Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

1916

Charles James Stanley

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C. J. Stanley
Service no. 2862
Driver, Royal Field Artillery, 2nd/47th Div. Ammunition Col.
Died on 14 September 1916, aged about 24
Remembered at Dantzig Alley British Cemetery, Mametz, Somme, France

In 1911 Charles James Stanley, a carter for a confessioner, lived in four rooms at 23 Clarence Street, Studley Road, Stockwell with his widowed mother, Henrietta (née Coleman), 46, who was born in Lambeth, and four of his seven siblings and other members of his extended family. He was 19 and worked as a carter.

Stanley was born in 1891 and baptised at St Andrew’s, Stockwell Green on 17 May 1893. His father, William Heysed Stanley, was a house decorator and the family lived at 19 Lingham Street. 

In 1912 Charles James Stanley married Dorothy Mary Elizabeth Smith. A daughter, Dorothy Rose Muriel, was born in 1913 and a son, Charles Frederick Henry, posthumously, in 1917.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Charles James Stanley lived in four rooms at 23 Clarence Street, Studley Road with his widowed mother, Henrietta Stanley, 46, who was born in Lambeth. He was 19 and a carter. His siblings were:
William Stanley, 27, a butcher’s assistant, born in Lambeth
Minnie Stanley, 21, a “layer on”, born in Lambeth
Ernest Stanley, 11, born in Clapham
Ethel Stanley, 8, born in Stanley
Henrietta Stuart, 26, married, born in Lambeth
Henrietta Stuart’s, husband, Sidney Stuart, 27, a general labourer, born in Bermondsey
Minnie Stuart, 1, their daughter, born in Clapham
Alice Stuart, 6 months, born in Lambeth
Henrietta had had 10 children, seven surviving.

Walter Samuel Standley

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W. S. Standley
Service no. 5330
Private, London Regiment, 1st/20th Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in South Lambeth
Killed in action on 1 October 1916, aged 35
CWGC: “Son of Samuel and Ellen Standley, of 26, Priory Rd., South Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

Information from the 1911 census

Walter Standley, 28, was a railway porter. In 1911 he lived with his family at 2 Church Terrace, Union Grove, Clapham, where they had seven rooms. His parents, Samuel Standley, 55, a wheelwright and Ellen Standley, 52, both from Hethersett, Norfolk, had five surviving children (of six). There were three at home: Walter, Ida Stanley, 24, a kitchen maid, and Fred Standley, 22, a builder’s labourer, all born in Clapham. Ellen Driscoll, a 31-year-old single laundry packer born in the City of London, boarded.

Alfred Ernest Stainer

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A. E. Stainer
Service no. 17371
Private, East Surrey Regiment, 9th Battalion
Lived in Walworth; enlisted in Clapham; lived in Clapham
Died of wounds on 13 August 1916, aged 20
CWGC: “Son of Mr and Mrs F. Stainer, of 1 Paradise Road, Clapham, London.”
Remembered at Carnoy Military Cemetery, France

Alfred Ernest Brooks Stainer (sometimes Stainer-Brooks), born in Walworth, southeast London on 1 May 1896, was the  sixth of nine children of Frederick Thomas Stainer, a fishmonger from Charminster, Dorset and Angelina (née Furzard), from Melcombe Regis, Dorset. He was baptised at St Matthew’s, Newington on 3 June, when his parents gave their address as 30 Weymouth Buildings, which were in Sayer Street, Southwark.

On the night of the 1911 census the Stainer family lived in five rooms at 87 Mann Street, Walworth. The household consisted of Frank and Angelina, aged 48 and 49, and eight of their children. Alfred was employed as an office boy for a printer. A family of four had another two rooms. 

Later, the Stainers moved to 1 Paradise Road, Stockwell.

Reginald Charles Southon

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R. C. Southon
Service no. 13008
Private, Essex Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Born in Hampstead, enlisted in Westminster, lived in Stockwell
Killed in action on 23 October 1916, aged about 19
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, France

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Reginald Charles Southon, 14, was an errand boy living at 27 Rossiter Road, Balham, where his family shared 5 rooms. He was born in Hampstead, north London. His father, John Charles Southon, 46, was a gas meter maker born in Clerkenwell, married for a year to Reginald’s stepmother, Olivia Estall, 48, from Peterborough. Reginald had a younger brother, Ernest John Southon, 12, born in Clerkenwell. Sarah Combs Tournies, 79, a widow from Lambeth, boarded with the family.

Harold Measday Snelling

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H.M. Snelling
Rifleman, London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s Rifles), 1st/9th Bn.
Service no. 4746
Killed in action on 1 July 1916, aged XX
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France, at Sandwich War Memorial and on a now lost wooden war crucifix outside St Anne’s Church, South Lambeth Road

Cousin of Frederick William Snelling and William Thomas Snelling

Chris Burge writes:

Harold Measday Snelling was born in Ramsgate, Kent in 1898, the third child of Frederick and Ellen Sophia (née Rogers) Snelling. In the 1901 census, Frederick worked as a baker and confectioner from premises at 15 King Street in the centre of Ramsgate, two doors from the Prince Albert public house. Ellen’s younger sister Rose Rogers assisted with the business as did a journeyman baker and his sister. 

