Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

1917

Edward Driscoll

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E. Driscoll
Service no. 216940
Gunner, Royal Field Artillery, 12th Bty. 35th Bde.
Died age 24 on 21 October 1917
Son of Michael and Ellen Driscoll, of 2 Crimsworth Road, Wandsworth Road, London.
Remembered at The Huts Cemetery, Ypres, Belgium

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Edward Driscoll, 18, was working as a driller (acetelyne) and living with his family in 4 rooms at 26 Madrid Place (now gone), South Lambeth. Michael Driscoll, 56, was a road sweeper for the borough council. He was born in City of London, where Ellen Driscoll, 55, was also born. The couple had had 7 children, 4 of whom survived. James Driscoll, 25, was a carman for the LRSW Railway. Both sons were born in Lambeth.

George Daniel Talbot Drewery

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G. D. T. Drewery
Service no. L/5032
Officer’s Steward 2nd Class, Royal Navy, H.M.S. “Partridge”
Died age 21 on 12 December 1917
Son of George Talbot Drewery and Louisa Emma Drewery, of 25 Lansdowne Road
Remembered at Portsmouth Naval Memorial

The Partridge was sunk by four German destroyers in the North Sea while escorting a convoy. 74 men were lost. See naval-history.net for a list of casualties.

Information from the 1911 Census

In 1911 George Drewery, then a 15-year-old office boy, was living with his aunt Mary Ann Elizabeth White, 53, and uncle Robert White, 53, and their family at 62 Landor Road. Robert White was a housepainter born in Hackney. His wife was born in Lambeth. Their children, George Drewery’s cousins, all born in Clapham, were
Sydney Cope White, 26, a “warehouseman in ribbons”
Louis Sherley White, 25, a dental mechanic
Ella Annie White, 22, a fancy goods designer
Blanche Ethel White, 20, a shorthand typist

Alfred Colin Dopson

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A. C. Dopson
Service no. P/200377
Rifleman, Rifle Brigade, 10th Battalion
Died aged about 20 on 23 September 1917
Remembered at Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium

Information from the censuses

In 1901 Alfred Dopson, aged 4, was living at 34 Kenchester Street with his parents, George Dopson, 37, a railway porter born in Newbury, Berkshire, and Elizabeth Dopson, 36, from Shipnal, Shropshire. Alfred’s siblings on the census were
Edward G. Dopson, 5
Emily Violet Dopson, 3
Edith M. Dopson, 10 months
All the children were born in Kennington.
Elizabeth A. Rogers, 40, a widowed monthly nurse born in Cape of Good Hope, boarded with the family.

In 1911 the Dopson family lived at 33 Ely Place, Stockwell, occupying 4 rooms. Edward,16, was now a printing trade apprentice, as was Alfred, 15. Emily was 13. Since the 1901 census, Alexander, 9, and Alice, 6, had been born. The Dopsons claimed that they had had 5 children all of whom survived. However, no mention is made of Edith, 10 months in 1901, who would have brought the number to 6.

Frederick John Doel

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F. J. Doel
Service no. 31188
Private, East Surrey Regiment, 8th Battalion
Killed in action aged about 20 on 3 May 1917
Remembered at Arras Memorial, France

Information from the censuses

In 1901 Frederick J. Doel, 4,  was living at  5 Spring Gardens with his mother, Ada Jane Doel (née Scrine), 23, a washer and ironer born in Lambeth, and his younger brother, Walter H. Doel, 2. The boys were born in Lambeth. There is no mention of their father.

In 1911 the family was living in 3 rooms at 29 Fountain Street (now gone), Lambeth. Frederick is listed as Fredrick. There were 3 sons: Frederick, 14, Walter, 12, and Arthur, 9, the latter born in Brixton. Again, Ada describes herself as married and a “wife” rather than “head” but there is no husband on the census.

Frederick John Dicker

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F. J. Dicker
Service no. 295165
Private, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 1st/4th Battalion
Killed in action 19 August 1917
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Frederick John Dicker, 31, was living in 4 rooms at 8 Beech Street, Dorset Road with his wife, Susan Dicker, 30. He was born in South Lambeth and was working as a general labourer. Susan was born in Battersea. They had had one child, who had died.

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

DICKER, F. J., Private, 4th London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers)
He joined in April 1917 and at the close of his training was drafted overseas in the following July. During his brief service on the Western Front he was engaged in much heavy fighting on the Ypres sector, where he was unfortunately killed in action on August 16th, 1917. He was entitled to the General Service and Victory Medals.
8, Beech Street, Dorset Road, S.W.8.

Reginald Percy Dickason

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R. P. Dickason
Second Lieutenant, Middlesex Regiment, 6th Battalion attd. 1st Battalion
Died age 20 on 14 February 1917
Son of Harold Burfield Dickason, of 155 Clapham Road, London.
Remembered at Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension, France

British Army WWI Officers Service Records 1914-1920

Reginald Percy Dickason was educated at King’s College School and Pitman’s Metropolitan School. Pitman’s, opened in 1870, was the first school of business education in the world, and covered office routine, accounting and law, and shorthand and typing. Possibly Dickason was training to be a court reporter, for he transferred out of the 3/25th London Cyclists, which he joined as a private on 1 April 1915, to the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps at Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire.

This corps was originally part of the London Territorial Force and consisted mainly of men connected with the law courts. On 4 August 1916 he was accepted for admission to No. 8 Officer Cadet Battalion at Lichfield, and a little over three months later he left for France, serving with the Middlesex Regiment.

He survived for just under four months, dying near Clery-sur-Somme. In July 1920 the Army wrote to Dickason’s father Harold Burfield Dickason to tell him that his son’s body had been moved to the cemetery at Peronne, assuring him that the removal was done “carefully and reverently.”

Dickason, born on 3 December 1896 and an only child, was 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighed over 10½ stone and measured 40½ inches around the chest. He had the distinction of being the only man on the Memorial whose family included an elephant hunter.

Information from the 1911 census

Reginald Percy Dickason was 14 in 1911 and living with his family at 155 Clapham Road, where they occupied 10 rooms. Reginald was an only child. His father, Harold Burfield Dickason, 36, was an orchestral musician who was born in Highgate. His mother, Esther Dickason, 35, was from Lambeth. Harold’s brother, Percy Dickason, 34, an elephant hunter, and an aunt, Charlotte Hare, 69, lived with the family, along with a boarder, John Greenslade, 35, a stone and wood carver. Lily Cawley, 15, a general domestic servant born in Lambeth, lived in.

Information from the family
After Reginald died, his parents Harold and Esther went on to have another child, a son. This son later joined the Army and fought in World War 2. Esther died in the 1930s.