Stockwell War Memorial

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Accident

Henry Langford

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H. Langford
Private, Royal Sussex Regiment, 11th Bn.
Service no. 36921
Died on 8 May 1919, aged about 39
Remembered at Murmansk New British Cemetery, Russia 

Chris Burge writes:

Henry Langford was born in 1879 in the village of Midgham, Berkshire, the second child of Jemima Hannah Hunt and master brewer Alfred Langford, who had married four years earlier. Henry’s sister Emma was born in 1877. Alfred died in the winter of 1881 and Jemima married Charles Goodman the following year.

By 1891, Emma was 14 and in service, while schoolboy Henry was living with his parents and stepsiblings in Three Chimneys Lane, Thatcham. By the time of the 1902 census, aged 22, he was a serving soldier. 

Henry joined the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment Militia on 3 December 1895, aged 17, when he was described as 5ft 2in tall, 103lbs, with a fresh complexion, blue eyes and fair hair. He served in the militia until 3 February 1897, transferring to a regular battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment. He served in both Boer Wars and Egypt for two years and was decorated before extending his home service from 1905 to 1909. 

Shortly after leaving the Army, Henry moved to London. In 1910, he married Louisa Elizabeth Eyles in Lambeth. In the 1911 census, they were living in two rooms at 83 Jeffreys Road, off Clapham Road. Louisa was expecting their first child and Henry worked as a cook. The property was shared by two other families, with 11 other people occupying the eight remaining rooms. Phyllis Louisa Langford was born on 3 November 1911. 

Henry Langford appears to have been conscripted late in 1917 or early 1918. Records show that he enlisted in Battersea but not how he came to be in the 11th Sussex. The battalion he joined had returned from France to England in June 1918 after suffering heavy losses during the enemy’s spring offensive. After many compulsory transfers to the battalion, the 11th Sussex departed from Leith, sailing to north Russia on 19 September to support the White Russian forces against the Bolshevik Red Army in the Russian Civil War. We can speculate that Henry may have experienced the novelty of skiing lessons during the winter months, before the weather permitted them to move to Murmansk in March 1919. On 8 May it was reported that ‘36921 L. Cpl H. Langford had died from burns at Murmansk’. No details of his accidental death were given. Henry was buried in the English sector of the Russian cemetery at Murmansk on 10 May 1919.

Henry’s widow Louisa started a new life when she married William Henry Hunt on Christmas Day 1920 at St Jude’s, Kensal Green in north London. William was Henry’s second cousin, and the marriage was witnessed by Henry’s sister Emma Hider. Tragedy struck in the 1940 Blitz when a high explosive bomb dropped near Louisa and William’s home in Marmion Road, Battersea. Louisa died in the Bolingbroke Hospital on 12 September 1940. Henry’s married daughter Phyllis Turner passed away in Wandsworth in 1985, aged 73. 

William George King

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W. G. King
Service no. 51125
Private, Royal Army Medical Corps, 30th Amb. Train
Born in Chelsea; enlisted in London; lived in Lambeth
Died in an accident on 10 January 1917, aged about 40
Remembered at St. Pierre Cemetery, Amiens, Somme, France

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

KING, W. G., Private, R.A.M.C.
He volunteered in January 1915, and shortly afterwards crossed to France. Whilst in this theatre of war he was engaged on duties of an important nature on the ambulance trains, by one of which he was unfortunately run over and killed in January 1917. He was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, and the General Service and Victory Medals.
“His memory is cherished with pride.”
23, Wilcox Road, Wandsworth Road, S.W.8.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 William George King, 33, lived in 3 rooms at 23 Wilcox Road, Stockwell. William was born in Chelsea and earned his living as a house painter. His wife Margaret Annie King, 28, was born in Lambeth. They had a one-year-old daughter, Edith Mabel King, born in Lambeth. Seilia May Mitchell, a 22-year-old “needlewoman” from Stoke Newington, boarded with the family.

Charles Bernard Farrell

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C. B. Farrell
Service no. 8272
Colour Serjeant, South Lancashire Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Died after a fall from his horse, age 26, on 15 April 1916
CWGC: “Son of Michael and Elizabeth Farrell, of 66, Dalyell Road, Brixton, London. Born at Warrington.”
Remembered at Streatham Park Cemetery

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

FARRELL, C. B., C.S.M., 2nd South Lancashire Regiment.
A serving soldier, he was mobilized at the outbreak of hostilities, and embarked for France in November 1914. He was in action in many engagements, including the first and second Battles of Ypres. Owing to a fall from his horse he broke his thigh and complications arising he was invalided to England but subsequently died at Edmonton Hospital on April 15th, 1916. He was entitled to the 1914 Star, and the General Service and Victory Medals.
66, Dalyell Road, Landor Road, S.W.9.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 the Farrell family is found at 66 Dalyell Road, Brixton. Michael Farrell, 56, was an army pensioner (musician), born in St Mary’s, Cork, Ireland. Elizabeth Farrell, 40, an attendant in an art gallery, was born in Jersey, Channel Islands. They had 4 children (all surviving), 2 of them living at home: John Farrell, 19, a gunsmith, born in Warrington, Lancashire, and Mary A. Farrell, 10, born in Stockwell. Amelia Waters, sister to Elizabeth Farrell, a 42-year-old widowed housemaid born in Toronto, Canada, was visiting. Charles Bernard Farrell does not appear on this entry – presumably he was serving with his regiment.

