Stockwell War Memorial

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age 27

Bertram Horace Winter

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B. H. Winter
Service no. S/15614
Rifleman, Rifle Brigade, 13th Battalion
Enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Clapham
Killed in action on 11 April 1917, aged 27
CWGC: “Son of Mrs A. Winter, of 19 Prideaux Road, Landor Road, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Arras Memorial, France

British Army Service Records 1914-1920

Milkman (and former butcher) Bertram Horace Winter signed up at the Whitehall recruiting office on 15 February 1916. He lasted 273 days before he died at Arras on 11 April 1917. The details of his service are scant – we know that he embarked for the 3rd Battalion on 3 July 1916 and was posted to the 13th Battalion on 20 July. He stood 5 feet 4½ inches tall, with a 34½-inch chest (he could expand it by 2½ inches), and weighed a little over 8½ stone. His physical development was judged “good”. Bertram’s widowed mother Augusta was named as next of kin. She lived at 25 Viceroy Road, South Lambeth.

Information from the censuses

In 1911 Bertram Horace Winter was working as a butcher’s assistant. He lived at 147 Larkhall Lane, over the shop, with butcher Albert Henry and his wife Lydia Eliza Henry, both 41, a childless couple. Meanwhile, Bertram’s parents, William Charles Winter, 59, a paper hanger and house decorator and his wife Augusta Winter (née Sexton), 58, both Lambeth-born, lived at 31 Courland Grove, Stockwell. Of their 12 children, 7 survived, with four living at home: Frederick W. Winter, 28, a paper hanger and painter; Emily Elizabeth Winter, 26, a dress and mantle maker; Arthur Thomas Winter, 26, a paper hanger and painter; Walter Winter, 25, a porter for a tailor shop. All were born in Clapham. The Winter family had lived at this address since at least 1901.

Herbert William Wild

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Herbert William Wild
Herbert William Wild

H. W. Wild
Service no. 4023
Rifleman, London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles), 21st Battalion
Killed in action on 15 September 1916, aged 27
CWGC: “Born at Brixton. Son of Herbert John and Annie Wild, of 24, Halstead Street, Brixton; husband of Polly Lily May Wild, of 64, Robsart Street, Brixton, London.”
Remembered at Warlencourt British Cemetery, France and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA

Brother of Reuben Edward Wild (died 25 September 1915)

British Army WWI Pension Records 1914-1920, British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

Herbert John Wild’s attempts to find out what happened to his two dead sons, Herbert William Wild and Reuben Edward Wild, and the whereabouts of their bodies have survived in the files. They are business-like and to the point, but they make difficult reading nonetheless. His sense of frustration with the dearth of information coming from the Army and his grief for his boys bubbles just below the surface.

The four eldest Wild boys, Herbert, John, Reuben and Edward, served in the war. Cicero, aged 8 in 1914, was too young. The first sign of trouble was in September 1915. “Could you give me any information concerning my son who I have not heard from for 3 weeks,” wrote Annie Wild, enquiring about Reuben, in October 1915. The Army, it appears, had not yet told her that her son was missing in action. The letter is annotated “No report on hand.”

The mystery of what happened to soldiers reported as missing or whose effects were not located caused deep distress to the bereaved families. For the most part they could not know or comprehend the conditions their sons were fighting in or imagine the scale of the slaughter; they could not appreciate how, amid the mud and chaos, their sons’ bodies could seem to simply disappear.

The Wild family, however, persisted in trying to find answers. Herbert John Wild wrote pressing for more details on his son Reuben’s fate. Reuben died in the Battle of Loos.

The first letter in the file is from 10 September 1916, nearly a year after Reuben died. “In answer to your letter regarding my son’s death on 25/9/15, will you kindly inform me of how he met his death and also the name of the place ,” he wrote. He was anxious also about proving that his son was dead for the insurance company.

