Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

1917

Albert Edward Hills

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A. E. Hills
Service no. 62590
Private, Royal Fusiliers, 9th Battalion
Died 15 June 1917, aged about 21
Remembered at Niederzwehren Cemetery, Kassel, Germany

This identification was made by Chris Burge, who writes:

Albert Edward Hills was born in 1896, then the youngest of the six children of parents Eugene Frederick (aka Thomas) and Sarah Hills. Albert was baptised as an infant on 20 May 1896 at St Stephen’s Church, South Lambeth. The family were then living in Beech Street. Albert’s sister Ethel, born around 1899, was the final addition to the family.

The 1911 census finds Albert living with his father, sisters Alice and Ethel, and older brother James. His father worked as a slater, James as a bricklayer’s labourer and Albert was 14-year-old office boy. The five adults occupied five rooms at 7 Beech street, South Lambeth (the address no loner exist but it was off the south side of Dorset Road), an area of social deprivation according to Charles Booth’s earlier poverty map.

Whether Albert was conscripted in 1916 or volunteered at the end of 1915 is not known. In any case, he appears to have initially enlisted at Westminster, London, joining the 2 Battalion, County of London Yeomanry as Private 2829, Hills. This was a training unit sending drafts of men to the front at regular intervals. The medal roll entry for Albert shows he was in France by 10 January 1917 and posted to the 9/Royal Fusiliers on 6 February as private 62590, Hills. It was Albert’s fate to be thrown into the cauldron of the Arras offensive in April and May of 1917.

Albert Edward Hills was taken prisoner near Monchy on 3 May 1917 with a grenade wound in the right knee. He was moved from Limberg to Hameln POW camp. He developed tetanus and died in the camp hospital on 15 June 1917 and was originally buried in the Hameln camp cemetery.

Albert’s father and sister Alice continued to live at 7 Beech Street in the 1920s, and later at Alverstone House, Lambeth. Albert’s father Eugene Frederick Hills passed away in 1941, aged 82.

Harold Joseph Hill

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H. J. Hill
(Harold Joseph Hill)
Service no. 43809
Lance Corporal, Machine Gun Corp, 53rd Coy.
Born in Wandsworth; enlisted in Stockwell
Died of wounds on 17 May 1917, aged 21
Son of Joseph Snare Hill and Emma Elizabeth Hill, of 32 Herbert Road, Stockwell, London.
Remembered at Mont Huon Military Cemetery, Le Treport, France

world war one soldier harold hill's family in 1916
Harold hill's family 1916

Information from the 1911 census
In 1911 the Hill family lived at 153 Trentham Street, Wandsworth, where they occupied 5 rooms. Joseph Snare Hill, 57, was an ornamental plasterer. He was born in Westminster. His second wife, Emma Elizabeth Hill, 55, was from Hanwell, Middlesex. Joseph Hill had a three children by a previous marriage to Sarah (Arthur Frank, Florence and Ethel Mary (who is on the census return for this address, aged 27, born in Clapham and working as a ledger clerk).
Joseph and Emma had 2 children surviving in 1911 (of 3):
Henrietta Emma Hill, 18, a compiling clerk, born in Wandsworth
Harold Joseph Hill, 14, a student, born in Wandsworth

title page of The British Army From Within
The British Army From Within

THE INSCRIPTION

About 15 years ago, in the 50p box of an Oxfam shop on the Isle of Wight, Peter M-D found a copy of The British Army from Within by E. Charles Vivian, published around 1914, just as the Great War was starting. He bought it for the inscription alone.

Inside the front cover H H has been written in bold letters. Below, in a different handwriting, is “Harry got his wishes. Harry got one stripe. He got to fire the machine guns.”

Below that, in the same handwriting but different coloured ink, is “Harry got his name on the memorial in Stockwell.”

He felt compelled to find out more.

At that time, the vast resources of the internet were not available, so he went to Stockwell and made a list of all the names with the initials HH. Then he spent a day in the reading room of the Imperial War Museum and after a few hours found his man and solved the riddle.

“He had one stripe so was a lance corporal,” says Peter. “He fired a machine gun so had to be in the MGC – the Machine Gun Corps. His name was Harry. Lance Corporal Harold Joseph Hill MGC 4309 born May 17th 1896 died of wounds May 17th 1917. He is buried in Mont Huon Military Cemetery in Le Treport, France. I was in Normandy a few years ago and I went to pay my respects.”

“I found a reference giving the name of the base hospital where he died – near Le Treport – and that his mother was present at his death from gangrene. I made a note of it on paper, entered it onto my database, moved house four times, had hard drive failure – and the reference is lost. The hospital is easy, it was the one they built of wood and canvas near Le Treport. At the end of the war they took it down and all they left behind were the graves. When I visited, the cemetery was in a thousand-acre cabbage field miles away from anywhere.

“The book had been smoke damaged and then water damaged, so I suspect it had been in a house fire. Harry Hill lived in 32 Herbert Road, Stockwell, which I think was damaged during the Blitz so maybe that was the cause.”

