Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

age 24

William Henry Wilson

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W. H. Wilson
Service no.66127
Bombardier, Royal Field Artillery, “A” Bty. 109th Bde.
Died 28 August 1916, aged 24
Remembered at Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L’Abbe, France
Husband of A. F. Wilson, of 17, Chantrey Rd., Brixton, London.

This identification was made by Chris Burge, who writes:

William Henry Wilson has born on 25 June 1892, one of the five children of parents Thomas Reeves and Ellen Agnes Wilson. William was baptised on 21 August 1892 at St John, Hoxton, when the family lived in Wenlock Street, where they remained for twenty years.

By the time of the 1911 census, William’s mother had died and he shared the home with his father Thomas, sister Florence Agnes and younger brother George Albert. They had just three rooms at 65 Wenlock Street. William worked as a ‘carman contractor’.

William volunteered around the end of 1914 at Holloway, joining the Royal Field Artillery and was eventually posted to the 109th Brigade who were equipped with howitzers. He was married while a soldier on 4 April 1915 to Alice Florence Edwards, a local girl, at St Matthew’s Church, Islington, giving their address as 21 Morton Road. Just four months later, 66127 Wilson was sent to France, disembarking on 29 August 1915.

Almost a year later to the day, William was in action on the Somme as his ‘A’ Battery shot to support British advances. The batteries of the 109th Brigade were under constant shelling themselves, losing eight men in the week before 25 August. When they moved to new positions north of Montauban, on the 25 August, three more men were wounded and another killed. On 28 August, in bad weather, another man was killed and three others wounded. William Henry Wilson died of wounds on this day.

By the end of the war, William’s widow Alice was living at 17 Chantrey Road, Brixton, were she remained until 1934 when she married Frederick Muspratt who had been a ASC lorry driver in the war. She was widowed for a second time when Frederick died in 1946.

Alice Florence was living at 34 Kemerton Road, Camberwell, when she passed away on 21 July 1981, aged 86.

John Wilkin

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J. Wilkin
Service no. 17677
Private, Royal Fusiliers, 12th Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Southwark
Killed in action on 16 August 1916, aged 24
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

WILKIN, J., Private, Royal Fusiliers.
He volunteered in June 1915, and in September of that year proceeding to the Western Front, was in action in the Battle of Loos, and in various other important engagements. He gave his life for King and Country in August 1916, during the first Battle of the Somme, and was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, the General Service and Victory Medals.
“His life for his Country.”
26 Wyvil Road, South Lambeth Road, S.W.8.

ohn Wilkin enlisted in Southwark in June 1915, and in September was sent to the front. He saw action in the Battle of Loos and died in August 1916, during the first Battle of the Somme. He lived at
26 Wyvil Road, off South Lambeth Road.

The 1911 census shows John Wilkin in Lambeth, a 19-year-old flour mill labourer who was one of 13 children of flour mill worker Robert Wilkin, 45, and Annie Amelia (née Ellis), 46, who at that time lived at 48 Commercial Road, Waterloo.

On 19 June 1915 John Wilkin married Violet Edith Baker,  at St Barnabas, South Kennington, who was awarded a weekly pension of 10s after John’s death.

Horace John Baker Whittingham

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H. J. Whittingham
Service no. 76274
Corporal, Tank Corps, 1st Battalion; formerly 3294, Royal Fusiliers
Died of wounds on 28 April 1918, aged 24
CWGC: “Son of John Baker Whittingham and Alice Louisa Whittingham, of 28 Angell Road, Brixton, London.”
Remembered at Marissel French National Cemetery (near Beauvais), Oise, France

Brother of Claude Lionel Whittingham

Clarence George Wheeler

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C. G. Wheeler
Service no. L/21895
Driver, Royal Field Artillery, “A” Bty. 162nd Bde.
Died of wounds on 4 April 1917, aged 24
CWGC: “Son of George Henry and Fannie Wheeler, of 35 Holland Street, Brixton, London.”
Remembered at Faubourg d’Amiens Cemetery, Arras, France

Information from the censuses

In 1911 Clarence George Wheeler, 18, was a grocer’s assistant. He lived with his parents, George Henry Wheeler, 46, a glass cutter from Sevenoaks, Kent, and Fanny Wheeler, 48, from Canterbury, Kent, in four rooms at 35 Holland Street (now Caldwell Street), Stockwell, as well as his four siblings: Albert Henry Wheeler, 15, a shop boy; Margaret Wheeler, 12; Hilda May Wheeler, 9, Edgar Ralph Wheeler, 4. An older sibling, Nina, who appears on the 1901 census, had died. Clarence was born in Stepney, east London, his siblings in Brixton.

George Steven Strange

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G. S. Strange
Service no. 39606
Private, Royal Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion
Born in Stockwell; enlisted in Lambeth
Killed in action on 11 May 1917
Remembered at Wancourt British Cemetery, France

George Steven (sometimes Stephen) Strange was born in 1893 in Stockwell and enlisted at Lambeth. In 1911 he lived at 33 Cobbett Street, off Dorset Road, with his stepfather William Barrett, 45, and mother Sarah Barrett, 47, from Stepney, east London, and 13-year-old sister Alice. George, then 17, worked as a kitchen porter in a hotel. George’s father had been a brewer’s labourer.

Charles James Stanley

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C. J. Stanley
Service no. 2862
Driver, Royal Field Artillery, 2nd/47th Div. Ammunition Col.
Died on 14 September 1916, aged about 24
Remembered at Dantzig Alley British Cemetery, Mametz, Somme, France

In 1911 Charles James Stanley, a carter for a confessioner, lived in four rooms at 23 Clarence Street, Studley Road, Stockwell with his widowed mother, Henrietta (née Coleman), 46, who was born in Lambeth, and four of his seven siblings and other members of his extended family. He was 19 and worked as a carter.

Stanley was born in 1891 and baptised at St Andrew’s, Stockwell Green on 17 May 1893. His father, William Heysed Stanley, was a house decorator and the family lived at 19 Lingham Street. 

In 1912 Charles James Stanley married Dorothy Mary Elizabeth Smith. A daughter, Dorothy Rose Muriel, was born in 1913 and a son, Charles Frederick Henry, posthumously, in 1917.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Charles James Stanley lived in four rooms at 23 Clarence Street, Studley Road with his widowed mother, Henrietta Stanley, 46, who was born in Lambeth. He was 19 and a carter. His siblings were:
William Stanley, 27, a butcher’s assistant, born in Lambeth
Minnie Stanley, 21, a “layer on”, born in Lambeth
Ernest Stanley, 11, born in Clapham
Ethel Stanley, 8, born in Stanley
Henrietta Stuart, 26, married, born in Lambeth
Henrietta Stuart’s, husband, Sidney Stuart, 27, a general labourer, born in Bermondsey
Minnie Stuart, 1, their daughter, born in Clapham
Alice Stuart, 6 months, born in Lambeth
Henrietta had had 10 children, seven surviving.