Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

1917

Frederick Walter Grey

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F. W. Gray
Service no. 35426
Private, Essex Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Clapham; enlisted in Clapham
Died age 34 on 12 April 1917
CWGC: “Husband of Alice Gertrude Gray, of 43, High St., Marylebone, London.”
Remembered at Athies Communal Cemetery Extension, Pas de Calais, France

Frederick James Grant (Frederick Vincent Grant)

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F. J. Grant
Service no. 654451
Rifleman, London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles), 2nd/21st Bn
Died 30 December 1917, aged 24
Remembered at Chatby Memorial, Egypt

This identification was made by Chris Burge, who writes:

Frederick James Grant was born on 26 March 1893, the first son of Frederick James and Eliza Rose Grant. Frederick was baptised when nearly three years old at St Barnabas, Kennington, on 16 January 1896 when the family was living at 18 Thorne Street. By 1901, Frederick was one of six children and the family lived at 12 Vauxhall Walk, a densely populated area running along the Albert Embankment with its gasworks, distillery and crossed by the London & South Western Railway. Fredrick’s father made his living as a railway carter.

By the time of the 1911 census, the Grant family appeared to have fallen on hard times. Both Frederick and his father were out of work and while his mother Eliza Rose continued to find work as a charwoman. Somehow Frederick’s mother had managed to raise seven children (three others had died). The family of nine persons lived in just four rooms at 51 Conroy Street. The address no longer exist but it was close to Fountain Street, off the Wandsworth Road, and around half a mile from what would become the site of the Stockwell War memorial.

Frederick’s circumstances seems to have driven him into Army, as he enlisted in 1912 joining the Royal Fusiliers. When and how this service ended is not known, but he had sufficient reason not to disclose his real name when he joined the Army a second time, enlisting at Camberwell using the alias of Frederick Vincent, some time late in 1916 or early 1917.

Late in 1917, Frederick James Grant (aka Fredrick Vincent) was one of around 2,200 troops who boarded HMT Aragon at Marseilles, bound for Egypt. Reaching Malta on December 23, a few days where spent celebrating Christmas. Disaster struck on 30 December abut 10 miles outside Alexandria port when the Aragon was stuck by enemy torpedoes. The vessel sunk in twenty minutes. Frederick James Grant was one of the 610 to die that day.

It is the Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects that reveals Frederick James Grant served as Frederick Vincent. The £3 war gratuity paid to his father Frederick at the end of 1919, indicates he had served for no more than 12 months at the time of his death.

Frederick’s parents had continued to live in Conroy Street throughout the Great War and after. Fredrick’s mother Eliza Rose passed away in 1926 aged 55, and his father Frederick James Grant passed way in 1938, aged 72.

Robert Grainger

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R. Grainger
Private, East Surrey Regiment, 1st Bn.
Service no. 201552.
Died on 18 July 1917, aged 31
Remembered at Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

Brother of John Albert Grainger

Chris Burge writes:

Robert Grainger, the first child of Robert Grainger and Amelia Sarah Lea, was born on 17 March 1866 and baptised four days later at St Andrew’s, Lambeth, when the family address was recorded as 17 Windmill Street and Robert Snr worked as a carman (carter). 

In 1891, the Grainger family lived at 83 Thomas Street (now Warham Street) near Kennington Oval. They later moved to 16 Surrey Lodge, a complex of social housing on Kennington Road.

School records show Robert and his next youngest brother Frederick attending nearby Walnut Tree School in 1893. Robert stayed with his family during their various moves over the following years until on 19 March 1907 he walked the short distance from his home in the Hayles Buildings on St George’s Road, across the busy Elephant and Castle junction to the Army recruiting office at 38 New Kent Road. Within a week he had been posted to the depot of the Lincolnshire Regiment. He was discharged medically unfit after just 163 days. 

At the outbreak of the war, Robert and his younger brother John were living near Clapham Junction railway complex and working as goods porters. In December 1915, Robert Grainger attested in the final days of Lord Derby’s Group Scheme, with the obligation to come if called up later on. His medical, which took place at Wandsworth Town Hall on 12 December 1915, recorded him as 29 years and 9 months, 5ft 9in tall, 10 stone, with a 37in chest and physically strong but with bad teeth.

He was issued with a grey armband with a red crown, and have his National Registration card stamped, “ATTESTED 12 DEC 1915”. His call-up date followed Lord Derby’s group schedule and Robert reported to the Wimbledon recruitment centre on 1 March 1916. Robert Grainger was now private 3806 of the 3/5th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment. 

There was no immediate expectation that this Territorial Force unit would go overseas. It moved to Cambridge on 1 January 1916, then Crowborough and was in Tonbridge by October 1916. A year after Robert was first in uniform, on 27 December 1916, he married Beatrice Harriet Salmon at St Jude’s, Southwark. The couple gave their address as 63 Hayles Street, which was Beatrice’s home. Robert had first met Beatrice when they were both living in the Hayles Building some nine years before, when she was just 16. 

