Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

age 27

George Sidney Miller

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G.S. Miller
Petty Officer Stoker, Royal Navy, HMS Vanguard
Service no. 311632
Died in an explosion on 9 July 1917, aged 27
Remembered at  Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent

Chris Burge writes:

George Sidney Miller was born in Willesden, northwest London in 1892, the second child of parents George Henry and Elizabeth Miller, who were both originally from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. At the time of the 1901 census, George, 33, and Elizabeth, 29, lived in four rooms at 47 High Street Clapham with their three children: Irene, 12; George, nine; and Samuel, five. George Snr, a police sergeant, died in 1903, aged 36. On 16 January 1909 Irene married Talbert Vincent Wilcocks at St Mark’s Church, Kennington, giving their addresses as 74 and 76 Clapham Road. The marriage was witnessed by Talbert’s sister and Frederick Staughton.

By the time of the 1911 census, Irene was living in four rooms at 26A Mandalay Road, Clapham, with her husband and their two baby daughters. George Sidney Miller appeared in the census at the Royal Navy Torpedo School Ship HMS Vernon, Portsmouth, listed as ‘Stoker 1st Class’. He was listed as 22 and single, both of which were untrue. 

George Sidney Miller had joined the Navy on 1 May 1907, signing for 12 years. He claimed to have been born in Willesden on 25 November 1888. He was described as 5ft 6in tall with dark brown hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion. He married Laura Hazelden on 17 November 1910 at St Barnabas, South Lambeth, where Laura had been baptised as a child. Her family home was at 8 Horace Street. At the time of the wedding George gave his true age, which was 18, and HMS Vernon as his place of residence. Frederick Staughton was one witness of their marriage. George and Laura’s first child, George Frederick Sidney Miller, was born on 25 April 1911 and baptised on 10 May 1911 at St Stephen’s, South Lambeth, at which time Laura gave her address as 76 Clapham Road, where she lived in one room and had been working as a laundress. 

In the 1911 census, policeman Frederick Staughton was living at 74 Clapham Road with his wife ‘Amy’ and 15-year-old stepson John Miller, born in Harlesden, northwest London. Amy Staughton was 38 and from Great Yarmouth. Frederick had married an ‘Amy Miller’ in 1906. While it’s not certain that George’s mother Elizabeth and Amy were the same person, his younger brother was baptised Samuel John Miller, which suggests Frederick Staughton may have been more than a family friend.

At the of outbreak of war, George Miller had risen to Leading Stoker and already educationally passed for Petty Officer; he was at the Pembroke II shore station. Between July 1914 and May 1916, he served on HMS Stour, part of the 9th Destroyer Flotilla that patrolled home waters. George and Laura’s second child, Eileen Laura,  was born on 7 December 1915 and baptised at St Stephen’s, South Lambeth, on two weeks later, when their home address was 35 St Stephen’s Terrace, which was virtually opposite the church.

A year later George Sidney Miller was involved in an incident that threatened to end his naval career. He appeared in court accused of the manslaughter of Herbert Jones. George Sidney Miller, 24, stoker, had been bailed in a police court on 23 November 1916 after a Coroner’s Inquest into the death of Herbert Jones. The case was heard by Justice Avory on 13 December 1916 at the Old Bailey where George pleaded guilty, and was reported in newspapers soon after:

A NAVAL WHIRLWIND. A naval stoker, aged 23, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to-day to the manslaughter of Herbert Jones, whom he was said have struck outside a public-house. It was alleged that an insulting remark had been used to him and he ran amok. Mr. Justice Avory said that he doubted whether the prisoner intended to hit the deceased. You were the victim of that mistaken kindness which people show men in the services home on leave. I wish it could be made a more serious offence than is now to treat soldiers and sailors. You were mad with drink for the time being, and you ran amok. “I understand that someone called you a coward. Anything more calculated to irritate a man like you I don’t know. You ran about waving your arms like a whirlwind, striking anyone and not caring who it was.” Prisoner was bound over.

