Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

age 28

Charles Rhodes

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C. Rhodes
Private, Worcestershire Regiment, 14th Bn.
Service No. 26775
Died on 19 September 1918, aged about 28
Remembered at Bac-Du-Sud British Cemetery, Bailleulval, Pas de Calais, France

Chris Burge writes:

Charles Rhodes was born in 1890 and baptised as Charles Ernest at St Peter’s Church, Norbiton in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey on 29 October 1890, when his family was living in nearby Washington Road. The 1891 census shows Charles to be the second youngest of Henry and Rossetta’s seven children. Charles’s mother died in January 1894 at the age of 34 and he lost his older sister, also named Rossetta, who died in 1899 aged 16. Charles’s widowed father Henry and four of the children were still living at Washington Road at the time of the 1901 census: Kate Louisa, 20; Frederick, 15, a van boy; Charles, 13, an errand boy; and schoolboy Frank, 11. Kate had helped bring up her younger brothers and effectively became the head of the family when Charles’s father died in the middle of 1901, aged 43. 

By the time of the 1911 census, Kate was living in Battersea and working as a general domestic servant. Frank had found work as a groom in Patcham, near Brighton. Frederick and Charles were living in one room at 12 Kimpton Road, close to Camberwell Green in southeast London. The property housed six other people in five additional rooms. Charles, now aged 22, was working as a carman for a ‘Fruiterers & Greengrocers’. Frederick, aged 25, completed the census return, giving his own occupation as ‘soldier’ and describing himself as ‘boarder’ which was later changed to ‘head’ of household. 

Charles married Ellen Butler on 15 February 1914 at St Andrew’s, Stockwell Green, opposite Hammerton’s Stockwell Brewery. Ellen had grown up in Stockwell Green and had been working as a domestic servant before her marriage. Frederick was one of the witnesses at the wedding and the couple gave 9 Moat Place as their address. Their daughter Ellen Rose was born on the 23 June 1914 and baptised on 19 August 1914 at St Andrew’s, just two weeks after the outbreak of war when Charles and Ellen were living in Louth Road.

Charles Rhodes’ service number and war gratuity imply an enlistment around December 1915, under Lord Derby’s Group Scheme. He was probably called up some time between January and March 1916. He may not have been considered A1 fit and was either posted initially to the Worcestershire Regiment’s 1st (Reserve) Garrison Battalion or directly to the ‘Severn Valley Pioneers’, the 14th (Service) Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment. The battalion landed at Le Havre on the 21 June 1916. They were on the Somme between July and November 1916, at Arras in April 1917, again on the Somme March to August 1918, and near the Hindenburg Line between September and October 1918. The battalion often worked close to the front line and acted as infantry during the fighting when the 63rd Division were forced to retreat across the old desolate Somme battlefields in March 1918. 

Charles Rhodes’ death in September 1918 was not combat-related and he was buried at Bac-Du-Sud British Cemetery at Bailleulval where a number of Casualty Clearing Stations were based. 

Charles’s Ellen and her daughter Ellen Rose were still living in Moat Place when Ellen Rose married William Crease in 1938. Three years later, Ellen married for a second time in 1941. She passed away in 1967, aged 72. Ellen Crease passed away in May 1971, aged 56.

Arthur Edward Perry

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A. E. Perry
Service no. 8367
Private, King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, 7th Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in London; lived in Stockwell
Killed in action on 14 July 1916, aged 28
CWGC: “Son of William James and Selina Perry, of 45 Edithna Street, Landor Road, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

Information from the censuses

In 1911 Arthur Edward Perry’s parents and brother were living in four rooms at 45 Edithna Street, Stockwell. (I could not find Arthur Edward Perry on this census; the 1901 census shows him working, aged 14, as an errand boy.) William James Perry, 57, was a coach painter born in Lambeth; Selina Perry, 62, was from Bothamsall, Nottinghamshire. They had had six children; three survived: Arthur Edward; William John Perry, 36, a poulterer born in Lambeth; one other (name unknown).

John Packer

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J. Packer
Service no. G/17678
Private, Royal Fusiliers, 4th Battalion
Killed in action age 28 on 26 March 1918
Born in Battersea; enlisted in Southwark; lived in Wandsworth
CWGC: “Son of the late Joseph and Mary Ann Packer; husband of Lily Cecilia Packer, of 2 Heyford Terrace, South Lambeth Road, London.”
Remembered at Arras Memorial, France

Information from the 1911 census

John Packer, 21 in 1911, was a carman. He was born in Battersea and lived with his widowed father, Joseph Packer, 59, a grocer from Chelsea, brother George Packer, 18, a clerk, and sister Elizabeth Packer, 29, who kept house for the family. Joseph Packer and his deceased wife Mary Ann had had 11 children, of whom eight survived. The Packers occupied 5 rooms at 4 Currie Street, Battersea.

