Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

age 22

Sidney Charles Withey

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S. C. Withey
Service no. 490673
Serjeant, London Regiment, 2nd/13th Kensington Battalion
Enlisted in Kensington; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 8 December 1917, aged about 22
Remembered at Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel and St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Information from the censuses

Insurance clerk Sidney Charles Withey lived at 14 Dalyell Road, Brixton with his parents and six siblings. His father, William Henry Withey, 46, was a travelling salesman for grocery products, born in Yeovil, Somerset. His mother, Louisa Emily (née Hutchings), 45, was from Camden Town, north London. Seven of their 10 children survived. Ethel Louisa Withey, 24, a dressmaker, and William James Withey, 24, a commercial clerk, were born in Kennington. Leonard Robert, 14, an accountant’s clerk, Ernest George Withey, 12, Mary Victoria, 10, Maud Alexandra, 9, and Sidney Charles were born in Stockwell. The family lived in six rooms and had lived at this address since at least 1901.

Albert Victor Owers White

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A.V.O. White
Private, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 1st Bn
Service no. G/3438
Died on 25 September 191, aged 22
Remembered at Loos Memorial, France

CWGC: “Son of Mrs. Florence White, of 66, Wilcox Rd., South Lambeth Rd., London.”

Albert White was born in 1894 in the village of March, Cambridgeshire. His parents Edward White and Florence Mary Owers had married in 1875 and Albert was the youngest of nine children when he was born. In the 1901 census the White family were living in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in Fen Country, where both his parents and the majority of his siblings had been born. His father was working on steam-driven threshing machines. 

Florence Mary White first appeared in Lambeth on the Electoral Rolls of 1907 and 1908 living at 58 Walnut Tree Walk in Kennington. By the time of the 1911 census, Florence was living nearby at 123 St George’s Road, Southwark, a busy thoroughfare running from Westminster Bridge Road to the Elephant and Castle. Florence was now 49 and in 25 years of marriage had borne 13 children, three of whom had died as infants. Florence neglected to state the ‘relationship’ of the individuals she named on her census form, but two were clearly her youngest children, Albert Victor White, 17, and Mildred Victoria Landlord White, 13. The enumerator later pencilled in the relationships, wrongly identifying widow Florence Clarissa Hayhoe as Florence’s sister; she was Florence’s daughter, who had married horse dealer Harry Hayhoe in 1898. He died in 1909 when the couple were living in Borough Road. 

Florence White earned her income as a landlady. Her own father and brothers had been piano-tuners. Perhaps it was her love of music and the theatre which led her to seek ‘theatrical types’ as her guests. Her boarders in 1911 were two actors and a music-hall artist. Albert had also been attracted to the world of theatre and Florence described her son’s occupation, confusingly, as ‘super-theatrical’. The White family and their three guests lived in six rooms of the property with a young couple and their baby son in three other rooms. 

An entry in the Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment Rough Register of Recruits shows 3438 Private White A. aged 21 enlisted on 16 November 1914. Albert volunteered in central London and probably trained with the 3rd Royal West Surrey Reserve based at the Chatham Lines before he was sent to France on 11 March 1915. A draft of 50 men reached the 1st RWS on Sunday 14 March when the battalion was in billets in the Bethune area. The battalion was held in reserve and on standby during March and April. More routine work followed in May. One man was killed and five wounded in a party helping to collect the wounded and bury the dead during the night near Givenchy on 26 May. June and July were months of providing various working parties before the battalion entered trenches near Cuinchy in the last week of July, sustaining small numbers of casualties on most days before returning to billets on 15 August 1915. More trench duty followed before the battalion prepared for their part in the offensive on 25 September. They advanced under cover of smoke wearing rudimentary gas helmets. Counterattacked, they were forced to retire under heavy machine-gun fire. Nine officers were killed or wounded, a total of 226 other ranks were killed, wounded or missing. Private 3438 White A. was posted missing that day.

Florence made enquiries via the Red Cross, hoping that Albert was a prisoner of war. The related card record showed her son had served in ‘D’ company, but there was no trace of the missing soldier who had ‘disparu [disappeared] 25 Sept 1915’. Florence gave her address as ‘Mrs. F. M. White, 3 Lansdowne Gardens, Stockwell, London S.W.’. The reply was ‘rien [nothing] 17.11.15’. After some months, Albert White was officially presumed to have died on or since 25 September 1915.

After 1918 Florence moved from Lansdowne Gardens to 66 Wilcox Road where she remained until 1928. There are no existing public records that show Albert’s initials as A.V.O.; to the Army he was plain Albert. Florence may have added two initials to make her son’s name more prominent on the Stockwell War Memorial. chris burge 

a.v.o. white. Private, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 1st Bn. Service no. G/3438. Died on 25 September 191, aged 22. Remembered at Loos Memorial, France

Stanley Humphrey Tremelling

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Stanley Humphrey Tremelling
Stanley Humphrey Tremelling. Photo © Jean Murray

S. H. Tremelling
Service no. 3000
Private, London Regiment, 1st/24th Battalion
Enlisted in Kennington; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 26 May 1915, aged about 22
CWGC: “Son of the late Mrs L. M. Tremelling.”
Remembered at Le Touret Memorial, France

Information from the censuses

Stanley Humphrey Tremelling, 18 in 1911, was a machine ruler working for a general printing firm. He lived with his 55-year-old widowed mother, Lucy Tremelling (nee Blundell) from Poplar and 30-year-old stepsister Hilda Tremelling (his dead father’s daughter), who was working as a dressmaker. The family lived in eight rooms at 1 Milkwood Road in Brixton.

