field Artillery, “A” Bty. 109th Bde.
Died 28 August 1916, aged 24
Remembered at Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L’Abbe, France
Husband of A. F. Wilson, of 17, Chantrey Rd., Brixton, London.

This identification was made by Chris Burge, who writes:

William Henry Wilson has born on 25 June 1892, one of the five children of parents Thomas Reeves and Ellen Agnes Wilson. William was baptised on 21 August 1892 at St John, Hoxton, when the family lived in Wenlock Street, where they remained for twenty years.

By the time of the 1911 census, William’s mother had died and he shared the home with his father Thomas, sister Florence Agnes and younger brother George Albert. They had just three rooms at 65 Wenlock Street. William worked as a ‘carman contractor’.

William volunteered around the end of 1914 at Holloway, joining the Royal Field Artillery and was eventually posted to the 109th Brigade who were equipped with howitzers. He was married while a soldier on 4 April 1915 to Alice Florence Edwards, a local girl, at St Matthew’s Church, Islington, giving their address as 21 Morton Road. Just four months later, 66127 Wilson was sent to France, disembarking on 29 August 1915.

Almost a year later to the day, William was in action on the Somme as his ‘A’ Battery shot to support British advances. The batteries of the 109th Brigade were under constant shelling themselves, losing eight men in the week before 25 August. When they moved to new positions north of Montauban, on the 25 August, three more men were wounded and another killed. On 28 August, in bad weather, another man was killed and three others wounded. William Henry Wilson died of wounds on this day.

By the end of the war, William’s widow Alice was living at 17 Chantrey Road, Brixton, were she remained until 1934 when she married Frederick Muspratt who had been a ASC lorry driver in the war. She was widowed for a second time when Frederick died in 1946.

Alice Florence was living at 34 Kemerton Road, Camberwell, when she passed away on 21 July 1981, aged 86.