Justice Avory’s sympathetic hearing saved George from disgrace and worse. Whether it was chance or the Navy deliberately keeping George out of further trouble, he found himself sent far from London to the Fleet at Scapa Flow where he joined the crew of HMS Vanguard on 1 January 1917 and by April was an acting petty officer (stoker). HMS Vanguard was the Royal Navy’s seventh dreadnought battleship when launched in 1909, part of the Naval Arms Race that had preceded the war when the public were associated with the chant ‘We want eight and we won’t wait!’ The only time HMS Vanguard fired her guns in anger was during the battle of Jutland in 1916. In the Fleet anchorage in Scapa Flow on the evening of Monday 9 July 1917, it was overcast, with a gentle northeasterly. Vanguard and her neighbours carried out their usual evening routines until about 11.20pm when, without warning, flames became visible abaft Vanguard’s foremast, followed immediately by two heavy explosions, and the battleship disappeared under a pall of smoke. When the smoke lifted the great ship had gone. Of the 845 onboard, only two survivors were found. George Sidney Miller had died that day. 

The Naval Court of Inquiry was unable to determine any definite cause to the explosion. It was only able to conclude that it may have been due to the ignition of cordite from an ‘avoidable cause’, or the deterioration of perhaps unstable cordite. No blame was attributed to any one person. 

By the time the loss of the Vanguard was widely reported in the British press on 14 July 1917, the next of kin had been notified and Laura Miller was still at St Stephens Terrace, South Lambeth Road, SW8. When the Stockwell War Memorial was unveiled in 1922, Laura had been living at 111 Gaskarth Road, near Clapham South since 1918. It was the home of George’s married sister Irene, whose husband Talbert had served in the Royal Garrison Artillery during the war. 

Laura Miller was married for a second time in 1925 to Edward Henry Gardener, an older man who had served in the Royal Navy between 1897 and 1906 and during the war. They lived in Boyd Road, Colliers Wood, from 1925, where Laura was still living when Gardener passed away in 1954. Laura passed away in Merton in 1971, aged 78. 

George and Laura’s daughter Eileen Laura Miller died in 1934, aged 18. His son George Frederick Sidney Miller died in 1989, aged 78.

Arthur Morley Miller

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Arthur Morley Miller
Arthur Morley Miller

A. M. Miller
Service no. C/4039
Lance Serjeant, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 20th Battalion
Born in Clapham; enlisted in Battersea; lived in Clapham
Died of wounds on 30 September 1917 age 27
CWGC: “Son of William and Emma Miller, of Clapham; husband of K. F. Miller, of 50, Chelsham Rd., Clapham, London.”
Remembered at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium

Arthur Morley Miller
Arthur Morley Miller. Photo (c) Marietta Crichton Stuart

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920
Arthur Morley Miller joined the King’s Royal Rifle Corps at Battersea on 28 June 1915. He gave his address as 27 Courland Grove, Clapham and described himself as a clerk. The Army assessed him as being 5 feet 5 inches, with a 34½ inch chest which he could expand by 2½ inches. His one distinguishing mark was two moles under his left nipple.

He had no charges on his conduct form and by the time he died of wounds on 20 September 1917 he had risen to become Lance Serjeant. In October 1916 he was wounded and was sent back to England for treatment. At the London General Hospital at Poplar, east London, a doctor described the shrapnel wound to his left hand as a flesh wound with the bones not affected but the tendons exposed. He was discharged after three months and sent back to the front.

He must have had another period of leave because he married Kathleen Florence Cherrill on 16 February 1917. She later received his effects: a crucifix, 2 razors, a French book, letters, a religious book, a cap badge, dentures, diary, a wrist watch and strap, photos, a fountain pen and a whistle. When the Army sent Arthur’s medals, they described him as a Corporal. Florence wrote back: “Am sorry to note you have put Cpl. Miller on both my husband’s medals. He was a L. Sgt.”

