Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

age 31

John or Jack Jordan

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J. Jordan
Private, Royal Fusiliers, 2nd Bn.
Service no. L/12725
Died on 25 April 1915, aged 31.
Remembered at Helles Memorial, Turkey

Brother of Albert Edward Jordan and Frank Andrew Jordan

Chris Burge writes:

John (aka Jack) Jordan was born in Hammersmith in 1883, the fifth child of parents George Thomas and Mary Ann Jordan. John’s father was a self-employed jeweller. In the 1891 census the Jordan family were living in two rooms at 4 Broomgrove Road, off Stockwell Road, an area described as ‘very poor’ in social surveyor Charles Booth’s 1890s map of London. 

The family’s fortunes had not improved in the following decade with the birth of a further six children. When John’s youngest sibling Violet was baptised in April 1900 at St John the Divine, Kennington, the family were living at 7 Thompsons Avenue, in one of the poorest parts of Camberwell. John’s father George, aged 42, died later in the same year leaving Mary Ann to support seven young children with the help of her four children of working age. In the 1901 census, the Jordan family were still living at 7 Thompsons Avenue; Mary was working as a collar ironer and the family of 12 lived in just three rooms in a property which housed two other families in four other rooms, making a total of 23 people at this address. The family’s situation deteriorated to the point that some of Mary’s youngest children were briefly taken into care and John’s younger brother Frank, aged 11, was sent to the Training Ship HMS Exmouth where he stayed for three years. 

By the time of the 1911 census, the Jordan family were living in three rooms at 4 Nealdon Street, Stockwell, a property which also housed a greengrocer’s family of seven in five other rooms. When Mary, now aged 49, completed the census return her household consisted of: Alfred, 26, a self-employed fishmonger; Frank, 19,  who was in ‘Army Reserves (Private 6th Rifle Bde)’; Albert, 17, a carman; Letty, 13; and Violet, 11. and Albert was a carman for the L.P.D. company. 

Jack was over 4,000 miles away in India. He had joined the regular Army around 1907, serving as Private L/12725 of the Royal Fusiliers whose 2nd Battalion had been posted to India in 1908 and were based at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. In the 1911 census, Jack was counted as in the Hugh Rose barracks at Jabalpur. Jack’s battalion did not return to England until December 1914. By March 1915 orders were received to move to an eastern destination as the battalion was to be part of the ill-fated Gallipoli Campaign. 

The 2nd Bn. Royal Fusiliers were the first to land on beach ‘X’ on 25 April 1915. Unlike at other beaches, they faced little opposition until after scrambling up the cliffs and moving inland. For several days there was no respite in the fighting. The battalion had started with 26 officers and 948 other ranks but by 30 April 1915 were reduced to 12 officers and 481 other ranks. Jack Jordan was killed in action on the day he landed on Gallipoli. He is listed in the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as ‘Jordon’.

1915 was a bleak year for the Jordan family. John’s younger brother Frank was killed in action on 25 September 1915 in Belgium and his brother Albert was killed in action in France on 19 October 1915. 

By the end of the war, Mary Jordan was had returned to the familiar surroundings of Broomgrove Road and lived with Alfred, Letty and Violet at number 19, which remained their home into the 1930s.

Charles Philip Guy

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C. P. Guy
Service no. 7658
Private, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 1st Battalion
Born in Gloucester; enlisted in London; lived in Clapham
Died of wounds age 31 on 26 November 1914
CWGC: “Husband of Margaret Hannah Guy, of 30 Portland Place South, Clapham Road, London.”
Cited in De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour 1914-1918
Remembered at Zantvoorde British Cemetery, near Ypres, Belgium

Robert Grainger

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R. Grainger
Private, East Surrey Regiment, 1st Bn.
Service no. 201552.
Died on 18 July 1917, aged 31
Remembered at Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

Brother of John Albert Grainger

Chris Burge writes:

Robert Grainger, the first child of Robert Grainger and Amelia Sarah Lea, was born on 17 March 1866 and baptised four days later at St Andrew’s, Lambeth, when the family address was recorded as 17 Windmill Street and Robert Snr worked as a carman (carter). 

In 1891, the Grainger family lived at 83 Thomas Street (now Warham Street) near Kennington Oval. They later moved to 16 Surrey Lodge, a complex of social housing on Kennington Road.

School records show Robert and his next youngest brother Frederick attending nearby Walnut Tree School in 1893. Robert stayed with his family during their various moves over the following years until on 19 March 1907 he walked the short distance from his home in the Hayles Buildings on St George’s Road, across the busy Elephant and Castle junction to the Army recruiting office at 38 New Kent Road. Within a week he had been posted to the depot of the Lincolnshire Regiment. He was discharged medically unfit after just 163 days. 

At the outbreak of the war, Robert and his younger brother John were living near Clapham Junction railway complex and working as goods porters. In December 1915, Robert Grainger attested in the final days of Lord Derby’s Group Scheme, with the obligation to come if called up later on. His medical, which took place at Wandsworth Town Hall on 12 December 1915, recorded him as 29 years and 9 months, 5ft 9in tall, 10 stone, with a 37in chest and physically strong but with bad teeth.

He was issued with a grey armband with a red crown, and have his National Registration card stamped, “ATTESTED 12 DEC 1915”. His call-up date followed Lord Derby’s group schedule and Robert reported to the Wimbledon recruitment centre on 1 March 1916. Robert Grainger was now private 3806 of the 3/5th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment. 

