Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

age 32

Frederick Walter Warman

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F.W. Warman
Lance Corporal, Royal Irish Rifles, 15th Bn.
Service no. 44903
Died on 22 November 1917, aged about 32
Remembered at Cambrai Memorial, Louverval, France

Chris Burge writes:

Frederick Walter Warman was born in Kent in 1885, the third child of John and Ellen Eva Warman. By 1891, John and Ellen lived with their five children close to the seafront at 2 Pleasant Villas, Victoria Road, St Lawrence, Ramsgate in Kent. John Warman, who worked in a public house as a barman and cellarman, died in 1894. By the time of the 1901 census widowed Ellen was running her home as a boarding house, with the assistance of her 21-year-old daughter Lilian. Frederick, 15, was employed in a local hotel, possibly the nearby Granville Hotel on Victoria Parade.

In the 1911 census, Ellen had moved a short distance to 1 Avenue Villa, Avenue Road. Her three-storey home, one of four in the terrace, was adjacent to Holy Trinity Church and the open space of Arklow Square. Ellen now lived with three of her five surviving children: Lillian, 31, John, 27, and Ernest, 23. Both of Frederick’s brothers worked as hotel porters. The six-room property was also home to two male boarders. Frederick Warman was living at 83 Carter Street, Walworth, south-east London, renting one of Annie Smith’s five rooms, and was working in London hotels.

He married Florence Agnes Rowland early in 1915, in Southwark. She was the daughter of confectionery maker James Rowland who had premises in Borough High Street, Southwark, and a family home in 247 South Lambeth Road, Stockwell. The couple’s son, John Metcalf Warman, was born on 21 July 1915. Frederick’s brothers Ernest and John had both volunteered by the end of 1915, but Frederick waited to be conscripted. 

He was called up in the second half of 1916 and sent to France in February 1917 as Lance Corporal 8838 Warman of the 1st/8th London Bn (The Post Office Rifles). At some stage in 1917, he was transferred to the 9th Royal Irish Rifles and renumbered L/Cpl. 9/44903. He received medical treatment for a bad case of trench fever, a lice-borne infection, in August 1917 at the 18th General Hospital in France, which was then run by the US Army. The 8th and 9th RIR were amalgamated at the end of August 1917. 

Late in 1917, Frederick Warman was with the 15th RIR who were part of a major offensive near Cambrai, when tanks were used en masse for the first time. Their assault on part of the Hindenburg line on 22 November was met with stiff resistance and the 15th RIR suffered many casualties. Soon after, Frederick’s wife Florence received news that her husband had been posted missing that day. Florence made enquiries through the Red Cross in the hope that Frederick was still alive. A search was made but the response was ‘négatif envoyé’, Frederick had not been found as a prisoner. 

Six months later, in July 1918, Frederick Warman was officially presumed to have died on or since 22 November 1917. Florence was awarded a weekly widow’s pension of 13 shillings and 9 pence on 27 July 1918. She was still at her Stockwell address in 1920 when she made the decision to emigrate to America with her young son John. 

Ernest Petley Warman

In 1915, Frederick’s brother Ernest Petley Warman volunteered in Ramsgate. Ernest landed in France on 14 November 1915, as private 53284 of the 18th Royal Fusiliers. Just a few weeks before, he had married Folkestone-born Annie Elizabeth Standing in central London. The couple had first met when Annie was working at the Granville Hotel, Ramsgate, before the outbreak of war. At the end of April 1917, Ernest’s wife Annie learnt that her husband had been posted missing. Not giving up hope, Annie made enquiries via the Red Cross in July 1917. A search was made but nothing was found, and in late 1917 Ernest Petley Warman was presumed to have died on 1 April 1917. Mrs Annie E Warman was awarded a widow’s pension on 29 December. 

Ernest Petley Warman is remembered on a grave of the Standing Family in Folkestone and on the Arras Memorial. His widow, married Charles Ernest Boddy in 1929 at St Luke, Berwick Street, Westminster. 

John Philip Warman 

In 1915, Frederick’s brother John Philip was working as head porter at the Royal Bath Hotel, Bournemouth and he married local-born Hilda Constance Hembury on 16 June. John decided to attest at Bournemouth under Lord Derby’s Group Scheme, under which men could enlist on the understanding that unmarried men would be called up first, in November 1915, hoping to defer his service. He would have been issued with a grey armband and have his National Registration card stamped, “ATTESTED 24 Nov 1915”. John was finally called up on 25 January 1917. At 5ft 10in and weighing 15 stone, John P Warman found himself posted to the 3rd Grenadier Guards for initial training. When medically examined, it was noted he was ‘not fit for marching’. John was sent to France in April 1918, after the death of his brother Ernest and fearing the worse for his missing brother Frederick. He survived the war and returned to his family in early 1919. 

William Evan Turpin

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william-evan-turpin2
Wiliam Evan Turpin. Photo courtesy of George Cody.

