Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

1918

Harvey Charles Bartel

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H. C. Bartel
Service no. 493554
Private, London Regiment, 1st/13th Kensington Battalion
Died age 32 on 23 October 1918
Son of Charles and Elizabeth Bartel, of 28 Rita Road, Vauxhall, London.
Remembered at Etaples Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France

Information from 1911 Census

In 1911 Harvey Charles Bartell (the spelling is double L in the census) was a 24-year-old clerk, born in Battersea and living with his family in 4 rooms at 28 Rita Road, SW8, with his mother Elizabeth Eleanor (50) and father Charles Joseph (57), a carman*, originally from Poplar, East London. Harvey was the eldest of three sons, the others being Arthur Henry, a gasfitter’s assistant, two years younger, and Sidney Ernest, aged 9 and still at school. Their cousin Edith Hart (22), a draper’s assistant, originally from Faversham, Kent (as was her aunt Elizabeth) lived with them. Three households occupied No 28, probably one family on each floor.

* Carmen were often employed by railway companies for local deliveries and collections of goods and parcels. Also sometimes someone who drove horse-drawn trams was called a carman.

Albert Herbert Robert Barnes

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A. H. R. Barnes
(aka Herbert Robert Albert Barnes)
Service no. 721131
Private, London Regiment, 24th Battalion
Enlisted at Kennington
Died of wounds at age 20 on 18 September 1918
Remembered at Epehy Wood Farm Cemetery, Epehy, Somme, France and at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9

Information from the Barnes Family website

Mike Barnes, who runs the Barnes Family History website, tells how he searched for Herbert Robert Albert Barnes, his first cousin twice removed, after his father showed him a letter written by his Aunt Violet in 1996. In the letter Aunt Violet told of two brothers, one of whom died in the First World War of a stomach wound. The letter identified him only as ‘Bob’.

After a lot of digging around in the 1901 census and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database, Mike found that ‘Bob’ was Herbert Robert Albert Barnes of the 24th Battalion, London Regiment. He is listed as Albert Herbert Robert.

Herbert Robert Albert Barnes was born on 26 January 1898 and was therefore only 16 when war broke out in 1914. He probably enlisted soon after his 18th birthday. His medal card shows his original 4-digit service number and the later 6-digit service number. Re-numbering took place late 1916, early 1917 and this fits with an enlistment early in 1916.

The 24th Battalion was of the Territorial Force (hence the 4-digit service number) and was split into three:
The 1/24th was formed in August 1914 at 71 New Street, Kennington Park Road and landed at Le Havre on the 16 March 1915.
The 2/24th was formed in Lambeth, in August 1914, moved to St Albans in March 1915, then to Braintree, May 1915 then onto Sutton Veny in January 1916.

The 2/24th landed at Le Havre in the June of 1916. In November 1916 the 60th (2/2nd London) Division, of which the battalion was a part, moved to Salonika via Marseilles and Malta. The transfer was completed on Christmas Day 1916. On the 2nd July 1918 the battalion moved to Egypt to take part in the Palestine campaign and in the May of that year returned to France, going via Taranto (30 July). The 60th Division was reformed in mid-1918 as a division of the Indian Army with many of its battalions, including the 2/24th transferred to the 198th Brigade 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division on the 15th July 1918. The 2/24th was then transferred to the 173rd Brigade, 58th (2/1st London) Division on the 11th September 1918 in readiness to take part in the Battle of Epehy on the 18th September. Read about the preparation for the battle and the account of the battle from the battalion War Diary.

Herbert Robert Albert Barnes died on the 18 September 1918 and is buried in the Epehy Wood Farm Cemetery in grave II.B.20. He was 20.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Herbert Albert Robert Barnes, then 14, was living in 4 rooms at 31 Cobbett Street, South Lambeth (it runs off Dorset Road) with his father, Thomas George Barnes, 46, a cellerman from Reading, Berkshire, mother, Annie Barnes, 48, from Belfast, Ireland (this was before Irish Independence and the creation of the Six Counties), and a brother, Thomas Charles Barnes, 21, a butcher. There were two other children, not on this census return.