Information from the 1911 census

Arthur Morley Miller, 20, was a builder’s clerk. He lived at 27 Courland Grove, where his large family occupied six rooms – he had 11 siblings and half-siblings. His father, Arthur William Miller, 53, worked as a carman. He was born in Lambeth. His mother, Emma Eliza Miller, 49, was from Marylebone, central London. An aunt, Alice Kate Miller, 55, a single machinist of underclothing, lived with the family. Eight children of Arthur William Miller were on the census return:
Alice Kate Miller, 31, born in Lambeth
Albert Ernest Miller, 24, a carpenter, born in Clapham
Arthur Morley Miller, 20, born in Clapham
Louise Emma Miller, 19, a laundry packer, born in Clapham
Elsie Elizabeth Miller, 17, a book folder, born in Clapham
Frederick John Miller, 14, an office boy to an electrical engineer, born in Clapham (he also served in the Army)
Dorothy Ethel Miller, 9, born in Clapham
Amy Eliza Miller, 6, born in Clapham

Alfred Robert Lawrence

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A. R. Lawrence
Service no. 205241
Private, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 1st Bn. attd. 1st/4th Bn.
Born in Southwark; enlisted in Southwark; lived in Lambeth
Killed in action age 27 on 28 March 1918
CWGC: “Son of Alfred and Mary Louisa Lawrence, of 65, Knowle Rd., Brixton, London.”
Remembered at Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1911 census

Tentative identification
Alfred R. Lawrence, a 21-year-old signwriter, lived at 39 Burman Street, Southwark, with his parents, Alfred Lawrence, 45, a private coachman who did not know where he was born, and Louisa Lawrence, 42, a bookfolder born in Southwark. The family occupied 4 rooms. Alfred was an only child, the only survivor of Alfred and Louisa’s 2 children.

Arthur Alexander Jeffery

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A. A. Jeffery
Service no. 4802
Private, East Surrey Regiment, 8th Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in St Paul’s churchyard; lived in Clapham
Killed in action on 1 July 1916, aged about 27
CWGC: “Husband of Mrs D. Blacklock (formerly Jeffery), of Toronto, Canada.”
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, France

The 1911 census shows that Arthur Alexander Jeffery, was boarding at 88 Portland Place North, South Lambeth, the home of the Dunnett family, with his brother Albert V. Jeffery. Arthur, 22, was a commercial clerk; Albert, 23, a dairy utensil maker. 

Arthur was born on 28 October 1888, the son of Thomas Henry Jeffery, a civil servant, and Catherine Elizabeth. He was baptised at St Barnabas, South Lambeth on 7 April 1889. In 1915 he married Dorothy Dunnett, whose family he had lodged with. He enlisted in St Paul’s churchyard. 

After the war, his widow remarried, becoming Mrs. D. Blacklock, and moved to Toronto, Canada.

William Berks Hudson

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W. B. Hudson
Service no. 4015
Rifleman, London Regiment (City of London Rifles), “A” Coy. 6th Battalion
Born in South Lambeth; enlisted in London; lived in Stockwell
Killed in action age 27 on 8 October 1916
CWGC: “Son of John Robert and Matilda Hudson, of 24 Chantrey Road, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Warlencourt British Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1911 census

Ledger clerk William Berks Hudson, 22, lived with his widowed mother and his aunt at 24 Chantrey Road, Brixton. Matilda Hudson, 50, and her single sister Elizabeth Anne Berks, both worked as a draper’s assistants. They were born in Newcastle, Staffordshire. William was an only child.

James Albert Dixon

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J. A. Dixon
Service no 9159
Private, East Surrey Regiment, 7th Battalion
Died age 27 on 13 August 1916
Son of Mr and Mrs Browell, of 69 Stewart Road, Battersea, London; husband of Isabel Constance Dixon, of 17 Camellia Street, Wandsworth Road, South Lambeth, London.
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, France