Stockwell War Memorial

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age 24

John Alfred Stammers

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J. A. Stammers
Service no. 41606
Driver, Royal Field Artillery, “B” Bty. 155th Bde.
Enlisted in Deptford, south-east London; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 4 November 1918, aged about 23
Remembered at Vis-en-Artois Memorial, France and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

Few details of John Alfred Stammers’ Army career survive. We know he joined the 186th Howitzer Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery on 6 September 1915 at Deptford as a Driver. He was described as 20 years and 306 days, 5 feet 5½ inches tall, with a 34½ inch chest (expandable by 2½ inches). His general physical development as “good” but he had a slight varicose vein on his right leg.

Information from the censuses

Few details of John Alfred Stammers’ Army career survive. We know he joined the 186th Howitzer Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery on 6 September 1915 at Deptford as a driver. He was described as 20 years and 306 days old, 5ft 5½in tall, with a 37in chest. His general physical development was ‘Good’ but he had a varicose vein in his right leg.

The 1911 census shows John Alfred Stammers as a 16-year-old junior clerk living with his father, commercial clerk John William Stammers, 43, from Islington, north London and stepmother Phoebe Nellie (née Smith), 42, from Shoreditch, east London in four rooms at 64C Hackford Road, Stockwell. John Alfred’s mother Louisa (née Fowler) died in childbirth in 1901.

Isaac Spooner

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I. Spooner
Service no. 25552
Private, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment), 9th Battalion, formerly 015439 R.A.S.C.
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Battersea; lived in Wandsworth
Killed in action on 1 September 1918, aged 24
CWGC: “Son of James and Matilda Spooner.”
Remembered at Vis-en-Artois Memorial, France

In 1911 ironmonger’s assistant Isaac Spooner, 17, lived at 39 Brooklands Road, Stockwell, where his family had six rooms. His father, James Spooner, 55, from Newham, Hampshire, was a train engine driver for London & South Western Railway; his mother, Matilda Jane (née Hector), 55, was from Brixton. Three of Spooner’s six siblings lived at home, his sister Norah, 31, a dressmaker’s assisant, and two brothers, Henry, 27, a carman, and Sidney James (Isaac’s twin), 17,  a draper’s assistant (who also served in the Army Service Corps, was wounded by a bomb and survived – he died in 1929, aged 36). 

Spooner enlisted in Battersea 0n 6 October 1914, giving his occupation as carman. He was 5ft 4½in, 8⅔st, with a 36in chest. He had blue eyes, brown hair and a sallow complexion, with a scar in the centre of his forehead and on his left cheek. His physical development was judged to be ‘Good’. On 8 July 1915 he joined the Expeditionary Force to France. On 20 August 1917 he was transferred to the West Riding Regiment.

Matilda, Spooner’s widowed mother, died aged 62 of sarcoma of the jaw on 20 November 1918, 11 weeks after her son was killed in action. 

Information from the 1911 census

Ironmonger’s assistant Isaac Spooner, 17, lived at 39 Brooklands Road, Stockwell, where his family had  6 rooms. His father James Spooner, 55, from Newham, Hampshire, was a train engine driver for London & South West Railway; his mother Matilda Spooner, 55, was from Brixton. Three siblings (of six) lived at home: Henry Spooner, 27, a carman in Walworth; Norah Spooner, 31, a dressmaker working in Oxford Street; Sidney Spooner, 17, a draper’s assistant in Balham (and possibly Isaac’s twin). James and Matilda had a total of eight children (one died).

Joseph Charles Smale

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J. C. Smale
Service no. G/2820
Private, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), “C” Coy., 8th Batallion
Died of wounds age 24 on 22 January 1916
CWGC: “Son of Martha Tucker (formerly Smale), and the late William James Smale, of 3 Kenchester Street, South Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, France

Brother of William Herbert Smale

Information from the censuses

In 1911 Joseph Smale, 19, was a laundry foreman. He lived with his mother Martha Tucker, 48, stepfather George Tucker, 50, and siblings at 3 Kenchester Street, South Lambeth (roughly, behind the Tate Library). George Tucker, from Clapham, worked in a laundry. He had been married to Martha for six years – they had a son, Frederick Tucker, 6. Four of Martha’s other children lived in the household: William Smale, 25, a soapmaker; Lilian Smale, 23, a packer in a laundry; Thomas Smale, 21, a manager in a cigarette factory; Joseph; Edward Smale, 15, a electrician’s mate; Sidney Smale, 10. All the Smale children were born in Lambeth. In 1901 the Smales lived at 7 Wilkinson Street. Joseph’s father William James Smale, 49, gave his ocupation as “warehouseman – baskets”. Ten years previously the Smales were living at 18 Walberswick Street, South Lambeth Road.

