Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

1918

William Charles Ray

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W.C. Ray
Private, East Surrey Regiment, 8th Bn.
Service no. 39290.
Killed in action on 23 October 1918, aged 23.
Remembered at Forest Communal Cemetery, Nord, France

In 1911 William Charles Ray lived with his parents, William, a 37-year-old carman, and 32-year-old Louisa Esther (née Rainbow), and four siblings at 10 Broomgrove Road, Stockwell Green, where they occupied three rooms. Louisa’s mother Caroline Rainbow lived in the other half of the house with a son, adopted daughter and a lodger.

William was almost 21 and working as an engine driver when he was called up 30 May 1918. He stood 5ft 5in, with brown hair and hazel eyes. His chest measured 33in. His physical development was judged to be ‘Good’. 

Ray had two misdemeanours on his Service record: failure to wash before breakfast, for which he was confined to barracks for three days, and overstaying his pass when on active service, for which six days’ pay was withheld. 

Ray married Annie Florence Judd in 1917. She lived at 44 Tregenna Street, Brixton Hill with their two daughters, Annie Edith, born in 1916, and Florence Violet, born posthumously in May 1919. She received his identity disc and a weekly widows’ pension of 20s and 6d.

John Frederick King

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J. F. King

Service no. 231178
Private, London Regiment, 2nd Bn. (Royal Fusiliers)
Died 21 March 1918, aged 39
Remembered at Chauny Communal Cemetery British Extension, Aisne, France

John Frederick King, a carman, joined the Army twice. First he volunteered for the Army Service Corps (Horse Transport) on 5 January 1915. His medical description paints a picture of someone short and stocky: 5 feet 2¼ inches tall with a 40-inch chest. He had a mole on the back of his neck and scars on the left side of his back and left leg. At the top of his form he has signed a note: “I am willing to allot from date of enlistment 6d. [sixpence] per day of my pay to support my wife and family.” He had left behind Jenny (née Hawkins), Frederick Ernest, 9, and Agnes Louise, 8.

This period of service lasted a mere three days. On 7 January he was discharged as “not likely to become an efficient soldier.” As the war progressed, however, this opinion may have been revised or King may have been subject to the compulsory draft. Whatever happened, he later joined the London Regiment and died near Aisne in March 1918.

Charles John Young

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C. J. Young
Service no. 42404
Private, Essex Regiment, 11th Battalion; formerly 49934, Northamptonshire Regiment
Born in Putney; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in South Lambeth
Killed in action on 21 March 1918, aged 20
CWGC: “Son of John and Elizabeth Young, of 97 Hartington Road, South Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Beaumetz-les-Cambrai Military Cemetery No. 1, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1911 census

Charles John Young, a 12-year-old schoolboy in 1911, lived at 21 Camellia Street, Stockwell. His widowed mother, Elizabeth Young, 44, was born in Germany and made her living charing (cleaning). There were six siblings: Minnie Young, 18, who worked stripping tobacco; Rose Young, 16, a collar machinist; Lena Young, 14, a darning machinist; Walter Mafeking Young, 10; May Lily Elizabeth Young, 6; Grace Margarete Young, 5. The family of eight lived in two rooms. Three other of Elizabeth’s babies had died.

Arthur Worby

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A. Worby
Service no. G/61093
Private, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
Died on 16 November 1918, aged 20
CWGC: “Son of John and Mary Ann Worby, of 76 Crimsworth Road, Wandsworth, London.”
Remembered at Lambeth Cemetery, Tooting, London SW17

Brother-in-law to Thomas James Woodley

Information from the 1911 census

Arthur Worby, 12 in 1911, lived at 76 Crimsworth Road, South Lambeth. His father widower John Worby, 53, was an Army pensioner from Cambridge. There were five siblings on the census return – their places of birth reflecting their father’s Army career. Emma Worby, 24, was born in Chatham, Kent; Jessie Worby, 20, a laundress, was born in Port Royal, Jamaica; John Worby, 15, an errand boy, was born in Dublin; Frank William Worby, 16, an errand boy, was born in Middlesbrough; Arthur Worby, 12, was born in South Lambeth. Arthur’s nephew, Arthur Worby Gridner, 1, lived with the family.