In fact, there was in the file two reports on the circumstances of Reuben’s death. Form B 104-53 (Inside Sheet) includes a transcription of a statement given by Rifleman McMeahon:

“Wild is another chum of mine and he [went] missing 25/9/15. I asked a man called Pte. C. Taylor whose number I forget but he is in C Coy. [Company] 11 Platoon and he told me he saw Pte. Wild wounded in the shoulder in the second line of German trenches at the Railway at Ypres and he asked him to go back with him but he would not. The Capt. called one of them to go back with him so Taylor went on to the third line with the Capt. and left Wild in the trench. I understand they were driven back to the 2nd, line where Pte. Wild was wounded but he has been missing ever since.”

There was another report, from Pte. J. Taylor:

“Wild was a short fair [man] about 19. He had no moustache. I saw him dead in the trench killed by a bomb. There was no time to bury him.”

The files do not record whether this information was passed on to the family. On 3 April 1920, however, after receiving Reuben’s medals, Herbert John Wild, wrote” I had four sons serving in the Great War. Two of them sacrificed their lives and I have never received any good information as to where they were killed or buried.” This letter is very badly damaged and therefore difficult to read. However, I can make out the words “I intend to go to Belgium or France … If you would kindly … the name of the place …son R. Wild was last seen alive I shall be grateful to you. … My other son was killed in the Battle of the Somme 1916 …several times by the Graves Commission but up to now I have not received any.” Herbert’s words indicate that the family remained in ignorance.

The “other son” was Herbert William Wild, who was killed in action on 15 September 1916, nearly a year after Reuben’s death. He was married to Polly Lily May Wild and had a baby daughter, Ivy May Wild, born 6 February 1916. A note in William’s file says that his personal effects were posted in 1917 but in November 1917 his grieving father wrote:

“My daughter in law [Polly] informs me that she has received no effects of her Husband the late Rifleman H. W. Wild … who has been dead 14 months. All she has received is his identification disc. I myself have the official information of where he was buried… If he was buried [illegible] possible to recover his identication disc it must also be possible to recover any other personal effects. I have lost two sons in this war and have two others serving. … I have nothing at all to prove the other son’s death [Reuben] as he was reported missing after the Battle of Loos.”

Additional information – Herbert William Wild

  • Civilian occupation: oil and calorman
  • Served 1 year 109 days
  • Live at 34 Crawshay Road; wife (later widow) moved ot 64 Robsart Street, Brixton
  • 5 feet 2½ inches tall
  • Chest 36½ inches (plus 2½ inches expansion)
  • “Good” physical development
  • Widow awarded 18s 9d for herself and child (Ivy)

Information from the censuses

In 1911 Herbert William Wild, 22, a shop assistant, and his brother Reuben Edward Wild, 15, an errand boy, lived at 24 Halstead Street, Brixton. Their father, Herbert John Wild, 42, was a gas slot meter collector from Lambeth; their mother, Annie Wild, 42, was from Southwark. There were three other sons: John L. Wild (he is not on the 1911 census return, but he does appear on the 1901), Edward A. Wild, 11, and Cicero C. Wild, 5. The family shared four rooms. The family was found at this address in 1901. Reuben was born in Battersea, his siblings in Lambeth.

George Charles Toze

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G. C. Toze
Service no. 9451
Serjeant, King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment), 1st Battalion
Born in Kennington
Died on 24 May 1915, aged 27
CWGC: “Son of John and Nellie Toze, of 11 Stockwell Green, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ypres, Belgium

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 George Charles Toze, aged 21, was registered as a Lance Corporal in the King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment), at the Clarence Barracks, at Spithead Forts, Portsmouth, Hampshire. He was born in Kennington. He was born in Kennington and baptised at St Peter’s, Vauxhall on 5 February 1890, the son of John Toze, a harness maker, and Ellen (known as Nellie) (née Fisher), from Bampton, Devon. The family lived at 236 Upper Kennington Lane. 

