Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

France

John Thomas Wotton

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J. T. Wotton
Service no. 13413
Corporal, East Surrey Regiment, 13th Battalion
Died on 6 March 1917, aged 29
CWGC: “Husband of A. L. Wotton, of 65, Cottage Grove, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Abbeville Community Cemetery Extension, France

Wotton was born in Herne Bay, Kent, the son of Thomas Wotton, a carriage painter from Birchington, Kent, and Mary Ann (née Mount), from Herne Bay. By 1901 the family had moved to 187 Wirtemberg Street, Clapham and John’s father was working as a railway guard. Two siblings had joined John and the household included two boarders.

In 1911 John Thomas Wotton, then 22, was working as a potman and barman at the Wirtemberg Arms at 165 Wirtemberg Street, Clapham. He lived above the premises with the licensee and three other staff. The street was renamed Stonhouse Street in 1919 — and the pub has likewise been renamed The Stonhouse. His parents had moved to Tennyson Street, Battersea.

 In 1913, aged 24, when Wotton married Annie Lillian Ellis, 26, at St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, he gave his address as 65 Cottage Grove, Stockwell. The couple had two children: Howard John Wotton (born 1914) and Iris Constance Wotton (born 1915). Annie died in 1975, aged 88.

Frank Worthy

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F. Worthy
Service no. 4785
Rifleman, London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles), “D” Coy. 1st/21st Battalion
Enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 15 September 1916, aged 19
CWGC: “Son of Alfred James and Matilda Clara Worthy, of 12 Normandy Road, Brixton, London.”
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

In 1911 Frank Worthy was a 14-year-old schoolboy. He lived at 5 Addison Place, Brixton (now part of Normandy Road) with his parents, Alfred James Worthy, 45, a sign writer for the council, and Matilda Clara Worthy, 37, both born in Lambeth. Frank had two siblings. The family occupied four rooms. 

Frank, who was born on 23 October 1898, attended Stockwell Road School and moving on in 1908 to Battersea Polytechnic Boys’ Secondary School, for which he received a bursary. He left in July 1914 to train as a teacher at London Day Training College. 

Frank Worthy enlisted on 27 January 1916 in Lambeth, giving his age as 19, occupation as teacher and address as 5 Addison Place (since renamed Normandy Road), Brixton. He had previously been rejected for service. Frank stood 5ft 11in tall, with a chest measurement of 33½in. His moles on his upper right arm and abdomen were noted. He joined the British Expeditionary Force on 15 June 1916 and survived exactly three months after that.

The Worthys were members of the Plymouth Brethren. 

Thomas Isaac Worley

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T.I. Worley
Service no. 613802
Private, London Regiment, 1st/19th Battalion
Born in Camberwell; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Stockwell
Died of wounds on 8 December 1917, aged 34
CWGC: “Son of Isaac Brames Worley and Margaret Worley, of 47, Lansdowne Gardens. Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Etaples Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1911 census

Thomas Isaac Worley, 27 in 1911, was an auctioneer’s clerk. Born in Camberwell, he lived at 47 Lansdowne Gardens, Stockwell with his parents, Isaac Brames, 56, a cook from Pimlico, Margaret Worley, 53, from Coventry, and brother James J. R. Worley, 29, a pastry cook born in Newington. The family shared nine rooms. One sibling lived elsewhere and another had died.

Henry James Robert Woodcock

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H. J. R. Woodcock
Service no. 6951
Private, London Regiment (London Scottish), 1st/14th Battalion
Killed in action on 9 September 1916, aged 21
CWGC: “Son of Mrs Eliza Woodcock, of 15 Meadow Place, South Lambeth Road, London.”
Remembered at Serre Road Cemetery No 2, France

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

The Service history file for Henry James Robert Woodcock contains few details. Woodcock enlisted in the Territorial Force on 28 February 1916 and was posted on the same day.

