Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

age 26

Arthur John Newman

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A.J. Newman
Rifleman, Rifle Brigade, 2nd Bn.
Service no. S/15670
Missing in action on 23 October 1916, aged about 26
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

Chris Burge writes:

Arthur John Newman’s origins were in north London. He was born in Highgate, the third child of Alfred and Mary Elizabeth Newman (nee ????), and baptised at St John Holloway in Islington, on 20 April 1890; his older brother Alfred Edward was baptised on 6 January 1884 at the Archway Road Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, and his sister Edith Charlotte was baptised 16 October 1887 at St John Holloway, Islington. The family were living in Kentish Town at the time of the 1891 census and had moved to Pimlico by the time of the 1901 census. Arthur’s brother Alfred Edward was married in 1905 and set up home in Kent. 

By the time of the 1911 census, Arthur, Edith and their parents had moved to south London and were living at 19A Goldborough Road, off Wandsworth Road. Arthur‘s father was now 51 and his mother 50 and had been married 28 years. Arthur was working as a clerk, and both his parents and Edith were employed as office cleaners. The Newmans lived in four rooms of a sub-divided property that housed another family of six living in three other rooms.

Fragments of Arthur’s service papers have survived and show that he volunteered under Lord Derby’s Group Scheme on 4 December 1915, attesting at the Lambeth recruitment centre. He was not called up until 15 February 1916 and was processed at Whitehall, when he was posted to the 6th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, a reserve battalion who were based at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey, off the northern coast of Kent. On 14 June 1916, after four months of basic training, Private S/15670 Newman was sent to France in a draft of men destined for the 2nd Battalion. He reached the front on 9 July 1916. The keeper of the battalion’s war diary noted on 11 July that a draft of one officer and 50 other ranks reported for duty and were posted to C and D companies.

Arthur Newman joined the battalion when it was in billets after moving north from the Somme to the Loos sector. Several periods of trench duty in the Hohenzollern sector followed during the rest of July, August and September. By mid-October the battalion had returned to the Somme and took part, in deteriorating weather and ground conditions, in a divisional attack during the final stages of the offensive. Their assault on enemy position near Le Transloy on 23 October resulted in a loss of eight officers either killed or wounded and 230 other ranks killed, wounded or missing. Arthur was reported missing and his next of kin informed within a few weeks. In August 1917, ten months later, Arthur’s family were informed that he was officially presumed to have died on, or since, 23 October 1916. 

After the end of the war it was Arthur’s father Alfred who completed Army Form W5080 which listed the relatives of a deceased soldier in order that he could receive his son’s medals, plaque and scroll. Alfred took it to All Saints Church, XXXXXXXXX, to be witnessed and countersigned on 30 May 1919. 

Arthur’s parents were still living at 19A Goldsborough Road when the Stockwell War Memorial was unveiled in 1922. 

Walter Henry Nethercott

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W. H. Nethercott
Service no. Z/2766
Company Quartermaster Serjeant, Rifle Brigade, 3th Battalion
Born in Battersea; enlisted in London; lived in Lambeth
Killed in action on 10 October 1917, aged around 26
Remembered at Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium

Walter Henry Nethercott, 23, a clerk, enlisted on 12 September 1914. The medical officer described him as having a healthy complexion with brown eyes and auburn hair. He had a mole on the tip of his left shoulder. He stood 5 feet 7half inches, weighed just over 9half stone and his chest measured 33 inches.

The Army recognised Nethercott’s talents early. He rose through the ranks and was promoted to Serjeant in the field in July 1916 and made Company Quartermast Serjeant three months later.

In March 1915 Netherott married Majorie Ballance, of 15 Walberswick Street, South Lambeth. She gave birth to a daughter, Margarette Phyllis, a year later.  Nethercott’s parents were deceased and he had no siblings.

In February 1918, four months after Nethercott was killed, the Army sent his effects to Marjorie: a fountain pen, a disc and chain, diary, Kitchener’s message, a copy of A Rifleman Should Know, a lock of hair. However, a Mr. John Mayo, received his medals, sent to him at 93 Larkhall Rise. The file does not tell us why, and when Marjorie, still living at Walberswick Street, wrote to request to send them to her, the Army replied that they had already been sent to Mr. Mayo.

Marjorie was given a weekly pension of 22s 6d for herself and Margarette.

Information from the 1901 census

In 1901 Walter Nethercott, who was 10 (born in 1891), was living with his widowed grandmother Mary A. Nethercott, 60, at 31 Wheatsheaf Lane. Mary was born in Godstone, Surrey, Walter in Battersea. There are no other members of the household listed.

John Herriott

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J. Herriott
Lieutenant, Machine Gun Corps, 41st Coy.
Died of wounds, age 26 on 17 February 1919
Awarded Military Cross
Son of John and Mary Herriott, of 50 Milton Road, Herne Hill, London. Native of London.
Remembered at Etaples Military Cemetery, France

Two of John Herriott’s brothers, Andrew Herriott and Archibald Herriott, also died.
For information from the 1911 on the Herriott family, see Andrew Herriott’s entry.

Military Cross citation, Supplement to the London Gazette 30 July 1919

For conspicuous gallantry and good work. During a counter-attack on September 29th, 1918, near Menin, the infantry with whom he was co-operating withdrew to a line 400 yards behind him. He covered their withdrawal; then, seeing that he could inflict casualties from where he was, he decided to remain in position. For two hours he was well in front of the infantry and engaged the enemy on two sides. From his position, to which he brought a second gun for the purpose, he was able to cover the infantry advance when the situation was restored.

