Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

age 21

George Daniel Talbot Drewery

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G. D. T. Drewery
Service no. L/5032
Officer’s Steward 2nd Class, Royal Navy, H.M.S. “Partridge”
Died age 21 on 12 December 1917
Son of George Talbot Drewery and Louisa Emma Drewery, of 25 Lansdowne Road
Remembered at Portsmouth Naval Memorial

The Partridge was sunk by four German destroyers in the North Sea while escorting a convoy. 74 men were lost. See naval-history.net for a list of casualties.

Information from the 1911 Census

In 1911 George Drewery, then a 15-year-old office boy, was living with his aunt Mary Ann Elizabeth White, 53, and uncle Robert White, 53, and their family at 62 Landor Road. Robert White was a housepainter born in Hackney. His wife was born in Lambeth. Their children, George Drewery’s cousins, all born in Clapham, were
Sydney Cope White, 26, a “warehouseman in ribbons”
Louis Sherley White, 25, a dental mechanic
Ella Annie White, 22, a fancy goods designer
Blanche Ethel White, 20, a shorthand typist

Robert Doyle

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R. Doyle
Service no. 8024
Private, Lincolnshire Regiment, 2nd Bn.
Died aged 21 on 23 October 1916
Son of Deborah Doyle, of 24, Courland Grove, Clapham, London.
Remembered at Bancourt British Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France

Robert’s Service records are extremely fragmentary. They show that he signed up on 13 August 1914, embarked for France on 26 March 1915, was in the field from 6 November, was attached to 179th tunnelling company in April 1916, and was disciplined for refusing to obey an order.  His effects and medals were sent to his mother at 17 Ely Place, Dorset Road. 

The 179th Tunnelling Company was responsible for digging a mine that was detonated on 1 July, the first day of the Somme Offensive, which lasted until November. It formed what is now known as the Lochnagar Crater. It is likely that Doyle was of short stature.

Information from the censuses

In 1901 the Doyle family lived at 25 Stewarts Lane West, Battersea. Lawrence G. Doyle, 28, was a general labourer born in Pimlico. Deborah Doyle, 29, was born in Lambeth. Robert Doyle, 7, and Margaret Doyle, 2, were born in Lambeth. Deborah Doyle, 6 months, was born in Battersea.

In 1911 the family lived at 105 Hartington Road, SW8. The census form shows that Lawrence was now a house painter and builder. (He gives his name as Laurence, and as the form was completed by the householder himself, this is presumably the correct spelling. However, other names are mispelled (“Lambert” for Lambeth, “Deborh” for Deborah and so on), so his general grasp of spelling was probably not strong.) The children in the house were
Margaret Doyle, 12
“Deborh” Doyle, 10
Kateleen Doyle, 7
Magderleen Doyle, 5
Victoria Aderlade Doyle, 2
(The latter 3 were born in Pimlico)
Robert does not appear on the 1911 census for this address.

Christopher Dartnell

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world war 1 soldier christopher dartnell
Christopher Dartnell before and after returning from the front. Courtesy of the Dartnell family

C. Dartnell
Service no 19561
Lance Corporal, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, 6th Battalion
Killed in action on 16 October 1917 age 21
Enlisted at Camberwell
Remembered at Hooge Crater Cemetery, Belgium

Chris Dartnell volunteered for military service shortly after the start of World War One. He was part of what was known as Kitchener’s volunteer army formed from the volunteers in 1914 and 1915.

The medal roll confirms that he was awarded the 1914/15 campaign Star together with the British War Medal and Victory Medal.

The official War Diary of the 6th DCLI for the 16th October 1917 states the following:

“The Battalion was in Brigade Support (to the 10th Battalion Durham Light Infantry who were in the front line trenches) and were quartered in Sanctuary Wood in Dugouts and Shelters about J13 C.5.7.” During the night 15/16th the enemy shelled the portion of the wood the Battalion were occupying with Gas Shells and High Explosive shells. He also again shelled the Wood very heavily from about 9am to Dusk. A&C coy’s carried up rations to the 10th DLI and our B” coy, leaving the wood at 5.30pm in parties of 20 under an officer. Casualties other ranks 4 killed 7 wounded”.

Alongside Christopher’s grave are the headstones of 3 other NCOs, all having been killed on the night of 15/16 October 1917.

In 1980, shortly before she died, Ethel Florence Humphreys (born 1903), the youngest of the 12 Dartnell siblings, wrote his reminiscence of her brother Chris for her daughter in 1980:

…My next vivid memory was War being declared in August 1914. My brothers, Roger, Jim and Fred were called up and transported to France and India. My father was called to repair the Hospital ships and was often in France for a month at a time. His trade was plumbing. It was frightening when the Zeppelins came over and dropped bombs and you wondered if you might be killed when they came your way. We very often stayed and sheltered in the underground where the trains were stationary until All Clear was sounded.

