S. Morgan
Service no. S/15651
Rifleman, Rifle Brigade, 2nd Battalion
Born in Highgate; enlisted in Newbury, Berkshire; lived in Stockwell
Killed in action on 11 November 1916
Remembered at Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval, Somme, France
1916
William Samuel Meech
W. S. Meech
Service no. S/8961, Private, Black Watch (Royal Highlanders), 9th Bn.
Killed in action on 6 February 1916.
Remembered at Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.
William Samuel Meech was born in Lewisham, south-east London. He volunteered in May 1915 and was killed in action at the Battle of Loos. He lived at 17 Pulross Road, Stockwell.
George Robert McDowall
G. R. McDowall
Service no, 59064
Serjeant, Royal Engineers, 69th Field Coy
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in London; lived in Stockwell
Killed in action on 10 May 1916, aged about 43
CWGC: “Brother of Mr H. McDowall, of 33 Nealdon Street, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Bully-Grenay Communal Cemetery, British Extension, France
On 4 October 1900 George Robert McDowall, 27, the son of a labourer, married Emma Cecil Giffin, 21, at St. Andrew’s Church. He was a serving serjeant with the 2nd Dragoons. In 1911 Emma is found living at 33 Nealdon Street, Stockwell, with her three children Flora May, 6 (born in Norwich), Robert Andrew, 4 (born in Glasgow), and George Leslie, 1 (born in Lambeth).
Trevor Moore writes:
G. R. McDowall was my great grandfather on my mother’s side. The story of his death and the effects on his young family is tragic, yet I’m sure not uncommon to his generation.
GRM was killed on the front at Grenay, a mining village close to Lens. He left a wife, Emma, and five children: Flora, Robert, Dora, George Leslie (my grandfather) and Roy. Very soon after GRM’s death, Emma also died at the very young age of 37, leaving the children orphans. My grandfather and his younger brother were sent to a local orphanage as a result.
Photos by kind permission of © Trevor Moore.
Daniel McConlough
D. McConlough
Service no. 305225,
Corporal, The King’s (Liverpool Regiment)
Died on 7 August 1916
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France
This is a tentative identification. There is only one D. McConlough in the CWGC database. He can be found on the census in Liverpool and I know of no association with Stockwell.
William May
W. May
Service no. 16628
Private, Royal Berkshire Regiment, 2nd Bn.
Died, aged 31, on 16 July 1916
Son of Henry and Mary Ann May; husband of Mary Ann May, of 22, Spring Grove, Reading.
Remembered at Thiepval and at the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA
Initial identification via family member Naomi Moghaddam:
William May, born 22 January 1885. Died aged 31, leaving behind a wife, Mary Ann May, and two children.
Frank Clifford John Mason
F. C. J. Mason
Service no. PS/2538
Private, Middlesex Regiment, 17th Battalion
Born in Stockwell; enlisted in Lambeth
Killed in action age 16 on 24 August 1916
CWGC: “Son of Maud Mary and Arthur Petherick (step-father), of 22, St. Michael’s Rd., Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Euston Road Cemetery, Colincamps, France and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA
Information from British Army Records 1914-1920
On 12 July 1915 Frank Clifford John Mason, an only child living with his mother and stepfather, lied about his age in order to enlist in the British Army and join the war effort. He was born in September 1899 and was two or three months shy of his 16th birthday. He claimed to be 19, and this was accepted. A little over a year later he was dead.
Frank’s birth father was also called Frank Mason and was described in the 1901 census as a “manager specialist”, then aged 58 and born in Pimlico. The 1891 census lists him as a “chef & manager” and shows that he had a previous family. He was married to Esther, at 54 seven years older than himself, and there was a grandson, one-year-old Thomas F. M. Tickling. The family lived at 22 Stansfield Road, Stockwell.
Some time after 1891 Frank senior became a widower and in 1899 he married again, this time to Maud Mary Mason from Ipswich, who was almost half his age. Soon there was a child, the Frank listed on the Memorial.
But Frank senior died in 1904, leaving Maud a widow and Frank junior without a father. Less than two years later, in 1906, Maud married again, this time to a man considerably younger than herself. Arthur Petherick, shown as 31 on the 1911 census, was a railway clerk born in Dorking in 1880. The family, Maud, Arthur and Frank junior, now lived at 22 St. Michael’s Road with three boarders.
On 12 July 1915, less than 12 months after the war started, 15-year-old Frank joined up. He claimed to be a 19-year-old clerk.
Mason was puny, even by contemporary standards. The examining officer described Mason’s physical development as “slight”, and he stood only 5 feet 4 and a half inches tall with a 32½-inch chest. He was immature emotionally as well. While training at Northampton, in March 1916, he was in trouble for insubordination and for making improper remarks to an N.C.O., for which he was punished with 14 days’ detention.
But the war was soon over for Mason. He was posted to France on 21 April 1916 and just over four months later, on 24 August, he was killed in action, having served a total of 1 year and 44 days. He had not yet reached his 17th birthday.
On 28 August 1918, Frank’s effects – photos, disc, diary and postcards – were forwarded to his mother and stepfather. The army asked for acknowlegement of receipt, but Mrs Petherick replied questioning the whereabouts of her son’s other possessions. “I wish to point out,” she said, “that seeing these other items were recoverable from my son’s body, there were other things such as watch, cigarette cases, fountain pen etc which should have come to hand.” In common with most of the rest of the civilian population, she had no real understanding of the conditions soldiers were fighting in.
Maud herself did not live long after this. The records show that a she died in March 1919 in Epsom, Surrey and by March the following year Arthur Petherick, Frank’s stepfather, was answering the war pensions board’s queries. He stated that his stepson had never been married and had no siblings, half-siblings, grandparents, nephews or nieces or children. Frank’s half-sibling from his father’s first marriage is not mentioned.
Information from the 1911 census
22 St Michael’s Road, 11-year-old Frank Clifford John Mason’s home in 1911, is described as a 7-room tenement. He lived here with his mother Maud Mary Petherick, 37, from Ipswich, Suffolk, and stepfather Arthur Petherick, born in Dorking, Surrey and 3 boarders.