Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

1918

Harry George Burls

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H. G. Burls
Service no. 15147
Gunner, Royal Field Artillery, “B” Bty. 211th Bde.
Died of wounds age 25 on 25 October 1918
Born in Stockwell, enlisted at Camberwell
Son of George and Elizabeth Burls, of 25 Moat Place, Stockwell, London.
Buried at Romeries Communal Cemetery Extension, France

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

BURLS, H. G., Gunner, R.F.A.
Volunteering in April 1915, he was sent to the Western Front in the same year. He took part in many important engagements, including those on the Somme, and was wounded. He also served in the Retreat and Advance of 1918, and was killed in action at Cambrai in October of that year. He was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, and the General Service and Victory Medals.
25, Moat Place, Stockwell, S.W.9.

There is also an entry for Harry’s brothers Walter Alfred (born 1897) of 25 Moat Place and Frederick Arthur Burls of 1 Combermere Road, a few streets away. Both these men survived the war (the latter being invalided out of the Army).

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Harry George Burls lived with his widowed mother and siblings in 5 rooms (including kitchen) at 25 Moat Place, Stockwell SW9. Elizabeth Burls, 45, was a housekeeper, born in Finchenfield, Essex. She had given birth to 9 children, 8 of them surviving. Six of them lived with her:
Frederick Burls, 24, a labourer
Harry Burls, 18, a labourer
Zillah Burls, 16, a daily servant
Alfred Burls, 13, part-time schoolboy and baker
Eva Burls, 12
Nellie Burls, 6
All were born in Lambeth

Henry Bull

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H. Bull
Service no. 393397
Private, Labour Corps, 179th Coy.
Died age 33 on 14 July 1918
Son of Frederick and Isabell Bull, of 3, Tregothnan Rd., Clapham, London. Born at St. Pancras, London.
Remembered at Lapugnoy Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France

This is a somewhat tentative identification as there are two men named H. Bull with possible connections to the area in the Soldiers Died in the Great War database: the Henry Bull above and Harry Bull who died 21 September 1917. However, the latter is recorded as living in “Clapham Common, NE”.

Arthur Brooker

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A. Brooker
Service no. 30907
Private, Devonshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Died of wounds at about age 18 on 24 April 1918
Remembered at St Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France

Information from the 1911 census

rthur Brooker is the youngest person in his household at 36 Rutland Street, South Lambeth. His mother, Annie Brooker, 53, was a widow from Wroughton in Wiltshire. Annie had had 10 children (all survived) and she lived with 7 of them (6 sons and a daughter) in 5 rooms. The children on the census were:
Joseph Brooker, 27, a locomotive fireman
John Brooker, 23, a goods porter
Charles Brooker, 21, a bricklayer’s labourer
Frederick Brooker, 19, an office boy
Albert Brooker, 17, a messenger
Elsie Brooker, 15
Arthur Brooker, 12
All but Annie were born in Lambeth.

Mark Harry Briggs

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H. Briggs
Private, London Regiment, ‘A’ Coy. 23rd Bn.
Service no. 701038
Died on 5 April 1918, aged 19
Remembered at Martinsart British Cemetery, Somme, France

Chris Burge writes:

Mark Harry Briggs was born in Lambeth on 14 May 1898 and was baptised at All Saints’, South Lambeth on 12 June. He was named after his father, and his parents Mark Harry and Elizabeth Jane Briggs were living in three rooms at 5 Madrid Place, off Dorset Road, which was still the family home in 1911. Six of Elizabeth’s eight children had survived infancy and in the 1911 census, Mark’s father had placed his son, now aged 12, above all his sisters names in the census return. They were: Elizabeth Jane, 17; Esther Amy, 11; Phyllis Winifred, six; Florence Gertrude, five; and Ruby Ellen, just eight months old. Mark’s father was working as a house painter and his sister Elizabeth as a domestic servant. There was one final addition to the family when Ernest John Briggs was born in 1912. 

Mark was 16 at the outbreak of war and was underage when he volunteered at St John’s Hill, Clapham Junction on 18 April 1915, the administrative base of the 23rd London Regiment. He claimed to be over 19 and at 5ft 6in in height passed the medical with ease.  He was posted to the 2/23rd London Regiment as 3556, Pte. Briggs. His parents informed the authorities of his true age and prevented him from going overseas until he was over 19. Mark spent time in the 108th Provisional Battalion before being sent to France on 29 September 1916. In the summer of 1917 he was hospitalised in France with pleurisy, suffered an arm wound in November 1917 and was unfit for duty for a month. He was granted home leave in January 1918. In March and April 1918 the 1/23rd London regiment were on the old Somme battlefield near Aveluy Wood, north of Albert. They were in the path of the enemy’s spring offensive and suffered hundreds of casualties at the end of March and particularly on 5 April 1918.  

In early May 1918 Mark’s parents received notice that he had been reported missing and his name subsequently appeared in British Red Cross & Order Of St John Enquiry List of missing or wounded on 2 August and 20 November 1918. When the military authorities presumed Mark’s death had occurred on, or since, 5 April 1918, the Briggs family were left to come to terms with their loss

It was Mark’s father who completed Army Form W5080 naming himself before his wife and children in order of precedence of the relatives of a deceased soldier. It was witnessed and countersigned at St Anne’s, South Lambeth, on 27 October 1919.The family’s address was now 2 Madrid Place. In another blow to the family, Mark’s father died late in 1921, aged 48. Mark’s mother Elizabeth only received her son medals after providing evidence of her husband’s death. 

Mark’s mother Elizabeth remained at 2 Madrid Place into the 1930s before moving to Tooting. She passed away in 1946, aged 71.

Walter Branson

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W. Branson
Service no. 204513
Private, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 1st Battalion posted to 1st/2nd Battalion
Killed in action 27 August 1918
Remembered at Summit Trench Cemetery, Croisilles, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1911 census

Walter Branson lived with his family in 4 rooms (including kitchen) at 71 Dorset Road in 1911. His father, John Branson, 51, was a baker, born in Clapham; his mother Emily, 40, was born in Lambeth. Emily was, possibly, not John’s first wife – they had been married 14 years, and the census gives the oldest child as 19 (the census shows relationship to the head of the household only). Of Emily’s 8 babies, only 4 survived.
The children on the census were
Bertram Branson, 19, a bottler in a distillers, born in Lambeth
William Branson, 17, an errand lad, born in Lambeth
Ellen Branson, 15, born in Lambeth
Walter Branson, 12
Ellen Farley, a 76-year-old widow, described as a “relative” and born in Mitcham.

British Army WWI Pension Records 1914-1920

Walter Branson joined the Army twice. He enlisted first in the East Surrey Regiment (Service no. 13223), but after 180 days’ service was discharged at Witley on 21 January 1916, “having made a mis-statement as to age.” He was only 17 but claimed to be 19.
Branson was 5 feet 6 inches tall, weight 9 stone 9 pounds, was 34 inches around the chest (with 3½ inches expansion), had a fair complexion, with blue eyes and light brown hair. Despite his youth, he managed to impress his officers. They judged him to have a “good’ military character.

John Bowden

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J. Bowden
Service no. 118026
Private, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), 157th Coy.
Died age 19 on 5 March 1918
Son of Mr. and Mrs. John Bowden, of 2 Ely Place, Dorset Road, Clapham, London.
Remembered at Cairo War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 John Bowden, then 12, lived with his widowed mother, Harriet Bowden, 38, a laundress at 2 Ely Place, off Dorset Road. His elder sister, Rose Bowden, 14, was a tobacco packer for Lambert & Butler; his younger sister, Grace Bowden, was 9. All were born in Lambeth.