Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

1916

Edward Arthur Cunningham

by

E.A. Cunningham
Rifleman, London Regiment (City of London Rifles), 1st/6th Bn.
Service No. 3362
Died 15 September 1916, aged about 21
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

Chris Burge writes:

Edward Arthur Cunningham was born in Stockwell in 1895, the only child of Arthur and Fanny. He was baptised in Kent, his mother’s place of birth, with the given names Arthur Edward Reuben on 20 October 1895.  In 1901, the family lived at 8 Burgoyne Road along with eight members of the Higgs family. 

In the 1911 census, the  Cunninghams were still with his parents at 8 Burgoyne Road, where they occupied three rooms.  Edward was a Law Stationer’s apprentice and his father Arthur worked as a weighbridge clerk for Lambeth Borough Council.  

In early 1915 Edward, then aged 20, went to the drill hall at 57a Farringdon Road to volunteer for the City of London Rifles (CLR), referred to as the ‘printers’ battalion’ because many of its members were recruited from Eyre & Spottiswoode’s printing works. The battalion was already in France but was recruiting for the 3rd line reserves. Edward was with a draft of men sent to France on 28 October, a month after the CLR had suffered terrible casualties at the Battle of Loos.  Periods of line holding were interspersed with rest and training. On 30 April the following year a mine exploded under their position near Vimy Ridge causing over 80 casualties. In July 1916 they moved south to begin training for the ongoing Somme offensive. On 15 September, 47th Division attacked High Wood to cover the left flank of the tank-led attack of the adjacent divisions at Flers. The 1/6th pressed on, but ‘whole waves of men were mown down in line’ by machine-gun fire.  Edward was killed in action on that day. 

Edward’s parents moved to Dulwich  after the war. Arthur is thought to have died in 1937, aged 67.  Fanny died in 1942, aged 69.

James William Cummins

by

J. W. Cummins
Service no. 2033
Corporal, London Regiment, 22nd Battalion
Died age 31 on 20 May 1916
Husband of Edith Cummins, of South Lambeth, London.
Remembered at Bruay Communal Cemetery Extension, France

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 James William Cummins, then 26, born in Lambeth, was married and living with his family in 2 rooms at 191 South Lambeth Road. He was a foreman in a coffee husking mill. His wife, Edith Cummins, 25, was born in Battersea. Their baby son, Leslie Cummins, 4 months, was born in Lambeth. Margaret Stevens, a 29-year-old single domestic cook from Dundalk, County Louth, was visiting.

James and Edith had three further children, born between 1912 and 1916. 

Abraham Crocker

by

A. Crocker
Service no. 5308
Private, London Regiment, 1st/20th Battalion
Died aged about 33 on 1 October 1916
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, France

Information from the censuses

In 1911 Abraham Crocker, from Crewkerne, Somerset, was employed as a carman for a building contractor. He lived at 2 Layham Cottage, Stockwell with his brother, John Crocker, 45, a labourer at a brewery, and his sister-in-law Annie Crocker, 46, also born in Crewkerne. The family lived in 4 rooms. The children of John and Annie Crocker were
Elise Annie Crocker, 13
Mabel Elizabeth Crocker, 12
Gladys Sarah Crocker, 11
Florence Crocker, registered on the 1901 census as 2 months old, does not appear on the 1911 census. The family were then living at 22 Carroun Road. All the children were born in Lambeth.

William Anthony Cox

by

W. A. Cox
Service No. L/15560
Private, Middlesex Regiment, 12th Bn.
Died 26 September 1916, aged about 21
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

Chris Burge writes:

William Anthony Cox was born in Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland in 1895, the first child of James and Alice Cox. William’s father was a serving soldier and all four of their children were born in Ireland. In 1901 the family were living in married quarters at the Shorncliffe Army Camp in Kent.  

In the 1911 census, James and Alice lived with their three surviving children, William, Elena and Jim in Ramsgate on the coast. William was working as gardener; his father, an Army Pensioner, worked was a valet attendant. It is not known when the family came to the Stockwell area, but James Cox appeared on the electoral roll in 1915, living at 15 Portland Place South, South Lambeth.

William Cox’s service number indicates he volunteered in either late April or early May 1915.  Ready, or not, he was posted to the 1st Middlesex in France on 29 September, just five days after the 1st Middlesex had suffered terrible losses at the Battle of Loos.  Several quiet months followed and the  early part of 1916 was mostly spent in the Cuinchy sector.  William Cox’s transfer to the 12th Middlesex by September 1916 suggests he may have been wounded at some stage and did not return to his original battalion. The 12th Middlesex were among the forces that attacked Thiepval on 26 September, advancing uphill under a creeping barrage with the support of a single tank, first used by the British Army in battle 11 days earlier.  The majority of the 138 men killed that day are remembered on the Thiepval Memorial.  

William Anthony Cox was initially posted missing, leaving his family in an emotional limbo his death was presumed to have occurred on 26 September 1916.

James and Alice Cox remained at 15 Portland Place South until at least 1927.  

Albert Tom William Cook

by

A. T. W. Cook
Service no. Z/447
Rifleman, Rifle Brigade, 1st Battalion
Died on 11 July 1916
Remembered at Lambeth (Tooting) Cemetery, London SW17

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

COOK, A. T. W., Rifleman, Rifle Brigade.
He volunteered in 1914 and was drafted to the Western Front the following year. During his service in France he fought at Ypres and was severely wounded in the Battle of the Somme. He was invalided home to hospital and subsequently succumbed to his injuries in July 1916. He was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, and the General Service and Victory Medals.
“Whilst we remember, the sacrifice is not in vain.”
23, Brooklands Road, South Lambeth, S.W.8.