Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

France

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.

Albert Edward Purslow

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A. E. Purslow
Service no. 170
Corporal, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 7th Battalion
Born at Stonehouse, Devon; enlisted at Kingston Upon Thames; lived in Brighton
Died on 18 November 1916, aged 21
Remembered at Stump Road Cemetery, Grandcourt, France and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA

Brother of William Charles Purslow

Ray Gloster writes: ‘The Stump Road Cemetery is situated in a bleak windswept location, so on a cold February morning we could only imagine what it was like there in November 1916. Many of the graves were for men from the same regiment, The Queen’s, who died on the same day, 18 November, the last day of the battle of the Somme/Ancre.’

Information from the 1911 census

William Purslow, 21, and Albert Purslow, 15, were shop assistants, William for a hosier and Albert for an oilman. The household lived in four rooms at 15 Burnley Road, Stockwell. Charles Purslow, 50, from Lydford in Devon, was a music-hall musician; Alice Purslow, 46, was from Plymouth. They had four children, three of them living at home:
William Purslow, 21, born in Plymouth
Albert Purslow, 16, born in Stonehouse, Devon
George Purslow, 7, born in Fulham

Ray Gloster writes:

Albert Edward Purslow married Emma Caroline Ann Shed at Wandsworth in 1915. They had a daughter Phyllis Jeanette Elinor Purslow, who was born on 10 November 1916, just eight days before Albert was killed in action on the Somme at the battle of the Ancre.

He enlisted at Kingston upon Thames, which according to his pension records he did so before the war, at the age of 18. It is likely that he was transferred to the 7th Battalion as a Non Commissioned Officer after it was formed in September 1914.

In 1916 Emma was living in Brighton, Sussex in 1916, and she stayed in Sussex until her death at Eastbourne in 1981. She did not remarry but brought up her daughter alone, and then her two grandsons. Phyllis died in Hailsham on 1 November 2008.

Albert was a 4th generation professional soldier. His father Charles, although working as a music-hall musician in 1911, had served for 15 years in the Royal Marine Light Infantry at Plymouth, until 1899, 13 years as a musician, having previously served for almost six years in the 1st Battalion 53rd Shropshire Regiment of Foot at Plymouth, the same regiment as his father William and also his grandfather William, who was from Shrewsbury, Shropshire but continued to live in Plymouth in retirement.

In 1908, Albert’s sister Ethel married a musician, Alfred George Manning, one of four brothers who had served in the Royal Marines Light Infantry band (a fifth brother was also a musician, whilst the sixth was a baker). In 1913 she emigrated to Canada with her husband and son George (b. 1909), their second son Alfred was born soon after arriving in Canada. The family settled in the United States a few years later.

Thomas Protheroe

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T. Protheroe
Service no. 39017
Private, East Lancashire Regiment, 2nd/5th Battalion, formerly 233832, Royal Field Artillery
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Stockwell
Died on 26 March 1918, aged 38
CWGC: “Husband of F. M. Protheroe, of 108, Grantham Rd., Clapham Road, London.”
Remembered at Etaples Military Cemetery, France and St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

In 1911, Thomas Protheroe, 29, the son of Thomas James Protheroe and Ruth Carrington, newly married to Florence Maud Todd, 28, lived at 40 Honeybrook Road, Clapham Park, where they had four rooms. Thomas worked as a process engraver in the newspaper industry. They had no children. Both were from Newington, southeast London. Florence later moved to 108 Grantham Road, Stockwell. Thomas was born on 12 April 1881 and attended Harper Street School in Southwark. He was the eldest of six children. 

Henry John Preston

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H. J. Preston
Service no. 2462
Lance Corporal, London Regiment, 1st/24th Battalion
Killed in action on 26 May 1915, aged 24
CWGC: “Son of William and Ellen Preston, of 33, Stockwell Rd., Clapham, London.”
Remembered at Le Touret Memorial, France

Information from the 1911 census

Henry John Preston was the son of William and Ellen Preston. The 1911 census lists William, aged 49, a soda water bottler, and Ellen Preston, 46, both from St Pancras, north London living in three rooms at 37 Stockwell Road. A married couple had a further four rooms in the house. They had seven children, three of them at that address. We have not identified Henry John Preston in the 1911 census.

In 1901 the Preston family lived at 20 Dorset Street, Littlehamton, West Sussex.

James Sidney Prescott

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S. J. Prescott
Service no. 8638
Serjeant, Royal Scots Fusiliers, 1st Battalion
Enlisted at Brixton
Died on 28 March 1918, aged about 31
CWGC: “Son of the late William George and Mary Jane Prescott.”
Remembered at Arras Memorial, France

Information from the censuses

In 1911 James S. Prescott, aged 24, was serving with the 2nd Battalion (mounted infantry) of the Royal Scots Fusiliers at King’s Hill, Harrismith, Orange Free State in South Africa. Meanwhile, his parents and sister lived at 38 South Island Place, between Clapham and Brixton Roads, where they had two rooms. William G. Prescott, 63 and from Dover, Kent, was a pensioner of Lambeth Borough Council (he was formerly a foreman); Mary Jane Prescott, 67, was from Taunton, Somerset. They had five surviving children, of eight, with only one remaining at home: Alice Venner Prescott, 23, a bookkeeper for an advertising agency. On the 1901 census, James S. Prescott is shown as working as a commercial clerk.
*The War Memorial has the initials reversed.

Charles Edward R. Powell

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C. E. R. Powell
Service no. 6966/233236
Private, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), “C” Coy. 2nd Battalion
Killed in action on 18 March 1917, aged 23
Born in St Helena; enlisted at Westminster; lived at Lambeth
CWGC: “Son of Mr C. E. and Mrs A. M. Powell, of 8, Walberswick St., London, SW8.”
Remembered at Beaurains Road Cemetery, Beaurains, France

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Charles Edward R. Powell, 17, was a clerk to a stone mason. He lived with his parents and three siblings at 73 Grosvenor Road, Westminster, where the family had three rooms. Powell’s father, Charles Edward Powell, 45, was an Army pensioner now working as a timekeeper for a hotel. He was born in St. George’s West, London. Amy Powell, 38, was from Winchester, Hampshire. The eldest three children were born on St Helena in the South Atlantic, I guess while Charles senior was stationed there. It was then a Crown Colony.
Dorothy Helena Powell, 18, a clerk to a blouse manufacturer
Charles Edward Powell, 17, a clerk to a stone mason
Albert Powell, 16, a schoolboy and part-time messenger
Reginald Alfred Powell, 13, born in Aldershot, Hampshire