Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

1917

Alfred Thomas Evans

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A. T. Evans
Rifleman, London Regiment (London Irish Rifles), 2nd/18th Bn.
Service no. 593075
Died 23 December 1917, aged 19
Remembered at Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel

Alfred Thomas Evans was born in 1898 and baptised at St Paul’s, Clapham on 1 May. He was the youngest of William Charles and Mary Evans’ four sons. The family lived in six rooms above their grocery shop at 270 Wandsworth Road.  

In the 1911 census, Alfred, then 13, lived at home with this parents and older brothers William Charles, Bertram Horace and Henry Edgar.  His father, a tea dealer and grocer, ran the family business with the assistance of his son William. Bertram worked as an engineer, and Henry was a leather worker. 

The shop lay between New Road and Howard Street, with a butcher and baker to either side. The Bell public house was two doors away and is still standing. The atmosphere of the area can be judged from this 1910 photograph.

October 1911 brought sadness for the family when Bertram, the second son, died aged 21. He was buried at Norwood Cemetery. Happier times followed when Alfred’s older brother William married Ada Florence Hall at St Philips, Balham, on 23 March 1913. Their first child was born in January 1914.  

William seems to have made a last-minute decision to attest on 9 December 1915, under Lord Derby’ scheme, two days before its closure. The scheme, devised because recruitment was not keeping pace with casualties, urged men aged 18 to 41 who were not in a reserved occupation to come forward, on the understanding that single men would be called up before married men or widowers with children. William was not called up until the beginning of 1917.

Alfred was conscripted in mid-1916, enlisting in London. His first destination was Salonika by ship across the Mediterranean, landing on 30 March 1917.  His battalion moved to Egypt on 12 June, landing at Alexandria, and entrained for Ismalia where they settled in at Moscar Camp the following day. 

The comforts of the camp were described by one soldier: ‘Moscar, itself, was a permanent camp of tents with ample accommodation for everyone and water to be had by merely turning on a tap. Melons and fruit in abundance and in great variety and ideal swimming in Lake Timsah only a short distance away…’

What followed was the Battle of Sheria in November and the assault to capture Jerusalem in December.  

News reached the Evans family that Alfred’s older brother William had been wounded in the head and was invalided to England on 16 December 1917.  A week later,  at Christmas time, William and Mary received the news that Alfred had been killed in action on Christmas Eve, near Jerusalem.  

Alfred’s brothers William and Henry ran the family business in the Wandsworth Road for many years after the war. His father died in 1931, aged 67,  Henry in 1940, aged 47, and William in 1963, aged 75.

Frederick Thomas Elson

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F. T. Elson
Service no. 62188
Lance Corporal, Royal Fusiliers, 4th Battalion
Died of wounds, age 32 on 11 May 1917
Son of Thomas and Louisa Elson, of London. Husband of Laurel Elson, of 5, Grove Rd., Brixton, London.
Remembered at Etaples Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London 0DA.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Frederick Thomas Elson, 25, was living with his family in 6 rooms at 74 Victoria Avenue, Plashet Lane, East Ham. His mother, Louisa, a 56-year-old widow born in Stepney, had 6 children surviving (of 7). Five of these were on the census.
Frederick Thomas Elson, born in Leyton, Essex
Alice Rosina Elson 23, a draper’s clerk, born in Leyton, Essex
Henry Charles Elson, 22, an invoice clerk, born in Leyton, Essex
Herbert James Elson, 20, a motor mechanic, born in Leytonstone, Essex
Florence May Elson, 18, a shorthand typist, born in Leytonstone, Essex

On 21 November 1915 Frederick married Laurel James at St Michel’s Church, Stockwell. Laurel lived at 5 Grove Road.

A. A. Ellis

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A. A. Ellis
Service no. 201091
Driver, Royal Field Artillery, “C” By. 76th Bde.
Died age 22 on 27 July 1917
Son of John and Emily Ellis, of Clapham, London; husband of Annie May Ellis, of 25 Haines Street, Battersea, London.
Remembered at Mendinghem Military Cemetery, Poperinge, Belgium

John Reginald Charles Edwards

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J. R. C. Edwards
Service no, 701405
Lance Corporal, London Regiment, 1st/23rd Battalion
Killed in action, age 21 on 7 June 1917
Son of John and Louisa S. Edwards, of 37A Crimsworth Road, Wandsworth Road, Lambeth, London.
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium

Information from the 1911 census

The Edwards family lived in 4 rooms at 37a Crimsworth Road, SW8. John Edwards, 48, was a coke porter at the gas works. He was born at Kington Magna, Dorset. Louisa Edwards, 43, was from Dorchester, Dorset. The couple had 9 children (2 had died), all born in Lambeth:
Daisy Edwards, 18, a domestic servant
John Edwards, 15, a page boy in private houses
Lily Edwards, 14
May Edwards, 12
Charles Edwards, 10
Henry Edwards, 9
Violet Edwards, 7
Frank Edwards, 4
Frederick Edwards, 2

Henry Wilfred Edney

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H. W. Edney
Service no. 315081
Lance Corporal, London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade), 5th Battalion
Died age 21 on 17 October 1917
Son of Elizabeth M. A. Edney, of “The Moorings,” 30 Clitheroe Road, Clapham, London
Remembered at Longuenesse (St Omer) Souvenir Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 the Edney family lived in 7 rooms at 50 Stockwell Green. Elizabeth Edney, 47 and born in Marylebone, London, was a widow. She had 6 children (one had died) in 1911:
Phillip Stanley Edney, 22, a stationer’s assistant, born in Brixton
Leslie George Edney, 20, an insurance clerk, born in Brixton
Walter Ernest Edney, 18, a restaurant clerk, born in Camberwell
Harry (or Henry) Wilfred Edney, 15, a messenger, born in Camberwell
Elsie Mercy Edney, 13, born in Camberwell
Ethel Hopkins, a single 21-year-old hairdresser from Bristol, boarded with the family.
Grace Elizabeth Edney, 21, was working as a servant to Mary Ann Larkin, a 65-year-old house agent, a few doors down the street at 17 Stockwell Green.

Frederick Eales Johnson

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photo of frederick eales-johnson
Frederick Eales-Johnson. Photo by kind permission of Anne Hughes.

F. Eales-Johnson
Service no. 950162
Gunner, Royal Artillery, “A” Bty. 235th Bde.
Died age 22 on 17 June 1917
Son of Fredrick (sic) and Mary Eales-Johnson (née Marshall), of 37 Portland Place North, Clapham Road, London. Born Lambeth, London.
Remembered at Reninghelst New Military Cemetery, Poperinge, Belgium

Information from the 1911 census

Frederick Johnson was a 43-year-old printer born in Lambeth. He and his wife Mary Johnson, 38, who was from Bermondsey, lived at 7 Wyvil Street. They had 10 children, all surviving to this date, with 9 appearing on the census:
Florence Johnson, 18, a bookfolder
Frederick Johnson, 16, a junior clerk and student
Elsie Johnson, 13
George Johnson, 12
Albert Johnson, 9
Dorothy Johnson, 8
Henry Johnson, 4
Mary Johnson, 3
Alice Johnson, 9 months
All were born in Southwark.