Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

1918

Frederick Eversfield

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F. Eversfield
Service no. J/12826
Able Seaman, Royal Navy, H.M. S/M “D6.”
Died age 24 on June 1918
Husband of Kathleen Christina Eversfield, of 19, St. James Rd., Carshalton, Surrey.
Remembered at Chatham Naval Memorial

Information from the censuses

In 1911 Frederick Eversfield, a 16-year-old stores porter lived at 6 Emily Mansions, Landor Road, SW9 with his family: parents Harry Eversfield, 46, a stone maston born in Wrotham, Kent and Mary Eversfield, 45, from Dover; and siblings   Eliza Eversfield, 25, a restaurant counter hand, and Hilda Eversfield, 12. All three children were born in Dover.
In 1901 Frederick Eversfield was 6 and living at 1 Alexandra Cottages, Tower Street, in Dover, Kent, with his mother and siblings. Mary J. Eversfield was 34 and born in Dover. The children on the census were
Harry Eversfield, 16, foundry labourer
Elizabeth Eversfield, 12
Alfred Eversfield, 9
Frederick Eversfield, 6
Hilda Eversfield, 2
Winifred Eversfield, 1
Sarah A. Burbridge, 84, a widow living on her own means and born in Alkham, Kent, lived with the family.

Leonard George Henry Erdbeer

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L. G. H. Erdbeer
Service no. 30085
Private, Grenadier Guards, 4th Battalion
Died age 21 on 13 April 1918
Son of Henry and Helen Erdbeer, of 9 Stockwell Grove, Stockwell, London.
Remembered at Merville Communal Cemetery Extension, Nord, France

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 the Erdbeer household of 9 Stockwell Grove consisted of Henry Erdbeer, 43, a “general tinsmith” born in Poplar; his wife Ellen Elizabeth Page Erdbeer, 34, born in Brighton; Charles Morris, 72, Helen’s father and a retired tram conductor from Guestling, Sussex; Leonard George Henry, 13 and still at school; Doris Jessie, 12; and Alec Charles, 10. All the children were born in Stockwell. The family occupied 6 rooms.

Erdbeer means strawberry in German.

Bernard Allen Miller Dunning

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B. A. M. Dunning
Service no. 558257
Driver, Royal Engineers, Army Signal Company
Died of dystentery age 39 on 6 December 1918
Son of Mrs Julia Dunning; husband of Rosina Harriet Dunning, of 17, Somerleyton Road, Brixton, London. Born in Dorset.
Remembered at Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery, Iraq

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

Bernard Dunning joined the war effort early – he attested on 5 December 1914 from the Territorials. In civilian life he was a tram conductor; he became a driver in the Army Signal Company in the Royal Engineers.

Dunning’s medical notes state that he was 5 feet 7 inches tall with a 35 inch chest, which he could expand by 2 inches. His physical development was “fair”.

Dunning survived the war, but fell very soon afterwards. He served in France, in the British Expeditionary Force, between 12 February to 7 November 1916, and had periods in England. During  this period he was admitted to hospital suffering from haemorroids, which were operated on.

Later he was deployed in the Middle East, where he was admitted to hospital on 23 August 1918 – again suffering from haemorroids –  and discharged 22 September 1918. On 10 November he was admitted to the 31st British Stationary Hospital field hospital and by 24 November he was described as “dangerously ill” with dysentery. On 6 December he died.

Dunning left a widow, Rosina Harriet Dunning, and a 12-year-old son, Herbert William.

Information from the 1911 census

Bernard Allen Miller Dunning, 31, and Rosina Harriet Dunning, 27, lived with their son at 56 Edithna Street, Stockwell. Bernard was born in Lulworth, Dorset, and worked as a tram driver for the LCC (London County Council). Rosina Harriet Dunning was born in Blackfriars. Their son Herbert William, born in Eastbourne, Sussex, was 5. Two boarders lived with the family: Henry Miles, 25 and single, worked as an estate agent; Alice Lily Murphy, 25, was a dressmaker.

Ten years previously (1901 census), Bernard was single and living in Eastbourne, where he worked as a door porter at the Grand Hotel. His father (1891 census) was a groom and general outdoor servant.

