Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

age 22

Arthur Sidney Candy

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Arthur Sidney Candy
Arthur Sidney Candy. Photo © Marietta Crichton Stuart The headstone reads: “Not gone from memory or love, but to his father’s home above”

A. S. Candy
Private no. A/201081
Rifleman, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 7th Battalion
Died age 23 on 22 October 1917
Son of Amelia S. Candy, of 7 Tregothnan Road, Stockwell, London.
Remembered at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911, the Candy family was living in 17 Trevelyan Road, Tooting, where they occupied 4 rooms. William Robert Candy, 67, was an out-of-work plasterer. He was born in Southampton. His wife, Amelia Sophia Candy, 59, was born in Lambeth. Charles James Candy, 23, was a printer’s labourer. Arthur Sidney Candy, 16, was apprenticed as a compositor; Lydia Amelia Candy, 33, was a tobacco weigher. All were born in Lambeth. William and Amelia had had 10 children, of whom 6 had survived.

Information from 1901 census

In 1901 the Candy family was living at 22 Griffen Street. William Candy, 57, was a plumber born in Southampton; Amelia Candy, 48, was from Lambeth. The children registered on the census were
Phoebe Candy, 25, stationary folder
Lydia Candy, 23, tobacco sorter
Emily Candy, 21, tobacco sorter
Charles Candy, 13
Arthur Candy, 6

Norman Cairns

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N. Cairns
Service no. 76551
Gunner, Royal Garrison Artillery, 279th Siege Bty.
Killed in action in the field age 22 on 26 June 1917
Husband of Florence Cairns (nee Penton), of 47 Courland Grove, Larkhall Lane, Clapham, London.
Remembered at Vlamertinghe New Military Cemetery, Belgium

British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1919

When he enlisted on 26 April 1916, Norman Cairns was a butcher, living at 38 Bromfelde Road.

He was 5 feet 10 and a half inches tall.

He married Florence Penton on 26 December 1914 at the Wesleyan Chapel on Clapham Road.
Service record

25 December 1916 Posted to British Expeditionary Force

14 April 1917 Hospitalised with gunshot wound to the shoulder
25 April 1917 Invalided to England

He was returned to the field (date illegible).

On 19 December 1917 the Officer in Charge of Records wrote to Norman Cairns’ widow enclosing her husband’s personal belongings: a coin disc, a pocket book, a religious book, penknife, cigarette holder and cigarette case. The British War and Victory medals were sent on 8 September 1921.

In his service declaration Norman claimed he had no siblings. However, the 1901 census shows that he had both a brother and a sister. (The 1911 census shows that Norman’s mother Mary had 8 children, 6 of whom survived in 1911.) In 1901 Norman was 7 and living at 34 Thorparch Road. His father, John D. Cairns, 54, was an engine fitter born in Newcastle. His wife, Mary, 51, was born in Stratford, Essex. Norman’s brother Frank J. Cairns, 18, was a grocer’s assistant born in Fulham; his sister, Florence Blebta, 31, was born in India. Her two children, Franz Blebta, 7, born in Clapham and Wenzl Blebta, 5, born in South Lambeth, lived with her.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission database shows that a W. Blebta (William Blebta according to the Soldiers Died in the Great War database) died on 21 March 1916. His details are as follows:
Service no. 2137
Private, London Regiment, 1st/23rd Battalion
Son of Henry and Florence Blebta, of 63 Lynette Avenue, Clapham, London.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Norman Cairns, 17 and working as a butcher’s apprentice was living at 9 Gaskill Street, Larkhall Lane, London SW4, where the family occupied 3 rooms. His father, John Dickinson Cairns, 64, was an engine fitter and night watchman for the London and South West Railways. He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. Mary Cairns, 61, was born in Stratford, east London. Franz Blebta, 17,a butcher’s apprentice, and Wenzl Blebta,  15, unemployed, grandsons of John and Mary, also lived in the household.

Florence Blebta, 36, mother to Franz and Wenzl, was working for the Shillington family as a live-in housemaid at 31 Spencer Park, Wandsworth. She married Henri Wenzl Blebta in 1895 in Lambeth. He does not appear on the 1911 census, although he is named in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database.