Herbert Road, now gone, ran almost parallel with Sidney Road, between Stockwell Road and Aytoun Road.

SERVICE RECORDS

Peter was told that Harry’s military records were destroyed during the Blitz along with 85 per cent of the Machine Gun Corps archives. However,
Harry’s service record has survived in the National Archives although, like many others, they are badly smoke and water damaged during a bombing raid. These records tell us more about Harry the person.

Harold Joseph Hill worked for the Admiralty as a clerk. On 13 November 1915, the day Hill volunteered, J. S. Barnes, Head of War Registry, wrote a careful note: “Mr. H. J. Hill has received permission to leave the Admiralty in order to elist in the army.” Later, on 9 December 1915, they made a request, which sets out all the possibilities for their former clerk, aside from survival: “43809 H. J. Hill. Please notify Admiralty in event of this man’s discharge, death etc, or of his being granted a commission or being reported missing or a prisoner of war.”

This duly happened, with a note coming back on 6 June 1917 addressed to the Secretary, Admiralty, Whitehall: “With reference to your letter of the 9th December, 1915, ref number 4E 5800/1914, I deeply regret to inform you that No. 43809 L/Cpl Harold Joseph Hill, MGC, formerly No 5131 2nd London Regiment, has been reported to this office as having Died of Wounds on the 17th May, 1917, at No. 3 General Hospital, Le Treport, France. Lieut. for Colonel i/c of Records, MGC, 91 York St, SW.”

Harry’s records show that he was wounded in action on 6 May and was admitted to hospital with gunshot wounds to the abdomen, forearm and back the following day. He died 10 days later.

The records also show that Harry was, at 5 feet 5 inches (165cm), above average height and weighed 119lbs (54kg). His chest measurement was 33 inches (84cm), which he could expand 2 inches (5cm). He signed up at 9 Tufton Street, London SW1 (it is just behind Horseferry Parade). He had one sibling: Henrietta, 26, who lived at Herbert Road.

CENSUS INFORMATION

The 1901 census shows that the Hill family was then living at 23, Tonsley Road. Harry Hill’s father, Joseph Suare Hill, was a plasterer, born in Westminster in 1854. His mother, Emma, was born in Hanwell in 1856. Emma’s pension declaration of 18 April 1919 states that Harry had only one sibling – Henrietta, born in 1893 in Wandsworth. However, the census shows that he had two other siblings: Albert F. Hill, 19, a flour merchant’s clerk, born in Battersea in 1882, and Ethel M. Hill, 17, a tea merchant’s clerk, born in Clapham.

By 1911 the family had moved to 153 Trentham Street, Streatham, Joseph Suare Hill had died and Albert had left home or was otherwise absent from the house, Ethel was working as a ledger clerk, and Henrietta was now a “compiling clerk”. By 1911 his father, Joseph Suare Hill, was deceased.

William Alfred Haynes

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W. A. Haynes
Service no. 12374
Lance Corporal, Bedfordshire Regiment, 4th Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Lambeth
Killed in action 30 October 1917
Remembered at Tyne Cot Memorial, near Ypres, Belgium

A tentative identification, awaiting more supporting evidence.

George John Hatch

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G. J. Hatch
Lieutenant, Royal Flying Corps and London Regiment, 17th Battalion
Died age 20 on 6 April 1917
CWGC: “Son of John Cosens Hatch and Maria Hatch, of “Meadlands,” Pickwick, Corsham, Wilts. Born in London.”
In 1917 the death of George John Hatch was announced on page 1078 of Flight, listed in the Roll of Honour among those “Previously missing, now reported killed”.
Remembered at Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, Pas de Calais, France.

Information from the 1911 census

The Hatch family lived at 9 St Johns Road (now called St John’s Crescent), Brixton, where they had 11 rooms. George John Hatch’s father, John Cosens Hatch, was the manager of a vinegar brewery. We can speculate that this may have been Beaufoy’s Distillery on South Lambeth Road. John Hatch, 48 in 1911, was born in Stonehouse, Devon. His wife Maria Hatch, 49, was from Southwark. They had 4 children, all born in Lambeth:
Florence Hatch, 25
Hilda Hatch, 23
William E. Hatch, 19, a bank clerk
George John Hatch, 14
A nephew, 33-year-old George Foster, single and born in Peckham, also lived in the house, as did Violet Winter, a 21-year-old single domestic servant from Chelmsford, Essex.

Information about George Hatch from specialist watch collector Robert Stokes

Lt. George John Hatch (Nov 20, 1896 – April 6, 1917) was a WW1 Royal Flying Corps aerial reconnaissance pilot who was killed in action over Arras, France by German war ace Lieutenant Wilhelm Frankl. George’s death (and that of his observer Cpl Ernest Langridge) was part of the “Bloody April 1917” offensive along a 100-mile stretch of northern France. By the end of April, the British had lost 250 aircraft, and some 400 aircrew had become casualties.