John Barber

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J. Barber
Service no 551983
Driver, Royal Engineers, 47th Signal Coy.
Killed in action on 24 March 1918, age 24
Son of John and Lydia Barber, of Stockwell, London.
Remembered at Beaulencourt British Cemetery, Ligny-Thilloy, France, and at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9

Information from the 1911 census

The Barber family lived at 92 Landor Road, SW9. John Barber (senior), 52, was born in Brighton and worked as a butcher. Lydia Barber, 46, was born in Dymchurch, Kent. Six of their 10 children survived, including John, who is on the census as Jack:
Lydia Barber, 21, an artist working in dressmaking
Jessie Barber, 20, “at home in business” – no further details
Ethel Barber, 19, “at home in business”
Jack Barber, 17, “at home in business”
Hilda Barber, 12
Earnest Barber, 10

William George Bacon

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W. G. Bacon
Service no 242252
Private, South Staffordshire Regiment, 2nd/6th Battalion
Died on 21 March 1918, aged 33
Husband of Alice Rachel Bacon, of 37 Kimberley Road, Stockwell, London.
Remembered at Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France and at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9

In 1911 Bacon was a tobacconist living with his brother and his wife at 86 St John’s Hill, Clapham Junction. He married Alice Rachel Potts and left a daughter Vera Alice.

Frederick Avis

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F. Avis
Service no 46278
Corporal, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, 4th Battalion
Died age 22 on 9 June 1918
CWGC: “Son of Mrs. R. Avis, of 37 Thorncroft Street, Wandsworth Road, South Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Franvillers Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France and at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9

Information from 1911 Census
In 1911 Frederick Avis was 16 and working as an errand boy. He lived in 2 rooms at 59 Lambeth High Street, SE1 with his father George Avis, 38, a compositor, and mother Rhoda Avis, 44, and his brothers: Joseph Avis, 14, and Charles Avis, 9. All were born in Lambeth.

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920
Frederick Avis, a 19-year-old single brewer, joined up barely a month after war was declared on 4 August 1914. Many assumed that the war would be short in duration (“home by Christmas”) and not particularly arduous. It would be like one big party – not to be missed. Avis must have been aware of the bitter irony of these hopes: he survived, possibly exhausted by stress and trauma, nearly to the end of the conflict, and his service included at least one major period of illness.

Initially Avis joined the Wiltshire Regiment but he was transferred to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in May 1916. He rose from Private to unpaid Lance Corporal and Corporal (attracting proper pay). Avis’s only transgression on record is a failure to comply with an order in November 1915 for which he forfeited 4 days pay.

Avis stood 5 feet 4½ inches, with a chest of 35½ (expandable by 2½ inches), and weighed 118 pounds. His hair was brown and his eyes blue. On enlistment he was described as fit, but after three years of gruelling warfare he was returned to England and spent at least 60 days in hospital. In September 1917 was receiving treatment at the Birmingham War Hospital for kidney stones, and he was also diagnosed with muscular rheumatism. He spent 38 days there, and a further 22 days in the Convalescent Hospital at Plymouth.

And then, on 31 March 1918, he was back at the front.

He died at the Somme after serving for 3 years and 275 days, on 9 June 1918.

His widowed mother, Ada, received his effects: letters, photos, a wallet, two religious books, a watch and watchstrap. And later, in 1919, with the help of the Rev Helm, the vicar at St. Anne’s Church, South Lambeth Road, she filled in the Army form declaring next of kin who may have a claim for pension: Charles, 17; Joseph, 22 (now living in Balfour Street, Nine Elms), and Edward, 24.

George Harry Allen

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George Harry Allen
George Harry Allen is shown with his mother Marcelina Rachel Allen and (probably) brother Sidney. Photo © Jennifer Blaber and Heather Drislane

G. H. Allen
Service no. G/52892
Private, Middlesex Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Born in Wandsworth, enlisted in Camberwell, lived in Lambeth
Killed in action on 25 March 1918, aged 20
“Son of George and Lena [Marcelina] Allen, of 2A, Wheatsheaf Lane, Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Pozières Memorial, Somme, France

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 the Allen family lived at 18 Riverhall Street, Lambeth. George Henry Allen (senior), 37, was a engineer working in cold stores. He was born at Marchington, Staffordshire. His wife, Marcelina, 35, was from Kirtling, Cambridge. Five sons are registered (one child had died):
George Henry Allen, then 12, born in Clapham
Sidney Alwen Allen, 10, born in Battersea
Edward Albert Allen, 7, born in Battersea
Earnest Cyril Allen, 4, born in Kennington
Frederick James Allen, 5 months, born in Kennington
The family lived in 2 rooms.