Henry James Dighton

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H. J. Dighton
Service no. 8159
Private, Lincolnshire Regiment, 2nd/5th Battalion
Died aged about 22 on 29 April 1918
Son of Clara Dighton, of 68 Crimsworth Road, South Lambeth, London.
Remembered at Arneke British Cemetery, Nord, France

Information from the 1911 census

Henry (or Harry) Dighton was 15 and working as a grocer’s assistant in 1911. He lived with his family in 4 rooms at 35 a Crimsworth Road, off Brixton Road. His father, James Dighton, 46, who was born in Pimlico, worked as a caterer’s porter. His mother, Clara Dighton (née Baxter), 47, was born in Paddington. They had 6 surviving children (of 8):
William Dighton, 21, a railway van shifter, born in Hammersmith, west London
Isabelle Dighton, 20, a laundry ironer, born in Kensington
Dorothy Dighton, 18, a layer-on for a printer, born in Lee
Harry (Henry) Dighton, 15, a grocer’s assistant, born in Forest Hill
Albert Dighton, 10, born in Lambeth
Stanley Dighton, 7, born in Lambeth

Conrad O’Neill Daunt

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Conrad O'Neill Daunt
Conrad O’Neill Daunt. Photo by kind permission of Will Daunt

C. O’N. Daunt
Lieutenant, Royal Air Force, South Lancashire Regiment, 8th Battalion
Died age 27 on 29 September 1918
Son of Francis Eldon Horsford Daunt, LRCP (Licenciate of the Royal College of Physicians of London), of 176 Clapham Road, Stockwell, London, and the late Annie Elizabeth Daunt (nee Vellacott).
Remembered at Bronfay Farm Military Cemetery, Bray-sur-Somme, France

Conrad Daunt appears to have been listed as Canadian – at least he is remembered as so on the Veterans Affairs Canada website. The RAF was established late in the war (1 April 1918).

Brother of Giles Vellacott Daunt

Conrad O’Neill Daunt, born in 1891, and his brother Giles Vellacott Daunt, born in 1895, were two of five children of Irish physician and surgeon Francis Eldon Horsford Daunt and Annie Elizabeth Daunt (née Vellacott) of 176 Clapham Road. Both boys were educated at City of London School.

Conrad returned to England from Canada to fight in the war and initially served as a Private with the Second Canadian contingent. He was offered a commission with the South Lancashires, and served with them through 1917. In 1918 he was transferred to the Royal Air Force (established in April) and promoted to Lieutenant.

Will Daunt, great-nephew to Giles and Conrad, writes: “Conrad and Giles Daunt were my great uncles, and, although we knew where they were buried (and have visited Conrad’s grave), we had not realised their names were on the memorial. My grandfather, Francis O’Neill Daunt, was their elder brother and, as a doctor (like his father), was probably a little safer (although he met mygrandmother on a hospital ship coming back from Gallipoli). Sadly, I never knew him because he died in the early 1950s. His two sisters, known as Dorothy and Peg, never married and, like him, spent most of their adult lives in Hastings/St. Leonards.”

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Conrad O’Neill Daunt was living with his uncle, Walter John Vellacott at his farm at Tunnel House, West Thurrock, Essex. Walter Vellacott, 32, was born in Barnstaple, Devon. His wife, Elizabeth, 27 was from High Bickington, Devon. They had 2 children: Margaret Annie Vellacott, 4, born in Homehurst, Esex, and William Walter Vellacott, 7 months, born at West Thurrock. Conrad was 20 and working as a farm pupil. There was a visitor on the night of the census: Moss T. Reick, 44 and married, an evangelist from Berlin, Germany. The servants were Annie Suckling, a single 21-year-old domestic servant from Essex, and governess Ruth Florence Reynolds, 32, single and born in Singapore.

Meanwhile, Conrad’s family lived at 118 Newington Causeway (convenient for Guy’s Hospital). Physician and surgeon Francis Eldon Horsford Daunt, 51, born in Kinsale, County Cork, and his wife, Annie Elizabeth Daunt, 46, from Tavistock, Devon, had five children, including Francis Eldon Daunt, 22, a medical student, Giles Daunt, 14, Helena Margaret Daunt, 11. Frances Willmore, 40, a general domestic servant born in Lambeth, lived in.

Charles William Curtis

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C. W. Curtis
Service no. 8672, Lance Serjeant, Worcestershire Regiment, “D” Coy., 3rd Bn.
Killed in action on 12 April 1918, aged 34
Remembered at Ploegsteert Memorial, Comines-Warneton, Hainaut, Belgium

Son of Charles Curtis; husband of Mary Curtis, of 22, Hargrave Rd., Highgate, London.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Charles William Curtis, a blacksmith’s striker, lived with his family at 37 Union Street, Clapham, were nine people shared four rooms. His father, Charles Henry Curtis, 48, was a laundry carman married to Harriet Emily, an ironer. Curtis had six siblings.