Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

DOW

Harold Frederick Simpson

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H. F. Simpson
Service no. 5190
Private, Royal Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion
Born in Battersea; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Stockwell
Died of wounds on 3 June 1918, aged 22
CWGC: “Son of Frederick and Clara Jane Simpson, of 52 Bellefields Rd., Brixton London. Solicitor’s Clerk.”
Remembered at Ebblinghem Military Cemetery, France

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Harold Frederick Simpson, 15, lived at 52 Bellefields Road (where the family occupied 5 rooms), the eldest son of Frederick Simpson, 44, a solicitor’s clerk born in the City of London, and Clara Jane Simpson, 44, born in St. Marylebone, central London. Harold was born in Battersea, as was his sister Lily Florence Simpson, 13. His brother Victor Albert Simpson, 7, was born in Brixton. Frederick and Clara Simpson had four live babies, three of whom survived.

Albert Henry Shopland

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Albert Henry Shopland with his sister Edith Mary © Robin Shopland
Albert Henry Shopland with his sister Edith Mary © Robin Shopland

A. H. Shopland
Service no. 701250
Lance Sergeant, Canadian Infantry (Quebec Regiment), 24th Battalion
Died of wounds on 16 August 1917, aged 24
Canadian; born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, enlisted in Ealing
CWGC: “Son of William Robert and of Jane Shopland (formerly Scott), of 10 Rozel Road, Clapham, London, England.”
Remembered at Vimy Memorial, France

Canadian Soldiers of World War 1914-1918

Albert Henry Shopland, 23, joined the war effort on 17 March 1916, when he attested at Winnipeg, Canada. He was at that time working as a farmer in Yarbo, Saschatchewan. Shopland was born on 19 August 1892 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire and had lived as a child at 41a Goldsboro Road, near Wandsworth Road.

He stood 5 feet 11 inches tall, and had a fair complexion with blue eyes and dark brown hair. He stated that he had previously served with the Royal West Surrey Territorials. He was unmarried.

Information from Robin Shopland: There were two brothers William Robert Shopland (Bert’s father) and Albert Shopland (Bert’s uncle) who married two sisters Jane and Kate Scott, who came from an army family. Brother Albert and his wife Kate emigrated to work in Canada. Bert was named after his uncle and presumably later followed his uncle over there. His siblings were brother William who I believe was in India with the army, sisters Kathleen and Edith Mary, and his brother Frederick who was 12 at the outbreak of war. There may have also been another baby who died in infancy.

Information from the censuses

It is likely that Albert Shopland left England before 1911. He does not appear on the 1911 census return for the Shopland family at 41a Goldsboro Road (where the family had lived since at least 1901). Shopland’s father, William Robert Shopland, 49, was a coach body maker born at Bridgwater, Somerset; his mother, Jane Shopland, 45, was from Windsor, Berkshire. Kathleen Shopland, two years Albert’s junior, was 16 and, like him, born in Cheltenham. His younger siblings, Edith Mary Shopland, 14, and Frederick Thomas, 9, were born in London. William and Jane had eight babies born alive, three of whom died.

Frederick David Shea

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F. D. Shea
Service no. G/11619
Lance Corporal, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 11th Battalion
Died of wounds on 18 or 19 January 1918, aged 28
Born in Peckham, enlisted at Lambeth, lived at Stockwell
CWGC: “Son of Frances and the late James Shea, of Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Giavera British Cemetery, Arcade, Italy

Brother of George Shea

Information from the censuses

Frederick David Shea, 22 in 1911, was a clerk in a grocery warehouse. He lived at 425 Forest Road, Walthamstow, east London in four rooms, which he shared with his mother, Frances Shea, 49, a widow from Clapham living on private income; sister Amelia Shea, 23, a booking clerk, born in Clapham; and brother George Shea, 14, born in Manor Park, east London. Ten years previously when Frederick Shea was a 12-year-old schoolboy, he lived with his grandmother, Amelia Couturier, 67, a Clapham-born bookseller, at 209 Clapham Road, his uncle, Francis L. Couturier, her 37-year-old married son described as a “bookseller’s assistant” and born in Newington, and his younger brother, George Shea, 14, born in Manor Park, Essex.

VLUU L210 / Samsung L210
209 Clapham Road

Information from British History Online (Survey of London, 1956)

No. 209 Clapham Road, formerly The Bays or No. 2 Stockwell Common
“This is probably the oldest surviving house in Clapham Road, but unfortunately nothing has been discovered about its origin. It is a double-fronted house of three storeys, its painted stucco face clothing a front of mid or late 18th century date. The central doorway is surmounted by two windows and flanked on each side by a splay sided bay rising through the three storeys. The wood doorcase is of charming design, the arched opening being framed by panelled pilasters with consoles supporting an open triangular pediment. The front finishes with a cornice and blocking course.”