Information from Howard Anderson, great-nephew

“Arthur Worby came from a military family, his father John Worby was career soldier, leaving the Royal Engineers as a Quarter Master Serjeant (the old spelling) after 21 years service. Arthur was one of 11 children, most born in barracks around the world, one was my grandmother Jessie, born on a troop ship in Kingston, Jamaica.

“Arthur Worby’s sister Jessie married Albert Allen (a common Stockwell name) who was an Old Contemptible who survived the war. In the 1st Middlesex Regiment, he was Mentioned in Despatches 3 times for staying behind with the wounded. His son Ted repeated that at Arnhem in 1944, being awarded the Dutch Bronze Cross for gallantry, for staying with the wounded when the Germans overran the town.”

Arthur Worby was brother-in-law to Thomas James Woodley, who married his sister Ethel Maude Worby.
Visit 1stmiddlesex.com for more information.

Thomas James Woodley

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T. J. Woodley
Service no. 203597
Private, Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, 1st/4th Battalion; formerly 2725, Royal Buckinghamshire Hussars
Born in Deptford; enlisted in London; lived in Clapham
Killed in action on 15 June 1918, aged 29
CWGC: “Husband of Mrs E. Woodley, of 14 Glenelg Road, Acre Lane, Brixton, London.”
Remembered at Boscon British Cemetery, Italy and St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Brother-in-law to Arthur Worby

Information from the censuses

Printer’s labourer Thomas James Woodley, 23 in 1911, lived at 6 Edithna Street, Stockwell, where his family occupied six rooms. The other members of the household were his widowed mother, Rosa Ann Woodley, 55, from Southwark; siblings Susan Elizabeth Woodley, 28, a blouse hand, Beatrice Amelia Woodley, 27, a dressmaker, George Thomas Woodley, 25, a printer’s labourer, William Woodley, 19, a shop assistant, Henry Woodley, 17, a shop assistant. Two other siblings lived elsewhere, and three had died.

Ethel Maude Woodley
Ethel Maude Woodley

Information from Howard Anderson

Thomas James Woodley was a career soldier, formerly a regular in the Royal Bucks Hussars before being killed whilst serving with the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry during the Battle of Asiago fighting the Austrians. He was the brother-in-law of Arthur Worby, having married Worby’s sister Ethel Maude Worby.

Howard Anderson writes: “There is an added poignancy about the names on the memorial. T. J. Woodley is right next to A. Worby, close in stone and in life, they were brothers-in-law. Thomas married Arthur Worby’s sister Ethel Maude Worby but was killed just 18 months later. Although she married again, it ruined her life. I remember her as a sad old lady.”

Howard Anderson, great-nephew to Arthur
Visit 1stmiddlesex.com

William George Edwin Woodard

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W. G. E. Woodard
Service no. M2/079669
Lance Corporal, Army Service Corps, 364th Mechanical Transport Coy.
Died of wounds on 12 August 1918, aged 55
CWGC: “Son of William and Frances Woodard; husband of H. S. Woodard, of 65 Pulross Rd., Brixton, London.”
Remembered at Les Baraques Military Cemetery, Sangatte, France

Information from the censuses

William George Edwin Woodard, 47 in 1911, is the oldest of the men on the Memorial that I have been able to identify. He was born about 1864 and worked as a taxi driver. His address in 1911 was the 16 Canterbury Road, Brixton, which he shared with his wife, Helena Sylvia Woodard (née Robshaw), 49, born in Holborn, central London; sons William Woodard, 23, a taxi driver, born in Southwark, and Frederick Woodard, 21, an assistant in a grocer’s shop, born in Lambeth; mother-in-law Eliizabeth Robshaw, 78, from Witham, Essex; May Robshaw, 21, an assistant in a draper’s shop, born in St. Pancras; cousin Frederick Robshaw, 33, a single bookbinder’s assistant, born in Kennington; and Dorothy Sherry, 22, a single grocer’s shop assistant from Hampton Wick, west London. Another of William and Helena’s children lived elsewhere. The couple had lost two other children. The family occupied seven rooms. In 1901 the Woodard family lived at 39, Chester Street, north Lambeth.