W. J. Gooding
Service no. 31983
Private, Welsh Regiment, 19th (Pioneer) Battalion
Killed in action age 19 on 25 February 1917
CWGC: “Brother of Harry I. Gooding, of “Clevedon,” Papworth Everard, Cambridge.”
Remembered at Bard Cottage Cemetery, Ypres, Belgium
age 19
Jesse William Goff
P. W. Goff (erroneously given for J.W. Goff)
Service no. 300319
Rifleman, London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade), 1st/5th Battalion
Born in Clapham; enlisted in London; lived in Clapham
Killed in action on 1 July 1916 (the first day of the battle of the Somme), aged 19
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France
Jesse William Goff is consistently misnamed as P.W. (Percy William Goff) – in his Army records, on his medals cards, in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database, on the Thiepval Memorial and at Stockwell War Memorial. Why this should be is still a mystery to his descendants. The family have his medals and death plaque – they give his Army number so there is no question that this is the correct man.
Information from the 1911 census
In 1911 the Goff family lived at 63 Chelsham Road, Clapham, where they had seven rooms. Jesse William Goff, then 13 and an only child, lived with his father, William Percy Goff, 43, a prudential assurance agent from Poole, Dorset, and Grace Mary Goff, 38, an assistant mistress at a London County Council school. There was a boarder, Frank Cutten, 28, a compositor from Chichester, Sussex.
Sue and Ron Falder have sent the photo of Jess, above, and the text of two letters he wrote to his Aunt “Op” (Annie Margaret Carroll (nee Williams) Jesse’s mother’s sister, who is Sue Falder’s grandmother, at 42 Risingholme Road, Weald Village, Harrow, Middlesex.
They provide a vivid portrait of the hard work required at the front, and of the dry good humour life there brought to the surface. He sounds both hard-working (“hard work and fresh air”) and sweet-natured in his expressions of affection for his young cousin Molly and the newborn baby.
The first letter is dated 28 May (1916). He mentions the fact that Jim (Op’s husband) may be called up. By January 1916 compulsory conscription was in place. It applied to unmarried or widowed men between 18 and 41, but on 25 May 1916 married men were included. Those in trades that were considered vital to the war economy – the so-called “starred occupations” – were exempt. I am not sure who “our boss” mentioned in the letter is, but it could be Jess’s sardonic description of his own mother.
Sue and Ron Falder have sent the photo of Jess, above, and the text of two letters he wrote to his Aunt “Op” (Annie Margaret Carroll (nee Williams) Jesse’s mother’s sister, who is Sue Falder’s grandmother, at 42 Risingholme Road, Weald Village, Harrow, Middlesex.
They provide a vivid portrait of the hard work required at the front, and of the dry good humour life there brought to the surface. He sounds both hard-working (“hard work and fresh air”) and sweet-natured in his expressions of affection for his young cousin Molly and the newborn baby.
The first letter is dated 28 May (1916). He mentions the fact that Jim (Op’s husband) may be called up. By January 1916 compulsory conscription was in place. It applied to unmarried or widowed men between 18 and 41, but on 25 May 1916 married men were included. Those in trades that were considered vital to the war economy – the so-called “starred occupations” – were exempt. I am not sure who “our boss” mentioned in the letter is, but it could be Jess’s sardonic description of his own mother.
My Dear Op,
I have just got your address from Ma.
I was going to write before but I could not remember the name of your street. I remembered the number of the house that was all.
Well I am out here again & very near where I was before in fact we pass some of our old billets daily.
It is rather warmer than before in more ways than one. Nevertheless by dint of hard work & fresh air we manage to keep ourselves alive & fit. Mind you it’s not all cakes & ale but our various little “grouses” would fill a book.