W. E. Turpin
Service no. 140311
Gunner, Royal Garrison Artillery, 172nd Siege Bty.
Born in Clapham; enlisted in Clapham
Killed in action on 31 May 1918, aged 32
Remembered at Montecchio Precalcino Communal Cemetery Extension, Italy

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

TURPIN, W. E., Gunner, R.G.A.
He joined in January 1917, and in the following May was sent to France, where he took part in the fighting at Bullecourt and Messines. Later he was transferred to Italy, where he was unfortunately killed in action on May 30th, 1918, and was buried at Montechiaro. He was entitled to the General Service and Victory Medals.
“Great deeds cannot die.”
15, Elwell Road, Clapham, S.W.4.

William Turpin (centre) at Young's on Larkhall Lane, at the corner of Gaskell Street
William Turpin (centre) at Young’s on Larkhall Lane, at the corner of Gaskell Street. Courtesy of George Cody.

Information from the censuses

In 1911 William Evan Turpin was a 25-year-old grocer’s assistant, living in three rooms at 15 Elwell Road, Clapham, with his wife Emma Turpin (née Guy), 25, from Wolverhampton, and their young son William Joseph Turpin, 11 months, born in Clapham.Meanwhile, his parents, Jesse Turpin, a 48-year-old bricklayer’s labourer from Little London, Essex, and Mary A. Turpin, 48, from Averayon, Cardiganshire, were living at 62 Paradise Road, Stockwell.

William attested on 8 December 1915. He was 5ft 11in tall, with a 43in chest. His Service record states that he died of shell injuries to the right side of body, particularly his stomach and hand. After an Enquiry in the Field, these injuries were judged to be   ‘negligently self-inflicted’, ‘an accident due to disobedience to orders’.Lieutenant Colonel W.D. Alexandia came to the conclusion that Turpin died after ‘scraping the nose of an old Austrian fuze and having done that he walked away and the explosion took place in his hand.’ Alexandia stated that ‘all  men in the battery have been warned repeatedly not to tamper with enemy duds, fuzes etc.’

Emma was awarded a widow’s pension of 27s 7d a week for herself and her three children.

George Cody (Emma’s great nephew) adds: “Sadly William and Emma’s son Ernest Walter was also killed in action, in WW2, and is interred in a military cemetery also in Italy.”

William Evan Turpins Memorial Plaque, issued to his widow Emma. The plaques were made of bronze and popularly known as the Dead Man’s Penny because of their similarity to penny coins. Courtesy of George Cody.
william-and-emma-with-bill-and-ernie
William Evan Turpin with Emma and their sons William and Ernest. Courtesy of George Cody.

Henry George Steed

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H. G. Steed
Service no. 702340
Private, London Regiment, “B” Coy. 1st/23rd Battalion
Killed in action on 23 March 1918, aged 32
CWGC: “Husband of (Annie) Hannah E. Steed, of 86 Acre Lane, Brixton, London; son of George and Emma Steed, of Bull Hill, Chadlington, Charlbury, Oxon.”
Remembered at Arras Memorial, France

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

Henry George Steed was a country boy. He was born in the village of Chadlington, in Oxfordshire, where he and his brother Albert, sons of a carter, were “under carters.” We do not know when he came to London, but once there he found employment as a gardener.

On 10 December 1915 Steed was enlisted into the London Regiment at Camberwell. He was wounded in action on 23 March 1918 and went missing. “Death presumed,” says the record. Three children lost a father and Hannah Elizabeth lost a husband.

Steed was 5 feet 9 inches tall, with a 37½ inch chest with 2½ inches expansion.

Information from the 1901 census

In 1901 Henry Steed, 15, lived with his family at a farm at East End, Chadlington, near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. Henry and his 14-year-old brother Albert Steed were “under carters”, presumably working with their father who is listed on the census as a “carter”. George Steed, 44, was a carter, born in Bowl, Oxfordshire; his wife, Emma Steed, 49, was from Great Rissington, Gloucestershire. Two other children, Clara Steed, 11, and Frederick Steed, 5, were also on the census. All four children were born at Langley, Oxfordshire. I have not located Steed in the 1911 census.
Google fact: The village of Chadlington is an ancient village dating back to the Domesday Book. Ivan Cameron, son of David and Samantha Cameron, is buried there.

Sydney (or Sidney) Herbert Rogers

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S. Rogers
Private, Middlesex Regiment, 1st Bn.
Service no. G/43526.
Died on 23 October 1918, aged 32.
Remembered at Remembered at Vis-En-Artois Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

Chris Burge writes:

Sydney (aka Sidney) Herbert Rogers was born in Lambeth in 1886 and baptised at All Saints, South Lambeth on 24 October 1886. His parents, William and Mary Rogers, were living at 5 Gladstone Street, off Wyvil Road, in Stockwell, at the time and his father worked as a porter for the London & South Western Railway, which employed many of Gladstone Street’s inhabitants. 

The 1891 census shows Sydney was the second youngest of six siblings and the Rogers family lived in four rooms at the Gladstone Street property, which was shared with a family of three in two other rooms. The Rogers family were still living at the same address ten years later when Sydney’s father was 56 and his mother 51. Sydney worked as a printer’s messenger, his older sister Alice as a domestic servant and his younger brother Tom was still at school. Sydney’s widowed grandmother Mary lived with them.