Robert was a trained signaller and was sent to France on 29 March 1917 (he was renumbered 201552). He had been in the Arras sector when he was posted from the 7th East Surrey to the no. 1 company of the 1st Bn East Surrey on 10 June 1917, they were north-east of Arras. June had ended with a quiet five days in trenches opposite the shattered Fresnoy Wood. Specific mention was made of good communications between HQ and front companies by use of ‘Fullerphones’, buzzer, pigeon and lamp. Early in July, orders were received that a ‘two company’ strength raid was to be made on enemy trenches at Fresnoy. Preparations and training followed after nos. 1 and 4 company had been chosen for the task. Bad weather delayed the raid from the 15th to 4am on the 18th. The raid casualties were two officers wounded, other ranks four killed, 20 wounded and 14 missing. The missing were not thought to have survived. 

On 18 July 1917 Beatrice was informed that her husband had been reported missing. She was left waiting for further news, her hopes fading as the months past until finally Robert Grainger was officially presumed to have died on or since 18 July 1917. 

German documents show that Robert did die on that day. His identity disc was retrieved when his body was buried and returned to British authorities. The disc was the only possession returned to Beatrice. Inexplicably this happened twice, once in July 1918 and again in November 1920. On both occasions Beatrice dutifully acknowledged receipt of the item posted to her address at 52 Hayle Buildings, St. Georges Road SE 11. 

In order to receive her husband’s Plaque and Roll, Beatrice was obliged to complete Army Form W5080, a statement naming all living relatives of a deceased soldier. Beatrice took the completed form to St. Jude’s Vicarage in Southwark to be witnessed and countersigned on 9 October 1919. Apart from herself, she listed Robert’s parents and his four remaining siblings who all lived at various addresses in Stockwell. 

Beatrice Harriet Grainger did not remarry and remained in Southwark for many years. She died in 1971, aged 

John Albert Grainger

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J. A. Grainger

Private, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 6th Bn.
Service no. G/14181
Died on 12 July 1917, aged 26
Remembered at Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais France

Brother of Robert Grainger

Chris Burge writes:

John Albert Grainger was born in 1891 and baptised in Kennington on 25 January, the fourth child of Robert and Amelia Sarah (née Lea) Grainger. John’s father, who was born in Cork, Ireland was a carter; his mother, Amelia, was born in Clerkenwell. 

In the 1891 census, the Grainger family were living at 83 Thomas Street (now Warham Street) in the parish of St Mark’s, Kennington, close to the open space of Kennington Park and the Oval Cricket Ground. 

By the time of the 1901 census, there had been two more additions to the family. The Grainger family had moved to 14 Mitre Street, North Lambeth, close to Waterloo Station. John’s father was recorded as a cartage foreman and his older brothers Robert Jr and Frederick worked as errand boys or porters. When the social researcher Charles Booth visited the area in 1899 he described Mitre Street as having ‘a few fairly comfortable remaining but the majority [were] poor to very poor’. 

The Grainger family soon moved to Weston Street, close to London Bridge Station, and by 1907 were living in the Hayles Buildings, St George’s Road. 

In the 1911 census, the Grainger family had returned to Kennington and were living at 236 Hillingdon Street. John’s father Robert Snr described his occupation as a ‘Cartage manager for the Railway’. All six of their surviving children (Amelia had given birth to 11 in total), lived in the family home. Robert Jnr, 25, was a cellarman; Frederick, 24, a porter; Amelia, 21, a tobacco worker; John, 20, a porter; Alfred, 20, and Benjamin, 15, Post Office telegraph messengers. They shared five rooms and another family of three shared just one room at the same address. 

After the outbreak of war, John’s parents moved to Morat Street and then Camellia Street, near Nine Elms. Robert Jnr had been living with his younger brother John at 16 Bramfield Road, Clapham, half a mile from the Clapham Junction railway complex where the brothers worked as ‘goods porters’. 

Robert Jnr attested under the Derby Scheme (see Alfred Thomas Evans) on 12 December 1915, and was not called up until 1 March the following year. Six weeks later John, then aged 25, was conscripted. After reporting locally, he was directed to Kingston where he joined the Royal West Surrey Regiment. His details were recorded in the pages of the Surrey Recruitment Registers: he was 5ft 11in, 144llb, with a chest size of 37in. He was assigned to the 12th Battalion.

Little is known of John’s military service after this, other than at some stage he was posted to the 6th Battalion RWS as private G/14181, J. Grainger. The 6 RWS were involved the Arras offensive in April and May 1917 on its southern extreme, near St Leger. After a period of rest, on 1 July they returned to the front line trenches south-east of Arras. Their part of the trench was attacked and shelled on the 11th and 12th. Casualties reported were: ‘4 OR killed and 3 wounded’. 

At the end of the war, John’s parents should have received his medals and war gratuity. But there is no entry for Private 14181 J. Grainger in the Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects. Some time after his parents  moved from Stockwell to Norwood Amelia applied for her son’s medals. They were finally issued on 17 February 1930. The Arras Memorial was not unveiled until 31 July 1932.

Arthur Laurence Gooding

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A. L. Gooding
Information from Soldiers Died in the Great War and Ireland’s Memorial Records, 1914-1918
Service no. 42122
Formerly 34611, K.R.R.C.
Rifleman, Royal Irish Rifles
Killed in action 7 June 1917