We go out & work every day with picks & shovels just like navvies (the only difference is that the latter get about three times the pay). Sometimes we get a little shelling or “strafing” sometimes not, usually the former but we have managed without any casualties so far. Our week usually consists of seven days (working) & after a lengthy discussion today we have come to the conclusion that the man who could put forward an invention that would get another 24 hrs out of a week, would make his fortune.I have heard from Ma about Uncle “Jim” & the “garrison duty abroad” business. Really I should not think that he would be called up at all. I’m sure I don’t know how our “boss” will get on if the age limit extends much more. But I must not express my own views on the subject as this epistle has to pass through other hands.
“Let’s” hope it will be all over soon.
Shall be pleased to hear from you when you can spare the time. Hope you are all well: I am quite fit. Love to both of you. Lot’s of kisses for Molly and I can only say “the other”. I do not know the name or sex.
Anyhow just mention that “he or she” has got a cousin.
Yr Loving Nephew, Jess.
The second letter was written on Friday 23 June, just a few days before he was killed, on 1 July 1916. He mentions the “official P.C. [postcard]”, shown left.
My dear Op & Jim
Thanks very much for your letter and parcel. Many of us enjoyed the contents. As a matter of fact it arrived at a most opportune moment – we were in the trenches.
That is the reason I was unable to write there and then, but I hope you received the official p.c.
We had a rather rough time up there but are very now resting (& very glad too).
Really there is next door to no news. One cannot say everything & – well all that remains is I am quite well and the weather has not been at all good.
We see rather more life & more grub now since we have left the “navvies”. I don’t think anyone was very sorry to leave.
By the way I’m afraid I’m putting the cart before the horse. I don’t think I told you that we moved and are now with our regiment.
My address for the future will be No. 255 A Coy. London Rifle Brigade B.E.F. France.
Now I’m afraid that is all.
Best of love to Molly & the new arrival.
Y. Loving Nephew Jess
James William Gilbert
J. W. Gilbert
Service no. K/42535
Stoker Second Class, Royal Navy, H.M.S. “Cornwall”
Died age 19 on 10 January 1918
CWGC: “Son of W. Gilbert, of 139 Hartington Road, South Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Plymouth Naval Memorial
Information from the Royal Navy website
The fourth HMS Cornwall (1902-1920) was a 9000 ton armoured cruiser launched at Pembroke in 1902. On the outbreak of war in 1914 she was despatched to West Africa to intercept German merchant shipping. She proceeded to the Falklands and on 8 December 1914 engaged German light cruisers, sinking theLeipzig. Returning to West Africa until June 1915 she was sent to support the Gallipoli campaign. The following October she went back to the East Indies and China Stations to protect Allied shipping from surface raiders. Returning to the UK in 1917 she was refitted and escorted convoys between Canada and the UK. She paid off early in 1919.
Information from the 1911 census
In 1911 James William Gilbert, then aged 12, lived at 74 Thorparch Road, Stockwell. His father, William Gilbert, 52, was a railway guard from Frampton, Dorset. His mother, Annie Gilbert, 48, was born in London. They had had 7 children, 6 of them surviving in 1911. Five lived at home:
Ellen Lucy Gilbert, 17, was a machinist
Lilian Frances Gilbert, 14, was a domestic servant
James William Gilbert, 12
Florence Louisa Gilbert, 10
Alice May Gilbert, 7
All the children were born in London.
Frederick Charles George
F. C. George
Service no. S/31588
Rifleman, Rifle Brigade, 3rd Battalion
Died age 19 on 31 July 1917
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Wandsworth
CWGC: “Son of William and Sarah E. George, of 27A, Goldsboro’ Rd., Springfield Estate, Wandsworth, London.”
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium
National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918
GEORGE, F. C., Rifleman, Rifle Brigade
He joined in 1917 and in March of that year proceeded overseas. During his service on the Western Front he took part in many engagements, and did very good work with his Battalion. He gave his life for the freedom of England in July 1917 near Hill 60, and was entitled to the General Service and Victory Medals.
“And doubtless he went in splendid company.”
27A Goldsboro’ Road, Wandsworth Road, S.W.8.