By 1911 the Snelling family had moved to the more genteel surroundings of the market town of Sandwich, where Frederick ran his bakery from 9 The Cattle Market, in the heart of of the town. Frederick and Ellen were now 43 and had been married 20 years. Frederick listed his three children (one had died) in age order on his 1911 census return: Winifred, 19; Frederick John, 16; Harold, 13. He added Annie Lilian Rogers, his wife’s younger sister, as a visitor. Ellen, Winifred and Frederick John all worked in the business. The family were the sole occupants of the five-room property. 

According to the 1911 census returns, Ellen managed to be in two places at once on census day. She also appeared as a visitor on the return of Frederick’s brother, Charles Henry Snelling, whose family were living at 154 Glengall Road, Peckham. Frederick William and William Thomas were two of Charles Henry Snelling’s six children.

Charles Henry Snelling and family moved to 260 South Lambeth Road around 1914 at which time Harold Snelling seemed to be living with his uncle and working in London. Harold was baptised as an adult at St Anne’s, South Lambeth, on 22 December 1914. His cousin Frederick William Snelling, a civil service clerk, had volunteered at the beginning of the war. Harold volunteered around May 1915 in Central London joining the Queen Victoria’s Rifles. He was drafted to the 1st/9th Battalion in France on 30 March 1916, joining the battalion in a group of 38 men. The QVR were out of the line for most of March, April and until they moved to Hebuterne, south of Gommecourt, at the end of May. They suffered numerous casualties in the front line until the final week of June when the QVR were digging service and assembly trenches in preparation for the beginning of the Somme offensive. On 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the QVR were part of the ill-fated diversionary attack at the northern extreme of the Somme sector at Gommecourt. The battalion suffered horrendous casualties in one day’s fighting. Among the officers six were killed, five were wounded and five missing; in other ranks 51 were killed, 290 wounded and 188 missing; a total of 16 officers and 529 men. Harold Measday Snelling, an acting corporal at the time, was posted missing on this day . 

An article appeared in the Deal, Walmer & Sandwich Mercury on 26 August 1916, entitled, ‘SANDWICH LAD MISSING’: 

‘The following appears in the “St Anne’s (South Lambeth) Parish Magazine’ for August regarding the youngest son of Mr. Frank Snelling, baker, of the Cattle Market, Sandwich, who was recently announced missing:- “News reaches us that Harold Snelling. A member of our choir and A.S.M of our scouts, has been posted missing since July 1. He was in the Queen Victoria Rifles somewhere in France. We fear there is not much hope of his having been saved. It is just possible that he may be a prisoner of war, but confess it is unlikely. We are very sorry, and yet not a little proud. He was one of those people who do not talk a lot, but put a lot of reality into anything they undertake. Not least did Harold count his faith in Jesus Christ, and so we confidently believe he is all right where-ever he is.’

In the course of time, Harold Measday Snelling was officially presumed to have died on, or since, 1 July 1916. His cousin Frederick William Snelling was killed on the Somme on 18 September 1916 and another cousin, William Thomas Snelling, was killed in 1917 during 3rd Ypres.

Frederick William Snelling

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F. W. Snelling
Service no.1676
Lance Corporal, London Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles), 1st/15th Battalion
Died on 18 September 1916
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France and on the St Michael’s Church War Shrine, Stockwell Park Road

Frederick William Snelling was born on 3 November 1891 in Mile End, east London, the second son of Charles Henry Snelling, a grocer born in Ramsgate, Kent, and Emily Jane Snelling (née Knudson), from Limehouse, east London. He was baptised at St Anne’s, Limehouse on 6 December at which time the family lived at 121 Canal Street.

In 1911 the family were living at 154 Glengall Road in Peckham, southeast London. Nineteen-year-old Frederick worked as a ‘boy clerk’ in the Post Office. There were five other children (one had died as a young child), including William Thomas Snelling, then 16, a junior clerk for a law firm; an older brother, Charles Henry, who was a 21-year-old undergraduate at the University of London; and three sisters, Elsie Emily, 11, Ethel Mary, three, and Ethel May, nine months. Charles Henry Snr was now a timekeeper for a lock and safe company. The Snelling family later moved to 260 South Lambeth Road, Stockwell.

Frederick enlisted at Duke Street in the West End of London served in Europe from 18 March 1915 to the day of his death, 18 September 1916. 

At the time the 1939 Register was conducted, Charles and Emily Snelling were living at 44 Lansdowne Way, Stockwell with their youngest daughter, Emily May (later Bragg). Charles Snelling died in 1941 in Lambeth at the age of 76, and Emily in Folke stone, Kent in 1954, aged 87.

Brother of William Thomas Snelling and cousin of Harold Measday Snelling