Arthur Sharman

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Sharman A Lijssenhoek
Photo © Marietta Crichton Stuart

A. Sharman
Service no. A/187
Rifleman, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 8th Battalion
Born in Battersea; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Wandsworth
Died of wounds on 31 July 1915, aged 21
CWGC: “Son of Elizabeth Sharman of 15 Brooklands Street, Wandsworth Road, SW London. His brother Harry also fell.”
Remembered at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium

Brother of Harry Sharman

Information from the censuses

Aged 17 in 1911, Arthur Sharman was working as a labourer. He was one of 14 children (only seven survived) of Edward Sharman, 62, from Diss, Norfolk, and Elizabeth Sharman, 50, from King’s Lynn, Norfolk. Besides Arthur and his parents, the two-roomed household at 17 Richmond Place, Stockwell included Ann Maria Sharman, 15, a box maker, and Harry, Sharman, then 11. The children were born in Battersea.
Note: The names of Arthur Sharman and his brother Harry were added, out of sequence, to the last panel on the war memorial.

Edgar Stanley Sharman is also on the war memorial – it is not known how or whether he is related to these two brothers.

Frederick James Raishbrook

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F. J. Raishbrook
Service no. 955161
Gunner, Royal Field Artillery, Z/29 Trench Mortar Bty.
Born in Clapham; enlisted in Brixton
Died of wounds on 2 December 1917, aged 20
CWGC: “Son of William Edward and Louisa Ann Raishbrook of London.”
Remembered at Tincourt New British Cemetery, France

In 1911 Frederick Raishbrook, aged 14 and working as a messenger boy in a newspaper office, lived at 46 Landor Road, Stockwell with his parents, siblings and two boarders. The household had five rooms. Frederick’s father, William Edward Raishbrook, 40, a coal porter, was from Clapham, as was his mother, Louisa Anne, 37. Frederick had three siblings and there were two boarders including Robert Schleicher, 24, an Austrian pastry cook. 

Raishbrook was born on 2 January 1897 and baptised at St Andrew’s, Landor Road, Stockwell Green on 21 February. His father described himself as a carman and the family lived at 25 Landor Road.

At the time he joined the 8th London Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery at Holland Road, Brixton, on 11 May 1914, three months before the outbreak of war, Frederick was living with his family at 46 Landor Road and working as a clerk at H.R. Baines & Co., of The Strand, London, the publisher of The Daily Graphic magazine. He was 17 and 10 months, and stood 5ft 8¾in, with a 32in chest. His physical development was described as ‘moderate’.  

On 18 November 1916 he was admitted to hospital with lacerations of five fingers of the left hand. Three weeks later, he fractured a finger. He convalesced at Boulogne. Raishbrook was wounded in the field on 2 December 1917. Two days later his family received a telegram: ‘[…] to inform you 955161 Gunner F. Raishbrook dangerously ill at 55 Casualty Clearance Station, France suffering from gunshot wounds multiple. Permission to visit cannot be granted.’

His effects, including disc, letters, photos, pipe, wallet, knife and mirror, were returned to his family. 

William Charles Purslow

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W. C. Purslow
Service no. S/12717
Corporal, Rifle Brigade, “B” Coy. 3rd Battalion
Born in Plymouth; enlisted in London; lived in Stockwell
Died of wounds on 29 May 1916, aged 26
CWGC: “Husband of Eleanor Annie Hillyer (formerly Purslow), of The Drill Hall, Richmond, Surrey.”
Remembered at Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension, Nord, France and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA

Brother of Albert Edward Purlsow.

William Charles Purslow’s grave is in an extension of Bailleul town cemetery, where there are also graves of French and German soldiers from the Great War, as well as some WWII graves. Photo: Ray Gloster

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

William Charles Purlsow died on 29 May 1916 after the amputation of his right arm. Eight days earlier he had sustained a gunshot wound to his right arm. He had served just under a year, with only about three months in total at the front.

Purslow’s Army career was unremarkable, at least according to the service records. He had suffered from otitis media (inflamation or infection of the middle ear) in March and he was treated on an ambulance train. There is not much other than these details – and the list of his effects (disc, testament, diary, photos, cap badges, gold ring, letter) – to say. He was 25 when he joined up on 8 June 1915, with a fresh complexion, blue eyes and brown hair.

Purslow left a widow, Eleanor Annie nee Hutchinson, whom he married in late 1915 (the banns were read at St Michael’s church), who later remarried.