Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

age 19

Thomas Vincent

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T. Vincent
Service no. 10262
Lance Corporal, Bedfordshire Regiment, 1st Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Hertford; lived in Clapham
Killed in action on 22 October 1914, aged 19
CWGC: “Son of Maria Vincent, of 106 Railton Road, Herne Hill, London, and the late Thomas Vincent.”
Remembered at Le Touret Memorial, France

Information from the 1911 census

Thomas Vincent, 15 in 1911, was a messenger for the telegraph office. He lived with his parents and two brothers at 15 Springfield Place, Stockwell (Springfield Place has now disappeared – it was in the area near Lansdowne Way and Wandsworth Road). Thomas Vincent (senior), was 70 and worked as a messenger for the borough council. He was born in Islington. His wife Maria Vincent, 48, was from Hanwell, west London. They had three surviving children (of four): Thomas and two younger brothers, Harry Vincent, 13, and Fred Vincent, 7.

Walter Henry Stone

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W. H. Stone
Service no. R/34903
Rifleman, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 8th Battalion, formerly S/23009, Rifle Brigade, TR/13/8075, 20th Training Reserve Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Stockwell
Died of wounds on 2 May 1917, aged 19
CWGC: “Son of Henry and A. Stone, of 37 Hargwyne Street, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Bucquoy Road Cemetery, Ficheux, France and St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Information from the censuses

Lambeth-born Walter Henry Stone, 13 in 1911, lived at 13 Hargwyne Street, Stockwell, with his parents, Henry Stone, 40, a carter from Stocking Pelham, Hertfordshire, and Elizabeth Alice Stone, 44, from Tylers Causeway, Hertfordshire. They had three children (two had died): apart from Walter, there was Ivy Stone, 7, and Florence Alice Stone, 5. All three were born in Lambeth. In 1901 the Stone family lived at 42 Mordaunt Street.

George Ernest Starkey

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G. E. Starkey
Private no. 78033
Private, Durham Light Infantry, 15th Battalion, formerly M/301054, R.A.S.C. (M.T.)
Born in Clapham; enlisted in Grove Park; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 22 March 1918, aged 19
CWGC: “Son of George A. Starkey and Letitia A. Starkey, of 85 St James’s Road, Brixton, London.”
Remembered at Pozières Memorial, France

British Army WWI Service and Pension Records 1914-1920

George Ernest Starkey had two Army careers, both short. On 12 May 1915 he joined the 21st Battalion of the London Regiment at the Flodden Road recruiting office in Camberwell. He was described as dark complexioned, with brown eyes and dark brown hair. He stood 5 feet 6½ inches, with a 34½ inch chest (which he could expand by 2 inches), and unusually for most recruits he was relatively sturdy: over 7½ stone. Surprisingly, despite his flat feet, he passed the physical. Indeed, his physical development judged “good”, with only a scar on the small of his back and four scars on the fingers of his left hand as minor defects. He said he was a porter, and he said he was of age.

Unfortunately, he lasted only 167 days. He was discovered to have made a “mis-statement as to age.” The officer who discharged him described his military character as good. “This man,” he continued, even though Starkey was only 16 or 17, “would have continued a good soldier if he had been of the required age.”

Starkey was back on 17 March 1917, at Grove Park recruiting office. This time he joined the Army Service Corps as a driver – perhaps he used the intervening time to learn how to drive. Although he had grown no taller, he was now broader: 11 stone, with a 39 inch chest. He was fairly swiftly sent to join the 88th Training Reserve (recruits were not allocated to any particular regiment), and from there he joined the Durham Light Infantry.

His notes contain no shocks. Starkey committed only two misdemeanours: at Seaham Harbour, on 6 December 1917 he was punished with seven days confinement to barracks for “inatttention in afternoon parade.” In January the following year, and also at Seaham, he was docked three days’ pay for “overstaying his pass from 6pm and remaining absent until 10pm the 4th inst [4 January] when under orders for embarkation for active service.” On 9 January, after nearly a year at Home, he sailed for France.

