Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

France

Leonard Eldridge

by

E. Eldridge

Service no. 304022
Rifleman, London Regiment, 1/5th Batallion (London Rifle Brigade)
Killed in action on 9 October 1916, aged about 19
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

In 1911, Leonard Eldridge worked as a messenger for the General Post Office. He lived with his parents and five of his eight siblings at 14 Aldebert Terrace, South Lambeth where the family occupied five rooms. Leonard’s father Harry Eldridge, 51, was a carman, transporting milk for a dairy. He was originally from New Cross, south-east London. His mother, Martha Eldridge, 50, was from Norfolk. 

John Frederick King

by

J. F. King

Service no. 231178
Private, London Regiment, 2nd Bn. (Royal Fusiliers)
Died 21 March 1918, aged 39
Remembered at Chauny Communal Cemetery British Extension, Aisne, France

John Frederick King, a carman, joined the Army twice. First he volunteered for the Army Service Corps (Horse Transport) on 5 January 1915. His medical description paints a picture of someone short and stocky: 5 feet 2¼ inches tall with a 40-inch chest. He had a mole on the back of his neck and scars on the left side of his back and left leg. At the top of his form he has signed a note: “I am willing to allot from date of enlistment 6d. [sixpence] per day of my pay to support my wife and family.” He had left behind Jenny (née Hawkins), Frederick Ernest, 9, and Agnes Louise, 8.

This period of service lasted a mere three days. On 7 January he was discharged as “not likely to become an efficient soldier.” As the war progressed, however, this opinion may have been revised or King may have been subject to the compulsory draft. Whatever happened, he later joined the London Regiment and died near Aisne in March 1918.

Charles John Young

by

C. J. Young
Service no. 42404
Private, Essex Regiment, 11th Battalion; formerly 49934, Northamptonshire Regiment
Born in Putney; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in South Lambeth
Killed in action on 21 March 1918, aged 20
CWGC: “Son of John and Elizabeth Young, of 97 Hartington Road, South Lambeth, London.”
Remembered at Beaumetz-les-Cambrai Military Cemetery No. 1, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1911 census

Charles John Young, a 12-year-old schoolboy in 1911, lived at 21 Camellia Street, Stockwell. His widowed mother, Elizabeth Young, 44, was born in Germany and made her living charing (cleaning). There were six siblings: Minnie Young, 18, who worked stripping tobacco; Rose Young, 16, a collar machinist; Lena Young, 14, a darning machinist; Walter Mafeking Young, 10; May Lily Elizabeth Young, 6; Grace Margarete Young, 5. The family of eight lived in two rooms. Three other of Elizabeth’s babies had died.

Frank Wybrew

by

F. Wybrew
Service no. 10622
Private, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own), 1st Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Lambeth
Killed in action on 18 September 1916, aged 23
CWGC: “Son of Maria Rose Whitehouse (formerly Wybrew), of 11 Irving Grove, Stockwell, London, and the late William Wybrew.”
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France and at St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Frank Wybrew was baptised at St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, Stockwell on 14 May 1893, the second of three children of William Joseph Wybrew, a saddler, and Maria Rose (née Millett). They gave their address as 65 Andalus Road, Stockwell. 

Frank’s father died in 1896, at around the time Maria Rose gave birth to their third child. She subsequently married James Edward Whitcombe, a harness maker.

In 1911, Frank Wybrew lived with his mother, stepfather James Edward Whitcombe, a harness maker, a younger sister, three of his five half-siblings and his maternal grandfather in a four-roomed flat, 12 Emily Mansions on Landor Road, Stockwell.  He worked as a ‘general hand’ for a seed merchant.

Arthur George Wright

by

A. G. Wright
Service no. 1633
Private, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 2nd Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Westminster; lived in Lambeth
Died of wounds on 9 August 1916, aged 20
CWGC: “Son of Arthur John Wright, of 34 Thorncroft Street, Wandsworth Road, London.”
Remembered at Warlincourt Halte British Cemetery, Saulty, France

Arthur George Wright, with kind permission of the Wright family.

Arthur George Wright was born in South Lambeth on 8 November 1895 and baptised at St Anne’s, South Lambeth Road on 20 March the following year. He was the second child of Arthur John Wright, a carman born in Clapham, and Mary Ann (née Lanfear)  from Rockley, Wiltshire, who lived at 1 Wyvil Street. 

On 26 August 1901, when the family was living at 14 Kenchester Street, Arthur George and his older sister Beatrice were admitted to St Barnabas School. 

The couple had a total of eight children. Beatrice died at the age of ten in 1907 and another child, Ellen, died as an infant. On the 1911 census Arthur John listed all his children, alive and dead, but scored through the lines for Beatrice and Ellen. 

The census shows that Arthur George  was working as an errand boy and that the  family of eight lived in three rooms at 62 Goldsborough Road. Another household of seven lived in a further four rooms at the same address.

Arthur George enlisted in Westminster. After the war, his father gave his address as 34 Thorncroft Street, Wandsworth Road.