Charles Henry Burchell

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C. H. Burchell
Service no. SD/3529
Private, Royal Sussex Regiment, 13th Battalion
Killed in action aged 22 on 30 June 1916
Son of Thomas and Harriett Burchell, of Mate’s Nest, Balcombe, Sussex.
Remembered at Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

This is a tentative association. This is the only British-resident C. H. Burchell in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database.

William Bird

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W. Bird
Service no. J/24752
Able Seaman, Royal Navy, H.M.S. “Princess Royal.”
Died at around age 22 on 18 July 1918
Son of William Bird, of 21, Irving Grove, Stockwell, London.
Also remembered at Lambeth Cemetery, Screen Wall and St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Information from the 1901 and 1911 censuses

In 1911 William Bird lived with his family in 6 rooms at 21 Irving Grove, off Stockwell Road, SW9 (they are also at this address in the 1901 census). His father, also called William, was 40 and worked as a butcher’s carman. His mother, Mary Ann Bird, 40, was born in Pimlico. Nine of their 11 children survived.
The children on the census were
Arthur Francis Bird, 19, a bioscope operator
Rose Bird, 17, “at home”
William Bird, 15, an errand boy, killed in 1918
Lily Bird, 13
Edith Bird, 9
Albert Bird, 8
Annie Bird, 6
Harry Bird, 4
Marrie Bird, 2
All but Mary Ann Bird were born in Stockwell.
Alfred Gibson, 76, a retired coachman born in Islington, was visiting. He was boarding with the family in the 1901 census as was Alfred Save, 23, a single baker from Clapham.

Frederick Avis

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F. Avis
Service no 46278
Corporal, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, 4th Battalion
Died age 22 on 9 June 1918
CWGC: “Son of Mrs. R. Avis, of 37 Thorncroft Street, Wandsworth Road, South Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Franvillers Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France and at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9

Information from 1911 Census
In 1911 Frederick Avis was 16 and working as an errand boy. He lived in 2 rooms at 59 Lambeth High Street, SE1 with his father George Avis, 38, a compositor, and mother Rhoda Avis, 44, and his brothers: Joseph Avis, 14, and Charles Avis, 9. All were born in Lambeth.

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920
Frederick Avis, a 19-year-old single brewer, joined up barely a month after war was declared on 4 August 1914. Many assumed that the war would be short in duration (“home by Christmas”) and not particularly arduous. It would be like one big party – not to be missed. Avis must have been aware of the bitter irony of these hopes: he survived, possibly exhausted by stress and trauma, nearly to the end of the conflict, and his service included at least one major period of illness.

Initially Avis joined the Wiltshire Regiment but he was transferred to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in May 1916. He rose from Private to unpaid Lance Corporal and Corporal (attracting proper pay). Avis’s only transgression on record is a failure to comply with an order in November 1915 for which he forfeited 4 days pay.

Avis stood 5 feet 4½ inches, with a chest of 35½ (expandable by 2½ inches), and weighed 118 pounds. His hair was brown and his eyes blue. On enlistment he was described as fit, but after three years of gruelling warfare he was returned to England and spent at least 60 days in hospital. In September 1917 was receiving treatment at the Birmingham War Hospital for kidney stones, and he was also diagnosed with muscular rheumatism. He spent 38 days there, and a further 22 days in the Convalescent Hospital at Plymouth.

And then, on 31 March 1918, he was back at the front.

He died at the Somme after serving for 3 years and 275 days, on 9 June 1918.

His widowed mother, Ada, received his effects: letters, photos, a wallet, two religious books, a watch and watchstrap. And later, in 1919, with the help of the Rev Helm, the vicar at St. Anne’s Church, South Lambeth Road, she filled in the Army form declaring next of kin who may have a claim for pension: Charles, 17; Joseph, 22 (now living in Balfour Street, Nine Elms), and Edward, 24.

James Albert Andrews

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J. A. Andrews
Service no 6703
Private, 1st (Royal) Dragoons
Formerly 6703, 2nd Dragoons (Scots Greys)
Killed in action on 12 November 1914, aged 22
Son of James and Rose Rebecca Andrews, of 60 Wilcox Road, South Lambeth, London.
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ieper, Belgium and at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9