Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

1916

James Trimmer

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J. Trimmer
Service no. 9374
Serjeant, The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, 1st Battalion
Born in Battersea; enlisted in London
Killed in action on 18 August 1916, aged 26
CWGC: “Son of Harry and Sophia Trimmer, of London; husband of Jane Elizabeth Trimmer, of 94 Wilcox Rd., South Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Delville Wood Cemetery, Longueval, Somme, France

Information from the 1901 census

In 1911 James Trimmer was a private in the 1st Battalion of the North Lancashire Regiment. He was stationed at the Bhurtpore Battacks, in South Tedworth, Hampshire. Meanwhile, his parents, Harry Trimmer, 53, a locomotive engine driver from Holybourne, Hampshire, and Sophia Elizabeth Trimmer (née Adams), 56, from Marylebone, London were living in four rooms at 94 Wilcox Road, South Lambeth, where they had lived since at least 1901. James was one of their three surviving children (of six).

Bertram Triance

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B. Triance
Service no. 164288
Sapper, Royal Engineers, 219th Field Coy.
Died on 19 November 1916, aged 28
CWGC: “Son of William and Jane Triance; husband of Elizabeth Daisy Triance, of 28 Chelsham Road, Clapham, London.”
Remembered at Mailly Wood Cemetery, Mailly-Maillet, Somme, France

Information from the censuses

Publisher’s clerk Bertram Triance, who was 22 in 1911, lived at 32 Army Street, Clapham with his wife Elizabeth Daisy Triance (née Salter), 22, and baby daughter, Kathleen Margaret Triance, 6 weeks. The couple went on to have three further children.

Bertram was born in Kilburn, north-west London, Elizabeth in Walworth, and Kathleen in Clapham. Ten years earlier, Bertram lived at 55 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, with his parents, William Howard Triance, 50, a coffee house keeper from Middleton, Norfolk, and Isabella Triance, 45, from Hampstead, north London. Bertram was one of at least five children.

Information from Ian Mackarel

“I am Bertram Triance’s great-grandson. My grandmother (his daughter), Jean Louise Triance (later Mackarel) recounted the circumstances of his death to me some years ago. I took some brief notes about this and other family details at the time. The account given to his family was that he was hit by an artillery shell and died instantly. I was told that he had only joined the army 6 weeks before his death following an incident at work where he was given white feathers by colleagues. He had been exempted service previously. His widow, Daisy, subsequently married James Culverwell and had other children.”

James Trace

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J. Trace
Service no. 8867
Rifleman, London Regiment (Queen’s Westminster Rifles), 1st/16th Battalions
Enlisted in Westminster; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 1 July 1916, aged about 21
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

Information from the censuses

James Trace was an office boy for a firm of solicitors. He shared four rooms at 70b Hackford Road, Stockwell with his parents and siblings. His father, unemployed cab driver John Trace, 59, was from Torbryan, Devon; his mother, Lucy Trace, 51, was from Leicestershire. Three other children lived at home: Maude Trace, 20, a dressmaker; William Trace, 18, like James a solicitor’s office boy;  and Arthur Trace, 14, an errand boy. There were seven other siblings.

James was baptised at St John the Divine, Kennington, on 4 September 1895, when his parents lived at 116 Cowley Road. At that time his father described himself as an ostler (he looked after horses at an inn).

Harold Percy Tozer

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H. P. Tozer
Second Lieutenant, Royal Flying Corps/Durham Light Infantry, 9th Battalion
Died in a flying accident on 16 December 1916, aged 25
CWGC: “Son of Henry James and Agnes Emma Tozer, of 31, Lansdowne Gardens, Clapham, London.”
Remembered at East Harnham (All Saints) Churchyard, Wiltshire

Information from the censuses

In 1911 Harold Percy Tozer, 19, a clerk for a timber merchants, lived with his parents and sister at 31 Lansdowne Gardens, Stockwell. His father, Henry James Tozer, 43, was a solicitor’s clerk from Shadwell, east London; his mother, Agnes Emma Tozer, 43, was from Ipswich. Lilian Elizabeth Tozer, Harold’s sister, was 16 and working as a clerk for a philatelist (stamp collector/dealer). Both Harold and Lilian were born in South Lambeth. The Child family lodged with the Tozers: Arthur Ernest Child, 32, a cook from Portsmouth; his wife Ethel, 32, from Egham, Surrey, and their son Leslie Eric, 8. The Tozers had been at the same address since at least 1901.

British Army WW1 Service Records 1914-1920 (Officers)

Tozer enlisted in the 4th Battalion of the Cameron Highlanders on 11 September 1914 and served for 347 days with them. He was described as 5 feet 9 inches, with a 36½ inch chest which he could expand by 3½ inches. He embarked from Southampton on 19 February 1915 and was wounded in action the following month (gunshot wound to the elbow). He was invalided back to England, to the Fairfield Hospital, Broadstairs on 18 June.

Later that year he was granted a temporary commission – 2nd Lieutenant in the Durham Light Infantry (he was gazetted on 20 August 1915). Tozer’s service from then until the accident that killed him in 1918 is not known.

Albert John Tooley

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A. J. Tooley
Service no. 1797
Private, London Regiment (County of London), 20th Battalion
Born in Stockwell; enlisted in Blackheath; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 23 January 1916, aged 23
CWGC: “Only son of John and Bessie E. Tooley, of 44 Stockwell Green, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Maroc British Cemetery, Grenay, France and St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Information from the censuses

Albert John Tooley, 18 in 1911, was a student teacher born in Stockwell. He lived in a three-roomed apartment at 14 Kimberley Road, Stockwell with his parents John Tooley, 56, a railway guard from Stockwell, and Bessie Tooley, 56, from St Columb, Cornwall. He was an only child (his parents had had two other children who died).

He was born in Stockwell on 3 May 1892 and baptised at St Andrew’s, on 29 June. 

John William Stevenson

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J. W. Stevenson
Service no. R/15974
Lance Corporal, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 12th Battalion
Born in Chelsea, west London; enlisted in London; lived in Vauxhall
Killed in action on 18 September 1916, aged about 23
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

A tentative identification.

Information from the 1911 census

John Stevenson, 18, was an assistant in a butcher shop. He was one of seven children of John Ernest Stevenson, 41, a butcher shop assistant himself, from Pimlico, and Annie Stevenson, 36, from Westminster (one child had died). All the children lived at home, including:
Henry Stevenson, 16, another butcher shop assistant
William Stevenson, 14, an errand boy and shop assistant
Annie Stevenson, 11
Ernest Stevenson, 9
Lily Stevenson, 6
Walter Stevenson, 2
All but John (Pimlico) and Walter (South Lambeth) were born in Chelsea. The family lived at 27 Thorne Street, Wandsworth Road (I am not sure of the exact location of Thorne Street and am wondering if Thorne Road is meant) Stockwell, where they had 7 rooms.