Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

Brothers

Jules Benjamin Alfred Desaleux

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listing of desaleux brothers on stockwell war memorial
The Desaleux brothers are listed on Stockwell War Memorial

J. B. A. Desaleux
Service no. 1250216
Gunner, Canadian Field Artillery, 76th Bty. Reserve Bde.
Died age 29 on 25 May 1917
Son of J. B. A. and Edith Desaleux, of London, England; husband of Alice E. Desaleux, of 1399, Winnipeg Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Remembered at Shorncliffe Military Cemetery, Kent

Brother of Ernest William Desaleux and Frederick Desaleux

Shorncliffe Barracks, on the Kent coast close to Folkstone and Dover, was inhabited mainly by Canadian troops, and subject to airborne attacks by German bombers. The most devastating came on 25 May 1917 when two bombs fell on the huts occupied by 18 soldiers, of whom 16 were Canadian. There were 71 military and civilian casualties, including Jules Benjamin Desaleux.

Jules had emigrated with his wife to Canada and lived with at 253 Park View Street, St. James, Winnipeg. He attested on 8 January 1917, stating that he had previously served in the Territorials with the Royal West Surreys. Jules was described as brown-eyed with dark brown hair and a fair complexion, and 5 feet 9 inches tall, with a 36-inch chest.

Census and family information

Frederick J. Desaleux

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listing of desaleux brothers on stockwell war memorial
The Desaleux brothers are listed on Stockwell War Memorial

Amongst the names on the Stockwell War Memorial are three brothers, Ernest, Frederick and Alfred Desaleux. They all died in 1917 – Frederick in February, Ernest in April and Alfred in May. The brothers joined different brigades, although two, Ernest and Frederick, were riflemen. Alfred may have moved to Canada before the war: he joined the Canadian Field Artillery and his widow, Alice, is listed as living in Winnipeg in 1917. She was certainly in London during 1911. In 1911 the Desaleux family were living at Fountain Street (now gone), Stockwell.

F. J. Desaleux
Rifleman, London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles), 21st Battalion
Service no. 653511
Died age unknown on 25 February 1917
Remembered at Railway Dugouts Burial Ground, near Ypres, Belgium

Brother of Ernest William Desaleux and Jules Benjamin Alfred Desaleux.

Census and other Desaleux family information

Ernest William Desaleux

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listing of desaleux brothers on stockwell war memorial
The Desaleux brothers are listed on Stockwell War Memorial

Amongst the names on the Stockwell War Memorial are three brothers, Ernest, Frederick and Alfred Desaleux. They all died in 1917 – Frederick in February, Ernest in April and Alfred in May. The brothers joined different brigades, although two, Ernest and Frederick, were riflemen. Alfred may have moved to Canada before the war: he joined the Canadian Field Artillery and his widow, Alice, is listed as living in Winnipeg in 1917. She was certainly in London during 1911. In 1911 the Desaleux family were living at Fountain Street (now gone), Stockwell.

E. W. Desaleux
Service no. S/14522
Rifleman, Rifle Brigade, 1st Battalion
Died age 23 on 15 April 1917
Son of Son of Jules B. and Edith Desaleux
Remembered at Arras Memorial, France

Brother of Frederick Desaleux and Jules Benjamin Alfred Desaleux

At least one other Desaleux brother served in the war: Albert. Dan Desaleux, his great-grandson, provided the following information.

You might like to know that my grandfather Reginald Desaleux is one of the children of Albert Desaleux who you have listed above. He too was born in Lambeth, as was my father, Barry.

I do have some more information on Albert Desaleux: Volunteering in March 1915 he embarked for France six months and served throughout the war. During this period he was engaged on light railway construction and in laying tracks for guns, and was present in the Battles of Arras, Albert and Vimy Ridge. He was buried by a shell explosion in the course of operations and on recovery served with the signal section until hostilities ceased. Demobilised in May 1919, he holds the 1914-15 Star, and the General Service and Victory Medals.

Jules Desaleux was a map publishing assistant who lived in 73 Tavistock Street, Westminster and married Edith (unknown maiden name). This information is from a census page. However, we have no information of what year the page is actually from.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 the Desaleux family lived at 20 Fountain Street, Stockwell.