Next to be called up was my brother Chris, when he was 18. He hated war and violence and often wished he was not in the Army. When he had leave from France he never wanted to go back after his leave and the last break he had from the trenches he didn’t go back until after another day had passed. That was in 1917 (May). We then had a telegram to say he was killed in action in October – he was just 21. We all were very shocked because of this and the news that my brother Bill had been wounded in German East Africa and was on his way home having been shot in his right hand and had lost a thumb and was also wounded in the right hip. So he was out of soldering for good. He became a Commissionaire for a firm in the City of London.

My last brother, Reg was called up when he was 18 in January 1918 and sent to France for the big push in May 1918. We had a couple of cards from him the first few weeks and then no more news until August that he was a prisoner of war.

Thank goodness they all arrived home except Chris, safe and well after the war ended in November 1918.

Then Armistice was declared in November 1918 and we were told to go home at lunchtime. I remember going to see the masses of people gathering in the Strand, London and felt lost in the crowd. People dancing and cheering and drinking. I had to walk home as there were no buses running. When I reached my house my Mother was crying because her son, Chris, had been killed and would not be returning and my other brother Reg was still a prisoner of war and we were still waiting to hear if he was still alive.

Chris Dartnell died at Sanctuary Wood during the third Battle of Ypres and is buried at Hooge Crater Cemetery not far from there. Chris Dartnell’s great-niece Sheila says, “It’s just one of many cemeteries across Europe which shows that they are highly maintained – not like some of the memorials here.”

Information from the censuses

According to the 1911 census, the Dartnell family were living at 24 Hartington Road (that side of the road was demolished many years ago). Frederick Dartnell (senior), was a 48-year-old plumber, who was born in Lambeth, as was his wife Jane, also 48. Of their 12 children, these were at home on the night of the census:

Frederick Dartnell, 28, a plumber’s mate
Albert Dartnell, 26, another plumber’s mate
James Dartnell (Jim in the memoir his sister wrote), 24, a stationer’s clerk
Ellen Dartnell, 18, a “driver maker”
Lydia Dartnell, 16
Chris Dartnell, 13 (who later died in the Great War and is listed on the Stockwell War Memorial)
Reginald Dartnell, 12
Florence Dartnell, 6 (who wrote the reminiscence of her brother Christopher)

The 1901 census gives the Dartnells’ address as 34 Hartington Road, so either they moved from No 24 or 34 is a transcription error.
Frederick Dartnell senior’s name is given as Christopher F. Dartnell. It also lists the other Dartnell children:
William Dartnell, 11, born 1890
Helen M. Dartnell, 10, born 1891
Sidney Dartnell, 4 months, born 1901

In 1891 the Dartnell family were living at 34 Hartington Road. Frederick and Jane Dartnell and their (then) four children lived with Frederick senior’s mother Eliza Dartnell, 62, who was born in Chelsea. In addition, there was a married couple lodging with them – Richard Chamberlain, 58, a general labourer, and his wife Martha, 57, both born in Lambeth.

1881 Before Frederick married Jane, he lived at 34 Hartington Road with his parents, Edward J Dartnell, a 56-year-old compositor born in Lambeth, and Eliza, 50, whose birthplace is given as “Westminster” (rather than Chelsea as in the 1891 census). Frederick, then 18, was working as a carpenter (he later became a plumber) and his sister, Harriet, 16, was a dress-maker.
1871: In 1871 the Dartnell family, Edward and Elizabeth (grandparents to Christopher Dartnell, who died in 1917 and is named on the Stockwell War Memorial) and four children,
Mary Dartnell, 14
Harry Dartnell, 11
Christopher (Frederick) Dartnell, 8 (later the father of ‘our’ Christopher)
Harriet Dartnell, 6
lived in Spring Grove, Lambeth.
1861: In 1861 Edward and Elizabeth Dartnell family were living at 71 Vauxhall Street, with four children
Edward George Dartnell, 9
Lizzie Dartnell, 7
Mary Ann H Dartnell, 4 (listed in the 1871 census)
Harry Dartnell, 1

Edward Arthur Cunningham

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E.A. Cunningham
Rifleman, London Regiment (City of London Rifles), 1st/6th Bn.
Service No. 3362
Died 15 September 1916, aged about 21
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

Chris Burge writes:

Edward Arthur Cunningham was born in Stockwell in 1895, the only child of Arthur and Fanny. He was baptised in Kent, his mother’s place of birth, with the given names Arthur Edward Reuben on 20 October 1895.  In 1901, the family lived at 8 Burgoyne Road along with eight members of the Higgs family. 

In the 1911 census, the  Cunninghams were still with his parents at 8 Burgoyne Road, where they occupied three rooms.  Edward was a Law Stationer’s apprentice and his father Arthur worked as a weighbridge clerk for Lambeth Borough Council.  