In 1901 James Tremelling was a 53-year-old patten maker from Hayle, Cornwall and the family lived at 6 Gladstone Street in Southwark with James Tremelling’s brother Hampton, a French family of three and an American miner.

Thomas Thorne

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T. Thorne
Corporal, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 2nd Bn.
Service no. 9948
Died on 31 October 1914, aged 22
Remembered  at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium

Chris Burge writes:

Thomas Thorne was born in Lambeth in 1892 and baptised on 31 January at St Andrew’s, Stockwell Green, the third child of William and Sarah Jane Thorne. By 1901, William and Sarah were living at 52 Burgoyne Road [location] with their seven children. Thomas’ father worked as a brewer’s carman, and his older brother Harry was a telegraph messenger. 

In the 1911 census, William and Sarah were living with four of their children in five rooms at 70 Dalyell Road, Stockwell, across the road from the Marquis of Lorne pub. William was still working for a brewer. Older brother Henry was now a Post Office sorter, younger sister Annie was a daily domestic and William was a school newsboy. Frank was still at school. The property was shared with a middle-aged couple living in two other rooms and a young couple and their baby living in one other room. 

In 1911, Thomas was a new recruit at the Army’s Shorncliffe Camp near Folkestone, Kent. He had enlisted in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in January close to his 18th birthday. The 2nd KRRC, based in Blackdown, Aldershot in the two years prior to the war. Thomas’s records no longer exist, but private 9947 Frederick John Wallace Austin joined in London on 11 Jan 1911. Fred Austin’s next of kin was living in the Stockwell Park Road. If Fred and Thomas were friends, their paths would soon diverge when Fred was posted to the 3rd KRRC and Thomas to the 2nd KRRC.

In the spring of 1914 Thomas Thorne married Gertrude Nellie Hall. Their son Thomas Clement was born soon after, on 12 May 1914. Within three months, Thomas was in France.

The 2nd KRRC were mobilised on 4 August 1914, the day war was declared. They crossed from Southampton reaching Le Havre at 2.45pm on 13 August 1914. They were near the Belgium border when the retreat from Mons began in late August. The battles of the Marne and Asine followed, a period when the battalion suffered a total of 322 casualties. By 20 October they had moved to Boesinghe north-east of Ypres. By then the opposing forces had dug in. An assault on enemy trenches on 21 October was deemed a success despite the cost of 36 killed and 60 wounded. Before dawn, on the 31st, the enemy delivered a furious assault with overwhelming numbers of infantry and guns. In a desperate fight, the 2nd KRRC held the line before withdrawing to a less exposed position. The losses were severe, with over 400 men killed, wounded or missing. 

Thomas Thorne was not accounted for and was posted missing. His wife and family hung onto the belief he may have been taken prisoner. When Gertrude baptised her son Thomas Clement on 27 January 1915 at St John’s, Worlds End, Chelsea, soldier Thomas Thorne was recorded as the father. Well into 1915 Thomas’ father, William made enquiries via the British Red Cross, leaving his address as 116 Dalywell Road, Stockwell, London SW. Their hopes were crushed in mid 1915 when Thomas was officially presumed to have died on 31 October 1914. 

Ten years later, Gertrude Nellie Thorne, then living in Larkhall Lane, married again. Her wedding to police constable Alfred James Butter took place on Christmas Day 1924 at Christchurch, Clapham. Her son Thomas Clement Thorne later became a serving police officer.

Sydney Herbert John Sore

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S. H. J. Sore
Service no. 614318
Private, London Regiment, 2nd/19th Battalion, formerly 5508, 9th London Regiment
Born in Clapham; enlisted at Oxford Street, London; lived in Clapham
Killed in action on 22 March 1918, aged 22
CWGC: “Only son of Alfred Harry and Mary Emma Sore, of 8 Larkhall Lane, Clapham, London. Served also in France and Salonika.”
Remembered at Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel

Information from the censuses

Sydney Herbert John Sore, 15, was an architect’s clerk, born in Clapham. His father, Alfred Sore, 48, was a solicitor’s clerk born in South London; his mother, Mary Emma Sore, 40, was from Tuddenham, Suffolk. Kathleen Mary Sore, Sydney’s 7-year-old sister, was born in South Lambeth. The family lived at 8 Larkhall Lane, Stockwell. Ten years previously, they lived next door at 10 Larkhall Lane. They shared their home with Mary’s brother, Ernest Daniel Aldous, 25, a single warehouseman born in Peckham.

Harold Frederick Simpson

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H. F. Simpson
Service no. 5190
Private, Royal Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion
Born in Battersea; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Stockwell
Died of wounds on 3 June 1918, aged 22
CWGC: “Son of Frederick and Clara Jane Simpson, of 52 Bellefields Rd., Brixton London. Solicitor’s Clerk.”
Remembered at Ebblinghem Military Cemetery, France

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Harold Frederick Simpson, 15, lived at 52 Bellefields Road (where the family occupied 5 rooms), the eldest son of Frederick Simpson, 44, a solicitor’s clerk born in the City of London, and Clara Jane Simpson, 44, born in St. Marylebone, central London. Harold was born in Battersea, as was his sister Lily Florence Simpson, 13. His brother Victor Albert Simpson, 7, was born in Brixton. Frederick and Clara Simpson had four live babies, three of whom survived.