John Albert Grainger

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J. A. Grainger

Private, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 6th Bn.
Service no. G/14181
Died on 12 July 1917, aged 26
Remembered at Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais France

Brother of Robert Grainger

Chris Burge writes:

John Albert Grainger was born in 1891 and baptised in Kennington on 25 January, the fourth child of Robert and Amelia Sarah (née Lea) Grainger. John’s father, who was born in Cork, Ireland was a carter; his mother, Amelia, was born in Clerkenwell. 

In the 1891 census, the Grainger family were living at 83 Thomas Street (now Warham Street) in the parish of St Mark’s, Kennington, close to the open space of Kennington Park and the Oval Cricket Ground. 

By the time of the 1901 census, there had been two more additions to the family. The Grainger family had moved to 14 Mitre Street, North Lambeth, close to Waterloo Station. John’s father was recorded as a cartage foreman and his older brothers Robert Jr and Frederick worked as errand boys or porters. When the social researcher Charles Booth visited the area in 1899 he described Mitre Street as having ‘a few fairly comfortable remaining but the majority [were] poor to very poor’. 

The Grainger family soon moved to Weston Street, close to London Bridge Station, and by 1907 were living in the Hayles Buildings, St George’s Road. 

In the 1911 census, the Grainger family had returned to Kennington and were living at 236 Hillingdon Street. John’s father Robert Snr described his occupation as a ‘Cartage manager for the Railway’. All six of their surviving children (Amelia had given birth to 11 in total), lived in the family home. Robert Jnr, 25, was a cellarman; Frederick, 24, a porter; Amelia, 21, a tobacco worker; John, 20, a porter; Alfred, 20, and Benjamin, 15, Post Office telegraph messengers. They shared five rooms and another family of three shared just one room at the same address. 

After the outbreak of war, John’s parents moved to Morat Street and then Camellia Street, near Nine Elms. Robert Jnr had been living with his younger brother John at 16 Bramfield Road, Clapham, half a mile from the Clapham Junction railway complex where the brothers worked as ‘goods porters’. 

Robert Jnr attested under the Derby Scheme (see Alfred Thomas Evans) on 12 December 1915, and was not called up until 1 March the following year. Six weeks later John, then aged 25, was conscripted. After reporting locally, he was directed to Kingston where he joined the Royal West Surrey Regiment. His details were recorded in the pages of the Surrey Recruitment Registers: he was 5ft 11in, 144llb, with a chest size of 37in. He was assigned to the 12th Battalion.

Little is known of John’s military service after this, other than at some stage he was posted to the 6th Battalion RWS as private G/14181, J. Grainger. The 6 RWS were involved the Arras offensive in April and May 1917 on its southern extreme, near St Leger. After a period of rest, on 1 July they returned to the front line trenches south-east of Arras. Their part of the trench was attacked and shelled on the 11th and 12th. Casualties reported were: ‘4 OR killed and 3 wounded’. 

At the end of the war, John’s parents should have received his medals and war gratuity. But there is no entry for Private 14181 J. Grainger in the Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects. Some time after his parents  moved from Stockwell to Norwood Amelia applied for her son’s medals. They were finally issued on 17 February 1930. The Arras Memorial was not unveiled until 31 July 1932.

Charles Bernard Farrell

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C. B. Farrell
Service no. 8272
Colour Serjeant, South Lancashire Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Died after a fall from his horse, age 26, on 15 April 1916
CWGC: “Son of Michael and Elizabeth Farrell, of 66, Dalyell Road, Brixton, London. Born at Warrington.”
Remembered at Streatham Park Cemetery

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

FARRELL, C. B., C.S.M., 2nd South Lancashire Regiment.
A serving soldier, he was mobilized at the outbreak of hostilities, and embarked for France in November 1914. He was in action in many engagements, including the first and second Battles of Ypres. Owing to a fall from his horse he broke his thigh and complications arising he was invalided to England but subsequently died at Edmonton Hospital on April 15th, 1916. He was entitled to the 1914 Star, and the General Service and Victory Medals.
66, Dalyell Road, Landor Road, S.W.9.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 the Farrell family is found at 66 Dalyell Road, Brixton. Michael Farrell, 56, was an army pensioner (musician), born in St Mary’s, Cork, Ireland. Elizabeth Farrell, 40, an attendant in an art gallery, was born in Jersey, Channel Islands. They had 4 children (all surviving), 2 of them living at home: John Farrell, 19, a gunsmith, born in Warrington, Lancashire, and Mary A. Farrell, 10, born in Stockwell. Amelia Waters, sister to Elizabeth Farrell, a 42-year-old widowed housemaid born in Toronto, Canada, was visiting. Charles Bernard Farrell does not appear on this entry – presumably he was serving with his regiment.

John James Derry

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J. J. Derry
Service no. 41051
Private, Essex Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Killed in action age 26 on 9 April 1917
Son of Lionel and Sarah Derry, of London; husband of M. L. Eaton (formerly Derry), of 5 Irving Grove, Stockwell, London.
Remembered Fampoux British Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1901 census

In 1901 John Derry was 9 and living at 65 Ellerslie Road with his father, Lionel J. Derry, 36, a laundry carman, and mother, Susan A. Derry, 30. He had a younger brother, Frederick W. Derry, 9. The family were all born in Lambeth.