John Packer married Lily Cecilia Baker on Christmas Day 1914 at All Saints Church, South Lambeth. John Packer’s father had died by then.

Charles William Pace

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C. W. Pace
Service no. 722461
Private, London Regiment, 1st/24th Battalion
Enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Lambeth
Killed in action on 15 September 1916, aged 28
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

The records for Charles William Pace in the main show nothing very remarkable. He was 26, lived at 55 Dawlish Street and was working as an outdoor porter before he signed up at Camberwell on 4 March 1916.  He stood 5 feet 1 inch tall, with a 33½ inch chest, which he could expand by 2½ inches. He gave his mother Sarah as next of kin, but this was later amended to his new wife, Florence, of 21 Seaham Street. William married Florence Meredith at St Barnabas, South Lambeth on 23 July 1916.

One item does stand out – a letter from ‘per pro’ Mrs. Pace (Pace’s mother as the address given is Dawlish Street), in which, on 18 October 1916, over a month after Pace had died, she pleads, “I have received no letter or tidings from him for some time now … If he has been wounded or fallen sick and has been removed to hospital would you please endeavour to trace him through your Records.” Clearly, for his mother, the possibility that Pace is dead was too dreadful to admit in a letter.

Pace’s record for the 15 September 1916 merely states “missing after action”. He was probably absorbed into the mud of France, lost without trace. He had served 280 days.

Information from the 1911 census

Charles William Pace, 21, was a tea packer, born in Walworth. He, and his elder brother James Stephen Pace, 24, a window cleaner, also born in Walworth, lived with their widowed mother, Sarah Ann Pace, 56, who was from Bermondsey, at 14 Gladstone Street, Stockwell (now gone), where they had two rooms. Sarah had nine children, seven of whom survived to 1911.

Frederick Edward Milnes

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F. E. Milnes
Service no. 917
Private, 12th (Prince of Wales’s Royal) Lancers
Born in Kennington; enlisted in London; lived in Lambeth
Died on 24 June 1918 aged 28
CWGC: “Son of Frederick and Annie Louisa Milnes, of 3 Albert Mansions, South Lambeth Road, London.”
Remembered at Berlin South-Western Cemetery, Germany
In 1922–23 it was decided that the graves of Commonwealth servicemen who had died all over Germany should be brought together into four permanent cemeteries. Berlin South-Western was one of those chosen and in 1924-25, graves were brought into the cemetery from more than 140 burial grounds in eastern Germany.

Brother of William Alexander Milnes.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Frederick Milnes, 22 and single, was serving as a private with the 12 Royal Lancers in Potchefstroom, Transvaal, South Africa.

Information from the 1901 census

In 1901 the Milnes family were living at 30 Smeaton Road, Wandsworth. Frederick Milnes senior was probably registered elsewhere on the night of the census, as he does not appear on the listing. Annie Milnes, 37, was born in Easton Square. Her children at the time were:
Frederick Milnes, 12, born in Kennington
William Milnes, 8, born in New Cross
Florrie Milnes, 6, born in Camberwell
John Milnes, 1, born in Southfields

George Charles Lasham

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G. C. Lasham
Service no. 7912
Gunner, Royal Garrison Artillery, 9th Siege Bty.
Born in Brixton; enlisted at Shepherd’s Bush; lived in Lambeth, Surrey
Killed in action at age 28 on 26 August 1916
CWGC: “Son of John and Eliza Lasham of London; husband of Louisa Alice Lasham, of 7 Elwell Rd., Clapham, London.”
Remembered at Peronne Road Cemetery, Maricourt, France

Information from the censuses

In 1911 postman George Lasham, 22, lived at 137 Hartington Road, Stockwell, where his family occupied 6 rooms. His father, John Lasham, 51, was an engineer’s pattern maker, born in Lambeth. His mother, Eliza Lasham, 47, was from Lathbury, Buckinghamshire. There were 8 children in 1911 (one child had died), 6 of whom lived at home:
Louise Lasham, 26, a dressmaker, born in Kent
George Lasham, 22, a postman, born in London
Lily Lasham, 18, a needlewoman, born in London
James Lasham, 16, an apprentice engineer, born in London
Ernest Lasham, 10
Frederick Lasham, 5
In 1901 the Lasham family lived at 19 Courland Grove. This census states that John Lasham was deaf. The census includes
Charlotte Lasham, 14, born in Clapham