Albert Curtis

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A. Curtis
Service no. SS/8149
Private, Army Service Corps
Died on 30 August 1915, aged 35
Remembered at Wandsworth Cemetery, Magdalen Road, Earlsfield, south-west London

Albert Curtis left a widow, Forence Maud Curtis, living at Paradise Road, Stockwell, and five young children.

Albert married Florence in 1906, and worked as an upholsterer and maker of portmanteaux (suitcases and travelling bags). The 1911 census shows that he, then 32, and Florence, 22, had been married for five years, and lived with their two young children in one room in Speke Road (which ran parallel with Grant Road) in Clapham Junction.

Albert’s medal card shows that he served in France from 26 April 1915. He died in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Southampton, three weeks after he was hit by a sack of flour, which fell from a crane. His death certificate gives fracture of the spine among the causes of death.

Florence remained in Paradise Road, remarried and had three further sons, who all served in World War Two.

Frank Barlow

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F. Barlow
Service no. 6507
Private, London Regiment (London Scottish), 2nd/14th Battalion
Died in an accident on 17 February 1917, aged 21
Son of Moses and Frances Barlow, of 20, St Stephen’s Terrace, Albert Square, Clapham Road, London.
Remembered at Salonika (Lembet Road) Military Cemetery, Greece, and at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

Frank Barlow was buried 10 yards from the road at Katerini, near Thessaloniki, Greece. On 17 February 1917 he fell down a precipice and fractured his skull. He was killed instantaneously, according to a witness at the Council of Enquiry in the Field held by Lieutenant Colonel R. J. L. Ogilby on the same day.

The platoon had been told to make their way down a sharp slope east of the camp and up a hill on the other side. “I came to the edge of a cliff with a drop of about 90 feet to a stream below,” said R. C. Hone. “I told the men to get round the best way they could.” They split in two and he tried to cross the stream but fell in and lost his stick. “I called to the others to catch the stick as it went by,” he continued. But then he noticed the body of Private Barlow. “The last time I saw Pte. Barlow was about a quarter of the way down […] when I noticed he was carrying a signalling flag. Serjeant Souter “saw something in the water, which I first thought was an animal. On looking down I found it was a London Scottish man.” They hauled the body out.

No one had seen him fall. “Pte. Barlow was in front of me,” said Private Keech. “I had to drop out for a few minutes and did not see him any more. I had noticed that he was using his signalling flag as a walking stick.”

Barlow was examined by a Captain J. D. Stubbs, of the Royal Army Medical Corps and pronounced dead.

The conclusion was clear: “The court, having considered the evidence [are of the] opinion that the death of 6507 Pte. Frank Barlow was caused by an accident in performance of his duties and that no blame can be attached to any person concerned.”

There is no record that Barlow’s family saw the witness statements or received any further explanation of the death of their son’s death. Three months after the accident, his effects (matchbox, spectacles, pipe, wristwatch, scissors, knife, key, pouch, air pillow, books, compass, cup, dictionary, diaries, wallet and sundries) were sent to his mother at 20 St. Stephen’s Terrace, South Lambeth. She duly completed the paperwork but wrote on 23 Mary 1917: “I have not received my son’s pay book or will. I have had a copy of the latter sent from the War Office, but I should like his own handwriting.”

Barlow served in France for two months before he was sent to Salonika in November 1916. He had enlisted in the London Scottish on 24 January 1916 at Buckingham Gate, London, where he was described as having “good” physical development. He was 5 feet 8 inches, with a 35-inch chest (which he could expand 4 inches). His papers do not include his civilian ocupation, but the 1911 census shows that he was at that time a 14-year-old part-time student and office boy. He lived with his family at 20 St Stephen’s Terrace, SW8, where they occupied five rooms. His father, Moses Barlow, 52, was a mechanical engineer (working in boiler making), from Reading, Berkshire. His mother, Frances Barlow, 43, was born in Chelsea. There was a brother, George, who also later served in the Army.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Frank Barlow was a 14-year-old part-time student and office boy, living in 5 rooms with his family at 20 St Stephen’s Terrace, SW8. His father, Moses Barlow, 52, was a mechanical engineer (working in boiler making), from Reading, Berkshire. His mother, Frances Barlow, 43, was born in Chelsea. Others on the census return were
George Barlow, 13
Miriam Barlow, 8
Both were born in Lambeth
A nephew, Richard Barnes, 18, a motor engineer from Sunbury, Middlesex, lived with the family.