Percy Hendrick Sloots

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P. H. Sloots
Service no. 25582
Lance Corporal, East Surrey Regiment, 12th Battalion
Died age 24 on 31 October 1918
Husband of Lilian E. E. Sloots (nee Mann – they married in March 1918) of 31 Gateley Road, Stockwell, London.
Remembered at Kezelberg Military Cemetery, Belgium

Information from the censuses

In 1911 Percy Hendrick Sloots was 15 and working as a telegraph messenger for the Post Office. He lived with his father, Dutch-born hairdresser George Sloots, 42, and mother Jane E. Sloots, 46, from Pimlico, and two younger brothers, Albert E. Sloots, 14, another telegraph messenger, and Reginald C. Slooots, 12, in four rooms at 86 Stockwell Road. The boys were all born in Stockwell. One other sibling had died. A boarder, Hugh Vollbrecht, a hairdresser’s assistant from Norwich lived with the family. In 1901 the family lived at 70 Stockwell Road. The Sloots had lived at that address since at least 1891 as George and Jane Sloots appear there on the census for that year.

Edward Arthur Slade

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E. A. Slade
Service no. G/17166 (This service number, given on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for E.A. Slade, is not quoted on any other document known to date)
Private, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), Depot
Secondary Unit, Regiment transf. to (Cpl. 62899) 105th Coy. Labour Corps
Died 30 October 1917, aged about 24
Remembered Solferino Farm Cemetery, Belgium

This identification was made by Chris Burge, who writes:

Edward Arthur Slade was born in 1883 in Battersea, one of William and Leah Frances Slade’s three children. By 1901 the family were living in Kennington and Edward Slade worked as a carpenter. Edward was married on 7 September 1901 to Jessie Florence Merryweather at All Saints, South Lambeth, giving their address as 124 Crimsworth Road, an area dominated by the Nine Elms Locomotive Works.

By the time of the 1911 census, Edward and Jessie had three children, Edward aged 8, Jessie aged 7 and Florrie aged 5. Their son, Stanley Sidney Slade, was born in 1912. Edward now earned his living as a house painter and Jessie worked as an LCC school cleaner. The family of five occupied three rooms at 12 Union Street, Clapham. Two other people lived in two rooms at the same address.

Edward Arthur Slade was probably conscripted in 1916, first joining a training battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. Edward was sent to France as private (corporal?) 53436, Royal Fusiliers at an unknown date.

The Labour Corps was created at the beginning of 1917 with men from the Royal Fusiliers 36th(Labour) Battalion becoming the 105 Company and given service numbers between 62401 and 63000. It is very likely the Edward Slade was wounded or injured while serving in the infantry before he was transferred to the Labour Corps some time in 1917. Edward Arthur Slade lost his life in unknown circumstances on 30 October 1917.

His widow Jessie received a £6 10s war gratuity in 1919 and a widow’s pension for herself and her four children: Jessie Florence Slade, Edward Arthur Slade, Jessie Minnie Slade and Stanley Sidney Slade.

Jessie was remarried in 1919 to Charles E. Forbes and continued to live at 12 Union Street until 1924. Edward’s son, Stanley was living in Larkhall Lane in the 1930s and was a resident of Sutton when he passed away in 2000, aged 87.

Albert Henry Shopland

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Albert Henry Shopland with his sister Edith Mary © Robin Shopland
Albert Henry Shopland with his sister Edith Mary © Robin Shopland

A. H. Shopland
Service no. 701250
Lance Sergeant, Canadian Infantry (Quebec Regiment), 24th Battalion
Died of wounds on 16 August 1917, aged 24
Canadian; born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, enlisted in Ealing
CWGC: “Son of William Robert and of Jane Shopland (formerly Scott), of 10 Rozel Road, Clapham, London, England.”
Remembered at Vimy Memorial, France

Canadian Soldiers of World War 1914-1918

Albert Henry Shopland, 23, joined the war effort on 17 March 1916, when he attested at Winnipeg, Canada. He was at that time working as a farmer in Yarbo, Saschatchewan. Shopland was born on 19 August 1892 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire and had lived as a child at 41a Goldsboro Road, near Wandsworth Road.

He stood 5 feet 11 inches tall, and had a fair complexion with blue eyes and dark brown hair. He stated that he had previously served with the Royal West Surrey Territorials. He was unmarried.

Information from Robin Shopland: There were two brothers William Robert Shopland (Bert’s father) and Albert Shopland (Bert’s uncle) who married two sisters Jane and Kate Scott, who came from an army family. Brother Albert and his wife Kate emigrated to work in Canada. Bert was named after his uncle and presumably later followed his uncle over there. His siblings were brother William who I believe was in India with the army, sisters Kathleen and Edith Mary, and his brother Frederick who was 12 at the outbreak of war. There may have also been another baby who died in infancy.

Information from the censuses

It is likely that Albert Shopland left England before 1911. He does not appear on the 1911 census return for the Shopland family at 41a Goldsboro Road (where the family had lived since at least 1901). Shopland’s father, William Robert Shopland, 49, was a coach body maker born at Bridgwater, Somerset; his mother, Jane Shopland, 45, was from Windsor, Berkshire. Kathleen Shopland, two years Albert’s junior, was 16 and, like him, born in Cheltenham. His younger siblings, Edith Mary Shopland, 14, and Frederick Thomas, 9, were born in London. William and Jane had eight babies born alive, three of whom died.