Information from the 1911 census
In 1911 Frederick Charles George, born in South Lambeth, lived with his parents, sister and uncle at 27a Goldsboro Road, Wandsworth. His father, William George, 41, was a railway porter, born in Old Basing, Hampshire; his mother Sarah E. George, 39, was born in Battersea. Zillah, Frederick’s sister, 16, was a dressmaker’s apprentice born in South Lambeth, and his uncle, Frederick George, 35, was a foreman horsekeeper.
Alfred Thomas Evans
A. T. Evans
Rifleman, London Regiment (London Irish Rifles), 2nd/18th Bn.
Service no. 593075
Died 23 December 1917, aged 19
Remembered at Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel
Alfred Thomas Evans was born in 1898 and baptised at St Paul’s, Clapham on 1 May. He was the youngest of William Charles and Mary Evans’ four sons. The family lived in six rooms above their grocery shop at 270 Wandsworth Road.
In the 1911 census, Alfred, then 13, lived at home with this parents and older brothers William Charles, Bertram Horace and Henry Edgar. His father, a tea dealer and grocer, ran the family business with the assistance of his son William. Bertram worked as an engineer, and Henry was a leather worker.
The shop lay between New Road and Howard Street, with a butcher and baker to either side. The Bell public house was two doors away and is still standing. The atmosphere of the area can be judged from this 1910 photograph.
October 1911 brought sadness for the family when Bertram, the second son, died aged 21. He was buried at Norwood Cemetery. Happier times followed when Alfred’s older brother William married Ada Florence Hall at St Philips, Balham, on 23 March 1913. Their first child was born in January 1914.
William seems to have made a last-minute decision to attest on 9 December 1915, under Lord Derby’ scheme, two days before its closure. The scheme, devised because recruitment was not keeping pace with casualties, urged men aged 18 to 41 who were not in a reserved occupation to come forward, on the understanding that single men would be called up before married men or widowers with children. William was not called up until the beginning of 1917.
Alfred was conscripted in mid-1916, enlisting in London. His first destination was Salonika by ship across the Mediterranean, landing on 30 March 1917. His battalion moved to Egypt on 12 June, landing at Alexandria, and entrained for Ismalia where they settled in at Moscar Camp the following day.
The comforts of the camp were described by one soldier: ‘Moscar, itself, was a permanent camp of tents with ample accommodation for everyone and water to be had by merely turning on a tap. Melons and fruit in abundance and in great variety and ideal swimming in Lake Timsah only a short distance away…’
What followed was the Battle of Sheria in November and the assault to capture Jerusalem in December.
News reached the Evans family that Alfred’s older brother William had been wounded in the head and was invalided to England on 16 December 1917. A week later, at Christmas time, William and Mary received the news that Alfred had been killed in action on Christmas Eve, near Jerusalem.
Alfred’s brothers William and Henry ran the family business in the Wandsworth Road for many years after the war. His father died in 1931, aged 67, Henry in 1940, aged 47, and William in 1963, aged 75.
Giles Vellacott Daunt
G. V. Daunt
Second Lieutenant, South Lancashire Regiment, 10th Battalion, attd. 6th Battalion
Killed in action in Mesopotamia on 9 April 1916, aged 19
Brother of Conrad O’Neill Daunt
Remembered at Basra Cemetery, Iraq
Awarded the Victory, British and Star medals
On 20 August 1914 Giles Vellacott Daunt, aged 18 and working as a clerk, joined the Royal Fusiliers as a Signaller. He was almost immediately offered a commission in the South Lancashires (with whom his brother Conrad also served). Quite apart from his middle-class background – he was a son of the physician and surgeon Francis Eldon Horsford Daunt – he must have looked the part. Six feet tall, over 11 stone and with a 41-inch chest, blue eyes and fair hair.
In February 1916 Daunt embarked on the H.M.S. Ionic, headed for Port Said, Egypt and then Basra, Iraq. He was reported missing in action on 9 April 1916. His death was later confirmed. A memorandum of 6 August states that his body was buried at Sanniyat.