Meanwhile, at 11 Stockwell Green, his widowed mother (John Toze died in 1907), Nellie Toze, 43, a housekeeper from Bampton, Devon, shared her two-roomed home with two sons, Cyril Stanley Toze, 19,  an unemployed labourer, and Frank Albert Edgar Toze, 16, an errand boy, and a boarder: Arthur Miles, 43, a married brewer’s labourer from Watford. Hertfordshire. Nellie had had 10 children; only four survived. George’s father John Toze is on the 1901 census.

Edwin Robert Gilbert Peacock

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E. R. G. Peacock
Service no. 3261
Serjeant, Machine Gun Corps, 17th Battalion, formerly 18320 Royal Fusiliers
Born at Southend, Essex; enlisted at Clapham
Died of wounds on 3 September 1918, at about age 27
CWGC: “Son of E. M. Peacock, 38 Gaskill Street, Clapham, London.”
Remembered at Varennes Military Cemetery, France

Information from the censuses

Edwin Robert Gilbert Peacock, 20, was a stone mason. He boarded with the Smith family at 24 Lingham Street. Charles Smith, 50, was a stone mason from Portland, Dorset. His wife, Alice Selina, 53, was from Lambeth. They had two children: George Arthur, 19, a clerk, and Alice Mary Smith, 15. Alfred Dance, a 40-yea-old single painter, also boarded.

In 1901 Edwin Peacock was a 10-year-old and living at 13 Anns Road, Anns Terrace, Prittlewell in Essex. His 49-year-old father, Charles C. Peacock was a corporation dust inspector from Bethnal Green, east London, his mother, Ellen M. Peacock, 49, was born in St Pancras. Four sons were registered:
Walter S. Peacock, 19, was a furniture porter, born in Bermondsey
John H. Peacock, 15, was a bread baker, born in St Lukes, London
Albert E. Peacock, 13, worked for a fruiterer and greengrocer, born in Camberwell
Edwin R. G. Peacock, 10
Lottie Patrick, 4, described as granddaughter, also lived there, as did a boarder, Alfred Barfield, 70, born in Ipswich, Suffolk and “living on his own means”

Harry Albert Nixon

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H. A. Nixon
Service no. L/12127
Private, Middlesex Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Died 1 July 1916, aged around 27
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, France

Roll of Honour of the Great War 1914-1918

NIXON, H.A., Private, 2nd Middlesex Regiment.
He enlisted in 1906, and was drafted to the Western Front shortly after the commencement of hostilities. He fought in many important engagements, including those at Ypres, Loos, and Albert and did good work. He was unfortunately killed in action on the Somme on July 1st, 1916, and was entitled to the 1914 Star, and the General Service and Victory Medals.
“His memory is cherished with pride.”
31, Priory Grove, Lansdowne Road, S.W.8.

Army Service records

Nixon’s Army Service records are extensive, as you would expect with such a long service history (8 years and 128 days) and they throw up some interesting aspects of life in the military in the early 20th century:

  • Nixon’s travels across the globe in the service of Empire – to Aden, India, Malta, and when the Great War, with the British Expeditionary Force to France, where he died.
  • his health – inoculations against typhoid, treatment for repeated bouts of syphilis
  • his regular problems with discipline

Sadly, like so many other Service Records, Harry Nixon’s are in a very bad state and difficult to read. However, I have been able to establish that Nixon joined the Middlesex Regiment at Winchester, the city of his birth, on 24 February 1908, aged 19 and 5 months. He abandoned his previous life as a “van guard” (train guard) and became a career soldier.

Nixon’s general health was good. He stood taller than average at 5 feet 6½ inches (169cm) and weighed 134lbs (just over 9½ stone or 61kg). His chest measured  37½ inches (95cm), which he could expand by 3½ inches (9cm). With a fresh complexion, grey eyes and fair hair, the British Army was happy to sign him up. He was pronounced fit to serve.

However, Nixon proved to be something of a difficult character. He remained a private throughout his long army career and possibly his poor conduct record accounted for his lack of advancement.