Sydney’s mother died in 1911, leaving just his sister Alice and brother Tom living with their father at Gladstone Street. William Rogers was still working as a railway porter for the L&SWR and Alice, 26, was looking after the family. Tom, 21, was now an engine stoker for the L&SWR. The property also housed another railway porter’s family with three young children, living in two rooms. 

In 1911, Sydney was one of Alice Swan’s three boarders at 72 Fulwell Road in Teddington, Middlesex. All three boarders worked as railway engine stokers for the L&SWR which had a locomotive shed at Fulwell Junction. 

Sydney Herbert Rogers was conscripted in around March 1916. (Estimated from the £12 War Gratuity paid to William Rogers as recorded in the Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects.) He first served in the 1/7th Battalion, a Territorial Force unit, as private 6064 Rogers, but there are no surviving records to say exactly when and where he was transferred to the 1st Middlesex, and was renumbered. (The pages of Middlesex Regiment Medal Roll show a number of men transferred from the 1/7th to the 1st Middlesex in the service number range G/43440-G/43720, with the first casualty in this range on 16 January 1917.) Sydney Herbert Rogers’ service in the 1st Middlesex probably dates from the beginning of 1917. Their main actions in 1917 and 1918 are listed here.

Sydney was killed in action during the final advance in Picardy when the end of the war was in sight. His 74-year-old father William was the sole beneficiary of Sydney’s will which amounted to £133 2s 1d when probate was granted on 8 January 1919. 

Alice married George Griffin in 1917 and by 1925 the couple had moved to 5 Gladstone Street to be with William, who died in 1926, aged 81. They were still in residence when the street was renamed Trenchold Street in the 1930s (it was redeveloped in 1948; its one remaining landmark is the Builders Arms pub).

George Rixton

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G. Rixton
Service no. 3483
Sapper, Royal Engineers, 2nd/1st Lowland Field Coy.
Born in Maiden Newton; enlisted in Victoria Park, east London; lived in Weymouth, Dorset
Killed in action on 16 September 1916, aged 32
CWGC: “Son of Robert and Annie Rixton, of 14, Victoria Rd., Dorchester.”
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, France

Information from the censuses

In 1911 George Rixton, then aged 26, was boarding with the Reed family at 1a Elwell Road, Clapham and working as a brewer’s cooper. Rixton was born in Weymouth (Maiden Newton, according to the 1901 census), Dorset, where his family still lived. The 1901 census shows that his father, Robert Rixton, then aged 43, worked as a brewer’s cellarman. He was born in Muckleford, Dorset. George’s mother, Annie, 47, was born in Maiden Newton, Dorset. Two daughters were also registered: Elizabeth F. Rixton, 17, a dressmaker, born in Maiden Newton; Fanny Rixton, 15, a dressmaker’s apprentice, also born in Maiden Newton.

Thomas Henry Mizen

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natal
The Natal

T. H. Mizen
Service no. 202018
Able Seaman, Royal Navy, H.M.S. “Natal”
Died 30 December 1915 aged around 32
Remembered at Chatham Naval Memorial and at Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9

The Natal was a Duke of Edinburgh class armoured cruiser, built by Vickers Maxim of Barrow and launched on 30 September 1905. She was sunk by an internal explosion near Cromarty on 30 December 1915.

Information from Wikipedia:

On the 30th December 1915 Natal was lying in the Cromarty Firth with her squadron, under the command of Captain Eric Back RN. Shortly after 3.20pm, and without warning, a series of violent explosions tore through the ship. She capsized five minutes later. The most probable explanation was that a fire had broken out, possibly due to faulty cordite, that ignited a magazine. The exact number of casualties is still debated, and ranges from 390, up to 421. Some were killed in the immediate explosions, others drowned as the ship capsized, or succumbed to the freezing water of the Cromarty Firth. Most of the bodies which were recovered from the sea were interred in Rosskeen Churchyard, Invergordon. A small number of casualties were interred in the Gaelic Chapel graveyard in Cromarty.
The picture shows her upturned hull, visible at low water.
There is an interesting thread about the explosion at www.black-isle.info

Thomas Henry Mizen was born on 25 January 1883 in Brixton to Albert Duncan Mizen and Emma Amelia Turner. Thomas is listed on the 1891 census as visiting with his father, a carman, and younger sister at 38 Ingleton Street, Stockwell. In 1904, at St Paul’s, Lorrimore Square, Walworth (Southwark) Thomas married his first cousin Edith Miriam Payne.

The couple had six daughters (five surviving):

Doris Hetty, born 1905
Elsie, born 1906
Edith Miriam, born 1908
Alice Frances, born 1909
Helen Elizabeth, born 1912
Grace Henrietta, born 1912, died 1913

At the time of Thomas Mizen’s death his family address was recorded as 7 Moat Place, Stockwell Road. Edith died in 1929.