George was born in Brixton, London in 1896; by 1911, his family moved to Stockwell. He attended City of London School, where he was a cadet in the Officers Training Corps. On Oct 1, 1914, George enlisted in the 17th (County of London) Battalion of the London Regiment (Poplar and Stepney Rifles), and was quickly promoted to 2nd Lieutenant. He was wounded in July 1915 at the Battle of Loos (Belgium).

Lt. Hatch volunteered to join the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in October 1916, and completed his pilot training in November. On December 6, 1916, he was promoted as a Lieutenant and assigned to the 8th Squadron, headquartered in Bellevue, France. “The Squadron specialized in the Corps Reconnaissance role, carrying out contact patrols and artillery spotting in close cooperation with the army. The squadron flew in support of the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916 and the Battle of Arras in April–May 1917.”

George Hatch’s watch

George Hatch acquired his trench watch shortly after his promotion to the RFC; it is engraved “Lt. G. J. Hatch / RFC”. He used it continuously; the silver case is corroded and the original leather strap is well-worn. Hatch’s watch was acquired by Russ Cook (Basildon, Essex) in 2014 at a second-hand market: “I recently bought this trench watch at one such market. I am not an expert on these, but it felt right, and I was very taken with the very sad story that emerged when I read the accompanying paperwork. The box, with the watch had just been thrown in another larger box, as if it had just been discarded. On the case back is a dedication to an officer in the RFC, Lt. G. J. Hatch [Royal Flying Corps, precursor to the RAF], with a very old handwritten note giving the history of the young man, who tragically was killed in action 6/4/17….”

Inside a small (3 ½” x 1 ½” x 2”) leather-covered box, Russ found Lt Hatch’s watch, and the following hand-written note: “Lt. George John Hatch R.F.C. ~~  K in A 6/14/17 ~~ 17th County of London Battalion ~~ The London Regiment Poplar and Stepney Rifles”

The events of April 6, 1917

Lt Hatch and his observer, Cpl Ernest Langridge, were flying reconnaissance over the German lines near Arras, France in their Royal Aircraft Factory BE2e biplane (Serial # A2879) on the morning of April 6, 1917. “The BE2 was originally designed without any provision for armament.While some crews flew entirely unarmed, or perhaps carried service revolvers or automatic pistols, others armed themselves with hand-wielded rifles… this weaponry proved to be of questionable effectiveness. It was still necessary for the observer to be located over the center of gravity, in front of the pilot… In this awkward position, his view was poor, and the degree to which he could handle a camera (or, later, a gun) was hampered by the struts and wires supporting the center section of the top wing. In practice, the pilot of a B.E.2 almost always operated the camera, and the observer, when he was armed at all, had a rather poor field of fire to the rear, having, at best, to shoot back over his pilot’s head.”

Lt Wilhelm Frankl

Lt Wilhelm Frankl, commander of Jasta 4  (“Hunting Squadron”), had already shot down three British aircraft with his Albatros fighter plane during the early morning hours of  Friday, April 6, 1917. “At 09:30 Frankl was airborne again, this time to intercept a reconnaissance  plane from 8 Sqn RFC. After 25 minutes’ chase the British aircraft falls to the ground north-east of Boiry. The crew – Lt. G. J. Hatch and Cpl. E. Landridge – do not survive. It is the fourth victory scored on this day by Lt. Frankl…”

Lt. Frankl, son of a Jewish merchant, was one of Germany’s most honored Aces, with 20 confirmed kills. In 1916, he becomes the first and sole German pilot of Jewish descent to be awarded the Pour le Mérite. He was shot down and killed two days later on Easter Sunday 1917. “He was buried with due military honors at the Berlin-Charlottenburg cemetery… In the thirties, after the Nazi party gained power, Frankl’s name disappeared from the official lists of medal holders because of his Jewish nationality. Only forty years later, in 1973, was Frankl restored to the pantheon of German fighter ace.”

Lt George Hatch and Cpl. Ernest Landridge were buried at the Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery lies just south of the town of Souchez and 11.4 km. north of the center of Arras.

With grateful thanks to Robert Stokes for permission to use his research.

Arthur Pearce Harold

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A. P. Harold
Service no. 320761
Private, Norfolk Regiment, 12th (Norfolk Yeomanry) Battalion
Born in Reading, Berkshire
Killed in action around age 34 on 9 December 1917
Remembered at Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel

Information from the censuses

Arthur Pearce Harold, 28, a newspaper clerk, was born in Reading, Berkshire. In 1911 he lived in 3 rooms at 13 Prideaux Road, Stockwell with his parents, Edward Charles Harold, 64, a chemist’s assistant from Tonbridge Wells, Kent, and Elizabeth Ann Harold, 62, a music teacher from Maidstone, Kent, and his sister, Margaret Gibson Harold, a 25-year-old post office clerk, born in Tunbridge Wells. This is one of the few examples where all members of the household have given occupations, including the women. Edward and Elizabeth Harold had had 5 children, with only Arthur and Margaret surviving in 1911.