Starkey allotted part of his pay to his mother. The record is difficult to read but I think the amount is 14s 2d.

There are over 600 names from the Durham Light Infantry on the Pozières Memorial, which relates to the period of between March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by the enemy across the former Somme battlefields.

Information from the censuses
In 1911 George Ernest Starkey was a 12-year-old schoolboy living at 85 St James’s Road, Brixton, where his family had an eight-roomed house. His mother, Letitia Starkey, 37, was a furniture dealer, born in Borough, with five children: Millicent Starkey, 16, Percy Starkey, 13; George, 12; Jeanette Starkey, 9; Irene Starkey, 6. They had a live-in servant: Henrietta Gridley, 44 and single, from Essex and a boarder, Hilda Styles, 22, single and from London. There is no mention of George Starkey (senior), who is mentioned in Starkey’s service record as living at 39 Station Road, Brixton and is on the 1901 census as a 29-year-old tailor’s cutter from Islington. Letitia described herself as “married.” The evidence points to them being separated.

Reginald Charles Southon

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R. C. Southon
Service no. 13008
Private, Essex Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Born in Hampstead, enlisted in Westminster, lived in Stockwell
Killed in action on 23 October 1916, aged about 19
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, France

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Reginald Charles Southon, 14, was an errand boy living at 27 Rossiter Road, Balham, where his family shared 5 rooms. He was born in Hampstead, north London. His father, John Charles Southon, 46, was a gas meter maker born in Clerkenwell, married for a year to Reginald’s stepmother, Olivia Estall, 48, from Peterborough. Reginald had a younger brother, Ernest John Southon, 12, born in Clerkenwell. Sarah Combs Tournies, 79, a widow from Lambeth, boarded with the family.

Robert Harry Roberts

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R. H. Roberts
Service no. G/22229
Private, Royal Sussex Regiment, 1st/4th Battalion
Died on 7 August 1918, aged about 19
Remembered at St Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, France, and St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Information from the 1911 census

Robert Harry Roberts was a 12-year-old schoolboy in 1911. He lived at 21 Cottage Grove, Stockwell with his parents and two sisters. Roberts’s father, Lambeth-born Robert Alfred Roberts, 43, was a clothworker; his mother Emma Eliza (née Farr), 38, was from Islington, north London. Norah Aileen Roberts, 16, was a “tailoress, born in Edgware, north London; Emma Winifred Sarah Roberts, 3, was born in Brixton. Three boarders shared the six-room accommodation: Beresford Worthington, 60, a single journalist from Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland; Frederick Collinds, 28, a single sugar confectioner from Andover, Hampshire; and Samuel Lloyd, 24, a single baker from Brixton.

Henry Ray

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H. W. Ray
Service no. 42425
Private, Lancashire Fusiliers, 10th Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Camberwell; lived in Lambeth
Died on 26 September 1917, aged 19
CWGC: “Son of Daniel David and Catherine Ray, of 9, St Andrews Place, Windmill Street, New Cut, Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, France

This is a tentative identification. There was an H. Ray (Private, Middlesex Regiment) who was born in Battersea and died on 26 March 1918.

Information from the censuses

Henry Ray, 13, was at school in 1911. He lived with his family at 17 Mary’s Buildings, Tanswell Street, north Lambeth, where the family of nine had four rooms. Daniel D. Ray, Henry’s father, was 40 and worked as a costermonger. He was born in Southwark. Catherine Ray, 39, was from Ireland. The couple had eight surviving children (of nine), of whom seven were at home:
Daniel P. Ray, 17, a costermonger
George Ray, 15, a news boy (sold newspapers)
Henry Ray, 13
Mary Ann Ray, 11
Margaret Ray, 8
Catherine Ray, 6
William Ray, 3
All were born in Southwark.