The following list is what I have been able to interpret from the record. No doubt, if I understood the abbreviations I would be able to pull out more details.

  • In January 1910 he was pulled up for inattention on the range.
  • At Dum Dum (West Bengal) he was absent from parade.
  • Using improper language towards an NCO.
  • At Malta he was punished for “improper conduct – walking arm in arm with other soldiers” and “using obscene language”.
  • On 11 September 1913 in Aden he was punished for “using improper language towards a NCO” and promptly shipped out of the 1st Battalion to the 2nd.
  • On a date I cannot decipher, in Valletta, he was disciplined for “interfering with the military police”

Venereal disease was a common hazard for career soldiers. Nixon became infected with syphilis, according to his Syphilis Case Sheet on around 31 August 1911 at Darjeeling. He sought treatment less than two weeks later on 9 September 1911 and by 1912 the Army doctors at Dum Dum were treating him regularly. His appointments were weekly, although he is often marked as “absent”, presumably because he was on operations.

Nixon was treated with mercury and iodides – neither of them very effective. Better, more modern medications were available (the German Nobel prize-winning physician Paul Erlich developed Salvarsan 606 and Neosalvarsan 614 in 1906).

When the Great War started, Nixon was sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force. On 1 July 1916 he was listed as “missing’, but his next of kin were not notified until 15 August. He was eventually classed as killed in action. His effects were sent to his younger sister, Mrs Alice Maude Weaver, who lived at 42 Margate Road, Lyham Road, SW2, rather to his mother Alice/Rebecca. “I recive [sic] the photos quite safe,” she wrote in reply, “thanking you very much for sending them.”

When sent Harry’s medals in 1919, she wrote in her careful handwriting: “Recive [sic] with thanks. Thank you very much for sending me the 1914 Star, I am very proud of my Poor Brother.”

On Army form W. 5080, in which relatives give the names and addresses of living family of the deceased, Father is listed as “None” (presumably his father, Frederick C. Nixon, a general labourer, was by then deceased) and mother as “Alice Nixon” (there is some confusion over her name: she is listed on the 1901 and 1891 censuses as “Rebecca” and on the 1911 as “Alice”), 59. Two siblings were declared: Daisy Dorithey [sic] and Fredrick. All three were living at 31 Priory Grove, South Lambeth, SW8. In reality, there were or had been at least 11 siblings (of 18 born alive in 29 years of marriage), although some of them may not have survived. The form was signed by G. Robinson Lees, the vicar of St Saviour’s, Brixton Hill.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Harry’s family lived at 31 Priory Grove, SW8, where they occupied 4 rooms. The household consisted of his parents Frederick C. Nixon, 55, a general labourer born in Stepney, and Alice Nixon, 49, born in Dorset. The couple had 12 surviving children (of 18). These 6 are on the census:
Alice Maud Nixon, 18, born in South Lambeth (as were all the children listed on this census) and whose occupation is given as “oatmeal stores manufactures” for a brewery
Kate Nixon, 15
Rose Helen Nixon, 11
Tom Owen Nixon, 9
Daisy Dorothy Nixon, 8
Fredrick Joseph Nixon, 6 

Information from 1901 census

In 1901 Harry was living at 22 Conroy Street with his mother, Rebecca A. Nixon, 39, who worked as a bottler in the vinegar works*, and who was born in Pullin, Dorsetshire. The children registered on the census were
Fannnie Nixon, 13, born in Winchester, Hampshire, working as a greengrocer’s assistant
Charles Nixon, 14
Harry Nixon, 12
Alice Nixon, 8
Kate Nixon, 5
Rose Nixon, 1
There is no mention of Harry’s father Frederick. There were two lodgers: widower Harry Wimble, 45, a casement maker from Ileywhite, Hampshire, and Laura Wimble, 13, born in Paddington (presumably his daughter).
* Possibly the Beaufoy Vinegar Works (later taken over by Sarsons), now Regents Bridge Gardens