1911 Census

Henry James Robert Woodcock, 16 in 1911, was one of eight children of Henry Woodcock, 44, from Gorleston, Norfolk, and Eliza Woodcock, 41, from Donhead St. Mary, Wiltshire. He lived with his family at 125 Lavender Hill, Battersea, and worked as a book assistant. Six of Henry’s siblings are on the census return: Gertrude Marion Woodcock, 18, a scullery maid; Godfrey Randall Woodcock, 13; Gordon Harold Woodcock, 10; Gwendoline Woodcock, 8, Walter Herbert Woodcock, 5; Marjorie Woodcock, 1. All but Gertrude, who was born in South Lambeth, were born in Battersea. Blanche Woodcock, 17, was a domestic servant in Mayfair. In 1901 the family lived at 26 Grayshott Road, Battersea.

William George Edwin Woodard

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W. G. E. Woodard
Service no. M2/079669
Lance Corporal, Army Service Corps, 364th Mechanical Transport Coy.
Died of wounds on 12 August 1918, aged 55
CWGC: “Son of William and Frances Woodard; husband of H. S. Woodard, of 65 Pulross Rd., Brixton, London.”
Remembered at Les Baraques Military Cemetery, Sangatte, France

Information from the censuses

William George Edwin Woodard, 47 in 1911, is the oldest of the men on the Memorial that I have been able to identify. He was born about 1864 and worked as a taxi driver. His address in 1911 was the 16 Canterbury Road, Brixton, which he shared with his wife, Helena Sylvia Woodard (née Robshaw), 49, born in Holborn, central London; sons William Woodard, 23, a taxi driver, born in Southwark, and Frederick Woodard, 21, an assistant in a grocer’s shop, born in Lambeth; mother-in-law Eliizabeth Robshaw, 78, from Witham, Essex; May Robshaw, 21, an assistant in a draper’s shop, born in St. Pancras; cousin Frederick Robshaw, 33, a single bookbinder’s assistant, born in Kennington; and Dorothy Sherry, 22, a single grocer’s shop assistant from Hampton Wick, west London. Another of William and Helena’s children lived elsewhere. The couple had lost two other children. The family occupied seven rooms. In 1901 the Woodard family lived at 39, Chester Street, north Lambeth.

William Henry Wilson

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W. H. Wilson
Service no.66127
Bombardier, Royal Field Artillery, “A” Bty. 109th Bde.
Died 28 August 1916, aged 24
Remembered at Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L’Abbe, France
Husband of A. F. Wilson, of 17, Chantrey Rd., Brixton, London.

This identification was made by Chris Burge, who writes:

William Henry Wilson has born on 25 June 1892, one of the five children of parents Thomas Reeves and Ellen Agnes Wilson. William was baptised on 21 August 1892 at St John, Hoxton, when the family lived in Wenlock Street, where they remained for twenty years.

By the time of the 1911 census, William’s mother had died and he shared the home with his father Thomas, sister Florence Agnes and younger brother George Albert. They had just three rooms at 65 Wenlock Street. William worked as a ‘carman contractor’.

William volunteered around the end of 1914 at Holloway, joining the Royal Field Artillery and was eventually posted to the 109th Brigade who were equipped with howitzers. He was married while a soldier on 4 April 1915 to Alice Florence Edwards, a local girl, at St Matthew’s Church, Islington, giving their address as 21 Morton Road. Just four months later, 66127 Wilson was sent to France, disembarking on 29 August 1915.

Almost a year later to the day, William was in action on the Somme as his ‘A’ Battery shot to support British advances. The batteries of the 109th Brigade were under constant shelling themselves, losing eight men in the week before 25 August. When they moved to new positions north of Montauban, on the 25 August, three more men were wounded and another killed. On 28 August, in bad weather, another man was killed and three others wounded. William Henry Wilson died of wounds on this day.

By the end of the war, William’s widow Alice was living at 17 Chantrey Road, Brixton, were she remained until 1934 when she married Frederick Muspratt who had been a ASC lorry driver in the war. She was widowed for a second time when Frederick died in 1946.

Alice Florence was living at 34 Kemerton Road, Camberwell, when she passed away on 21 July 1981, aged 86.