Jules Desaleux, the father, is listed as a 45-year-old warehouseman born at “St George, Hanover Square”, London. His wife, Edith Desaleux, was born in Dover, Kent.

Living with them were nine of their many children:
Albert Desaleux, 18, a general labourer with the railway, born at Pimlico (more details below)
Ernest Desaleux, 17, a warehouseman, later to die in the war
Frederick Desaleux, 14, also a warehouseman and also to die in the war, born in Lambeth
Bertha Desaleux, 12, still at school, born in Lambeth
Henry Desaleux, 11, born in Lambeth
Hilda Desaleux, 8, born in Lambeth
Emma Desaleux, 6, born in Lambeth
Ethel Desaleux, 4, born in Lambeth
Gertrude Desaleux, 2, born in Lambeth

Also, in the 1911 census, at 8 Pownall Terrace, Stockwell, Alice Eleanor Desaleux, 20, wife of Jules Benjamin Alfred Desaleux and her six-month-old son Alfred Hugh were listed as visiting Henry James Kemp (described as an “attendant”) and his wife Alice and their five children.

Information from the 1901 census
Ten years previously, in 1901, the family were living at 186 Upper Kennington Lane, in the parish of St Peter’s, Vauxhall, with eight children (the other four were not yet born), including:
Louise Desaleux, born 1886, then aged 15 (listed in the 1891 as ‘Edith’)
Alfred Desaleux, born 1888, aged 13 (listed in the 1891 census as ‘Jules’)
Ellen Desaleux, born 1890, aged 11
All were listed as having been born in Holborn.

Jules Desaleux’s parents Benjamin, born 1815, a journeyman lamp-maker and Maire (or possibly Eliza), born 1821, a corset-maker, came from France. In 1881, according to that census, they were living at 36 South Molton Street, “St George, Hanover Square” with their 24-year-old daughter, also called Maire and also a corset-maker. They had lived at this address for at least 20 years (they are there on the 1861 census). Meanwhile, Jules, then 22, was a Private in the Army Hospital Corps and living at the South Camp at Aldershot.

Giles Vellacott Daunt

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Photo of Giles Daunt
Giles Daunt. Photo by kind permission of Will Daunt

G. V. Daunt
Second Lieutenant, South Lancashire Regiment, 10th Battalion, attd. 6th Battalion
Killed in action in Mesopotamia on 9 April 1916, aged 19
Brother of Conrad O’Neill Daunt
Remembered at Basra Cemetery, Iraq
Awarded the Victory, British and Star medals

On 20 August 1914 Giles Vellacott Daunt, aged 18 and working as a clerk, joined the Royal Fusiliers as a Signaller. He was almost immediately offered a commission in the South Lancashires (with whom his brother Conrad also served). Quite apart from his middle-class background – he was a son of the physician and surgeon Francis Eldon Horsford Daunt – he must have looked the part. Six feet tall, over 11 stone and with a 41-inch chest, blue eyes and fair hair.

In February 1916 Daunt embarked on the H.M.S. Ionic, headed for Port Said, Egypt and then Basra, Iraq. He was reported missing in action on 9 April 1916. His death was later confirmed. A memorandum of 6 August states that his body was buried at Sanniyat.

Conrad O’Neill Daunt

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Conrad O'Neill Daunt
Conrad O’Neill Daunt. Photo by kind permission of Will Daunt

C. O’N. Daunt
Lieutenant, Royal Air Force, South Lancashire Regiment, 8th Battalion
Died age 27 on 29 September 1918
Son of Francis Eldon Horsford Daunt, LRCP (Licenciate of the Royal College of Physicians of London), of 176 Clapham Road, Stockwell, London, and the late Annie Elizabeth Daunt (nee Vellacott).
Remembered at Bronfay Farm Military Cemetery, Bray-sur-Somme, France

Conrad Daunt appears to have been listed as Canadian – at least he is remembered as so on the Veterans Affairs Canada website. The RAF was established late in the war (1 April 1918).

Brother of Giles Vellacott Daunt

Conrad O’Neill Daunt, born in 1891, and his brother Giles Vellacott Daunt, born in 1895, were two of five children of Irish physician and surgeon Francis Eldon Horsford Daunt and Annie Elizabeth Daunt (née Vellacott) of 176 Clapham Road. Both boys were educated at City of London School.