In early 1915 Edward, then aged 20, went to the drill hall at 57a Farringdon Road to volunteer for the City of London Rifles (CLR), referred to as the ‘printers’ battalion’ because many of its members were recruited from Eyre & Spottiswoode’s printing works. The battalion was already in France but was recruiting for the 3rd line reserves. Edward was with a draft of men sent to France on 28 October, a month after the CLR had suffered terrible casualties at the Battle of Loos.  Periods of line holding were interspersed with rest and training. On 30 April the following year a mine exploded under their position near Vimy Ridge causing over 80 casualties. In July 1916 they moved south to begin training for the ongoing Somme offensive. On 15 September, 47th Division attacked High Wood to cover the left flank of the tank-led attack of the adjacent divisions at Flers. The 1/6th pressed on, but ‘whole waves of men were mown down in line’ by machine-gun fire.  Edward was killed in action on that day. 

Edward’s parents moved to Dulwich  after the war. Arthur is thought to have died in 1937, aged 67.  Fanny died in 1942, aged 69.

William Anthony Cox

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W. A. Cox
Service No. L/15560
Private, Middlesex Regiment, 12th Bn.
Died 26 September 1916, aged about 21
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

Chris Burge writes:

William Anthony Cox was born in Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland in 1895, the first child of James and Alice Cox. William’s father was a serving soldier and all four of their children were born in Ireland. In 1901 the family were living in married quarters at the Shorncliffe Army Camp in Kent.  

In the 1911 census, James and Alice lived with their three surviving children, William, Elena and Jim in Ramsgate on the coast. William was working as gardener; his father, an Army Pensioner, worked was a valet attendant. It is not known when the family came to the Stockwell area, but James Cox appeared on the electoral roll in 1915, living at 15 Portland Place South, South Lambeth.

William Cox’s service number indicates he volunteered in either late April or early May 1915.  Ready, or not, he was posted to the 1st Middlesex in France on 29 September, just five days after the 1st Middlesex had suffered terrible losses at the Battle of Loos.  Several quiet months followed and the  early part of 1916 was mostly spent in the Cuinchy sector.  William Cox’s transfer to the 12th Middlesex by September 1916 suggests he may have been wounded at some stage and did not return to his original battalion. The 12th Middlesex were among the forces that attacked Thiepval on 26 September, advancing uphill under a creeping barrage with the support of a single tank, first used by the British Army in battle 11 days earlier.  The majority of the 138 men killed that day are remembered on the Thiepval Memorial.  

William Anthony Cox was initially posted missing, leaving his family in an emotional limbo his death was presumed to have occurred on 26 September 1916.

James and Alice Cox remained at 15 Portland Place South until at least 1927.  

Stanley Henry Compson

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S. H. Compson
Service no. G/19059
Private, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), 10th Battalion
Died aged about 21 on 23 March 1918
Awarded the Military Medal
Remembered at Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France
Enlisted at Maidstone, resident at Hunton, Kent

British Army Service Records 1914-1920

Stanley Henry Compson was assumed dead on 23 March 1918. Like so many other families of soldiers, the Compsons not only had no body – generally only those gravely injured soldiers who managed to get back to Britain were buried at home – but no imagined foreign resting place.

Grieving families clung to whatever was left in order to mourn their dead. Memorials such as St Mark’s and Stockwell went some way to fill the gap left by the absence of a funeral. They are places to focus on and a place to point to with pride. Medals do the same – physical remnants of the deceased. Perhaps this is why Compson’s father, Joseph H. Compson, enquired often about the medals.

On 17 July 1919, he wrote to the military authorities with is change of address (he had moved to 77 St Agnes Place, SE11). “What is to be done about his M. M. [Military Medal]?” he asked. He requested that his was presented “publicly” and the medal arrived on 20 January 1920.

On 17 February 1921 he wrote again: “When may I expect to receive the medals due to my late son?”. Again, on 8 November 1921 he sent a change of address and added, “By the way, when may I expect to receive any medals that he is entitled to?”

A notice in the Edinburgh Gazette Supplement of 22 October 1917 stated that “His Majesty the KING has been graciously pleased to award the Military Medal for bravery in the Field to the undermentioned Non-Commissioned Officers and Men” includes Compson’s name.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Stanley Henry Compson was 14 and working as an errand boy for a grocer’s. He lived with his grandmother and other family members at 240 South Lambeth Road, London SW8. The household included
Jane Compson, 60, widowed, the mother of 6 children, 3 surviving: Joseph (Stanley’s father), Albert and Alfred.
Her son Albert Compson, 31, a motor cab driver
Another son, Alfred Compson, 28, also a motor cab driver
A granddaughter Lilian Compson, 16, a dressmaker’s assistant
Stanley Compson, 14
All the Compsons were born in Lambeth
Henry Hussey, 43, a boarder, working as a motor cab driver, born in Greenwich.
Information from the 1901 census
In 1901 four-year-old Stanley Henry Compson lived at 6 Wynyard Terrace, Lambeth, with his family: his father, Joseph H. Compson, a 27-year-old stockbroker’s clerk born in Lambeth; his mother, Catherine B. V. Compson, 23, born in Kennington; his brother, William E. Compson, 10 months, born in Kennington. Stanley was born in Brixton.