There was no immediate expectation that this Territorial Force unit would go overseas. It moved to Cambridge on 1 January 1916, then Crowborough and was in Tonbridge by October 1916. A year after Robert was first in uniform, on 27 December 1916, he married Beatrice Harriet Salmon at St Jude’s, Southwark. The couple gave their address as 63 Hayles Street, which was Beatrice’s home. Robert had first met Beatrice when they were both living in the Hayles Building some nine years before, when she was just 16. 

Robert was a trained signaller and was sent to France on 29 March 1917 (he was renumbered 201552). He had been in the Arras sector when he was posted from the 7th East Surrey to the no. 1 company of the 1st Bn East Surrey on 10 June 1917, they were north-east of Arras. June had ended with a quiet five days in trenches opposite the shattered Fresnoy Wood. Specific mention was made of good communications between HQ and front companies by use of ‘Fullerphones’, buzzer, pigeon and lamp. Early in July, orders were received that a ‘two company’ strength raid was to be made on enemy trenches at Fresnoy. Preparations and training followed after nos. 1 and 4 company had been chosen for the task. Bad weather delayed the raid from the 15th to 4am on the 18th. The raid casualties were two officers wounded, other ranks four killed, 20 wounded and 14 missing. The missing were not thought to have survived. 

On 18 July 1917 Beatrice was informed that her husband had been reported missing. She was left waiting for further news, her hopes fading as the months past until finally Robert Grainger was officially presumed to have died on or since 18 July 1917. 

German documents show that Robert did die on that day. His identity disc was retrieved when his body was buried and returned to British authorities. The disc was the only possession returned to Beatrice. Inexplicably this happened twice, once in July 1918 and again in November 1920. On both occasions Beatrice dutifully acknowledged receipt of the item posted to her address at 52 Hayle Buildings, St. Georges Road SE 11. 

In order to receive her husband’s Plaque and Roll, Beatrice was obliged to complete Army Form W5080, a statement naming all living relatives of a deceased soldier. Beatrice took the completed form to St. Jude’s Vicarage in Southwark to be witnessed and countersigned on 9 October 1919. Apart from herself, she listed Robert’s parents and his four remaining siblings who all lived at various addresses in Stockwell. 

Beatrice Harriet Grainger did not remarry and remained in Southwark for many years. She died in 1971, aged 

James William Cummins

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J. W. Cummins
Service no. 2033
Corporal, London Regiment, 22nd Battalion
Died age 31 on 20 May 1916
Husband of Edith Cummins, of South Lambeth, London.
Remembered at Bruay Communal Cemetery Extension, France

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 James William Cummins, then 26, born in Lambeth, was married and living with his family in 2 rooms at 191 South Lambeth Road. He was a foreman in a coffee husking mill. His wife, Edith Cummins, 25, was born in Battersea. Their baby son, Leslie Cummins, 4 months, was born in Lambeth. Margaret Stevens, a 29-year-old single domestic cook from Dundalk, County Louth, was visiting.

James and Edith had three further children, born between 1912 and 1916. 

Herbert Carey

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H. Carey
Able Seaman (RFR/CH/B/5028), HMS India
Service no. 212125
Killed in action on 8 August 1915, aged 31
Remembered at Narvik Old Cemetery, Norway

Chris Burge writes:

Herbert Carey was born on 27 November 1883 in Holloway, north London, the third of Thomas George and Mary Carey’s five known children. Herbert was still living in Islington when he joined the Navy on his birthday in 1901. His occupation was recorded as ‘Engine Cleaner’ and Herbert was described as 5ft 11in tall, with brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion. Advancement in the Navy was slow and Herbert was not rated as AB seaman until 1903. He served on several ships with HMS Pembroke being the last before he was placed on fleet reserve and left the service on 6 April 1908.  

On 2 May 1909 Herbert Carey married Susan Ethel Parnell St Barnabas, South Lambeth. He gave his address as 43 Lansdowne Gardens, and described himself as a labourer. Susan Ethel was from Bristol but had lived in Lambeth for at least a decade before they married. 

In the 1911 census, Herbert and Ethel were living in just two rooms at 46 Priory Road off the Wandsworth Road.  Herbert worked as a printers warehouseman. Their daughter Irene Maud Carey was born at home on 12 May 1912. 

As a naval reservist, Herbert Carey was called up at the outbreak of war, serving on the old cruiser HMS Sutlej from 2 August 1914 until part of a draft of 88 men that joined the crew of the HMS India on 8 April 1915. The total crew numbered 32 officers and 270 men. The India was an Armed Merchant Cruiser, an ex-passenger ship, part of the 10th Cruiser Squadron Northern Patrol safeguarding shipping between Britain and Norway.  

Official reports stated: ‘While on duty intercepting and inspecting neutral shipping, HMS India was torpedoed by German submarine U22 near Helligvaer, Norway, on August 8, 1915. The ship broke in two and sank quickly.’

Some 160 men were lost, and those washed ashore were buried at Narvik Old Cemetery. 

After the war, Susan Ethel lived at 290 South Lambeth Road with her brother Frederick and his wife until just before she died in 1938, aged 53. Her daughter Irene, died aged 80 in 1992.