Conrad returned to England from Canada to fight in the war and initially served as a Private with the Second Canadian contingent. He was offered a commission with the South Lancashires, and served with them through 1917. In 1918 he was transferred to the Royal Air Force (established in April) and promoted to Lieutenant.

Will Daunt, great-nephew to Giles and Conrad, writes: “Conrad and Giles Daunt were my great uncles, and, although we knew where they were buried (and have visited Conrad’s grave), we had not realised their names were on the memorial. My grandfather, Francis O’Neill Daunt, was their elder brother and, as a doctor (like his father), was probably a little safer (although he met mygrandmother on a hospital ship coming back from Gallipoli). Sadly, I never knew him because he died in the early 1950s. His two sisters, known as Dorothy and Peg, never married and, like him, spent most of their adult lives in Hastings/St. Leonards.”

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Conrad O’Neill Daunt was living with his uncle, Walter John Vellacott at his farm at Tunnel House, West Thurrock, Essex. Walter Vellacott, 32, was born in Barnstaple, Devon. His wife, Elizabeth, 27 was from High Bickington, Devon. They had 2 children: Margaret Annie Vellacott, 4, born in Homehurst, Esex, and William Walter Vellacott, 7 months, born at West Thurrock. Conrad was 20 and working as a farm pupil. There was a visitor on the night of the census: Moss T. Reick, 44 and married, an evangelist from Berlin, Germany. The servants were Annie Suckling, a single 21-year-old domestic servant from Essex, and governess Ruth Florence Reynolds, 32, single and born in Singapore.

Meanwhile, Conrad’s family lived at 118 Newington Causeway (convenient for Guy’s Hospital). Physician and surgeon Francis Eldon Horsford Daunt, 51, born in Kinsale, County Cork, and his wife, Annie Elizabeth Daunt, 46, from Tavistock, Devon, had five children, including Francis Eldon Daunt, 22, a medical student, Giles Daunt, 14, Helena Margaret Daunt, 11. Frances Willmore, 40, a general domestic servant born in Lambeth, lived in.

William Charles Barnsley

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W. C. Barnsley
Service no. 55016
Driver, Royal Field Artillery”B”, Bty. 103rd Bde.
Killed in action aged around 32 on 22 June 1917
Husband of Mrs. E. Barnsley, of 11 Mostyn Road, Brixton, London.
Remembered at Woods Cemetery, Belgium and on Stockwell War Memorial, London SW9
Brother of James Foster Barnsley

Information from the 1911 census

William Barnsley lived at 11 Glyn Street, Kennington (just by the Royal Vauxhall Tavern) in 1911. William, 26, was married to Emma Barnsley, 24. Their children were
Rose Barnsley, 5
William Barnsley, 2
Ada Barnsley, 4 months
All were born in Vauxhall.
William Charles Barnsley’s parents and siblings lived in 5 rooms at 10 Henry Street (no longer in existence), Vauxhall, London SW8. William Luke Barnsley, 49, was a cloth shrinker from Marylebone, London. Elizabeth Barnsley, 49, was born in Soho. The couple had had 13 children, 7 of whom survived.
Sarah E. Barnsley, 28, a perfumer, born in Holborn
Alice M. Barnsley, 24, a dressmaker, born in Holborn
James F. Barnsley, 21, a tailor’s packer, born in St Pancras (remembered on the war memorial)
Ada C. Barnsley, 20, a perfumer, born in St Pancras
Rose B. Barnsley, 15, a dressmaker, born in Lambeth
Ernest B. Barnsley, 10, born in Lambeth

Information from the 1901 census

In 1901 William Barnsley was a 16-year-old errand boy living at 6 Catherine Street, Vauxhall. His father, William L. Barnsley, 39, was a cloth worker born in Marylebone; his mother, Elizabeth M. Barnsley, 39, was born in Soho. The children on the census were
Sarah E. Barnsley, 19, perfumery stock keeper, born in Holborn
William C. Barnsley, 16, born in Holborn
Alice M. Barnsley, 14, an errand girl, born in Holborn
James F. Barnsley, 12, born in St Pancras
Ada B. Barnsley, 11, born in St Pancras
Rose B. Barnsley, 5, born in Lambeth
Ernest B. Barnsley, 1 month, born in Lambeth