W. H. White
Service no. 41697
Private, Leicestershire Regiment, 8th Battalion; formerly 11013, Royal West Surrey Regiment
Born in Stockwell; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in Stockwell
Killed in action on 27 May 1918, aged 19
CWGC: “Only son of William Henry and Matilda White, of 13, Mordaunt St., Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Soissons Memorial, Aisne, France

Chris Burge writes:

William Henry White, a private in the Leicestershire Regiment, was Home (that is, in England) until 3 May 1916 when he sailed for Le Havre. The records show that he returned to London on 22 August 1916 and was admitted to the 3rd London General Hospital at Wandsworth, where he was treated for trench fever. This disease (variously known as Wolhynia fever, shin bone fever, quintan fever, five-day fever) is caused by an organism transmitted by body lice, and conditions at the front were ideal for its spread.

Soldiers serving on the front line lived in squalid, damp and cold conditions. In the fire trench – that is the foremost of three zig-zag trenches, the others being the support trench and the reserve trench – soldiers frequently lived amongst corpses and body parts, and faeces. These were ideal conditions for rats (they were said to have been as big as cats) and flies, for transmitting dysentery, and lice. In the freezing conditions (only the hottest summer days produced balmy nights), men huddled together for warmth, and thereby enabled the lice to pass from one human host to another.

Even when not in the fire trench the men stayed close to one another for they were not allowed to light fires. These would attract shellfire from the enemy or, later in the war, fire from enemy aircraft.

Soldiers did not stay indefinitely in these conditions: generally, four days’ service in the fire trench was followed by four in the support trench and eight in the reserve. The rest of the month was spent ‘in rest’ during which they performed other services, such as supplying the trenches with rations, water and ammunition. Opportunities for bathing and washing clothes were limited – the aim was to take a bath every 10 days but this was not always possible.

Lice infested the seams of the soldiers’ uniforms. To kill them required heat – either hot irons, steam or very hot water. At the front, these methods were out of the question, and the only option was to run a candle up and down the the seams or to pick them off by hand. This process was done in while sitting round in groups and became known as “chatting up”, giving rise to a new term for conversational banter. Lice eggs attached to body hair were killed using a paste of naphthalene (once used in mothballs and moderately toxic).

From 1915 to 1918 between one-fifth and one-third of all British troops reported ill had trench fever, and it is estimated that 97% of men, including officers, had lice.

Trench fever, while rarely fatal, was an unpleasant disease. Symptoms come on suddenly and include high fever, severe headache, painful eyeballs, soreness of the muscles of the legs and back, and hyperaesthesia of the shins. The patient may relapse frequently and recovery usually takes about a month. Even so, White’s 47 days in hospital were, however, probably a welcome respite from the horrors of the front and a spell at Home may have saved many others from death or mutilation when in the line of fire.

White, a messenger in civilian life, claimed to be just over 19 when he enlisted on 13 August 1915, although he was probably only just over 16. Recruits had to be 18 (and 19 before they could be sent abroad). White’s file does not indicate that his deception was discovered. He was 5 feet 4 inches tall, with a 34 inch chest (expandable by 4 inches), and a scar on the middle finger of his right hand. His physical development was judged to be “good”.

He went missing on 27 May 1918 and was later declared dead.

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Information from the 1911 census
William Henry White was a 12-year-old schoolboy in 1911. He lived at 8 Rattray Road, Brixton with his parents, William Henry White, 40, an assistant in a bootmaker’s shop, born in South Lambeth, and Matilda White, 33, from Battersea. The family had four rooms. He was one of four children, all born in South Lambeth, the others being: Annie Matilda White, 13; Doris Ella White, 9 and Ethel Alice White, 1.

A.V.O. White
Private, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 1st Bn
Service no. G/3438
Died on 25 September 191, aged 22
Remembered at Loos Memorial, France

CWGC: “Son of Mrs. Florence White, of 66, Wilcox Rd., South Lambeth Rd., London.”

Albert White was born in 1894 in the village of March, Cambridgeshire. His parents Edward White and Florence Mary Owers had married in 1875 and Albert was the youngest of nine children when he was born. In the 1901 census the White family were living in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in Fen Country, where both his parents and the majority of his siblings had been born. His father was working on steam-driven threshing machines. 

Florence Mary White first appeared in Lambeth on the Electoral Rolls of 1907 and 1908 living at 58 Walnut Tree Walk in Kennington. By the time of the 1911 census, Florence was living nearby at 123 St George’s Road, Southwark, a busy thoroughfare running from Westminster Bridge Road to the Elephant and Castle. Florence was now 49 and in 25 years of marriage had borne 13 children, three of whom had died as infants. Florence neglected to state the ‘relationship’ of the individuals she named on her census form, but two were clearly her youngest children, Albert Victor White, 17, and Mildred Victoria Landlord White, 13. The enumerator later pencilled in the relationships, wrongly identifying widow Florence Clarissa Hayhoe as Florence’s sister; she was Florence’s daughter, who had married horse dealer Harry Hayhoe in 1898. He died in 1909 when the couple were living in Borough Road. 

Florence White earned her income as a landlady. Her own father and brothers had been piano-tuners. Perhaps it was her love of music and the theatre which led her to seek ‘theatrical types’ as her guests. Her boarders in 1911 were two actors and a music-hall artist. Albert had also been attracted to the world of theatre and Florence described her son’s occupation, confusingly, as ‘super-theatrical’. The White family and their three guests lived in six rooms of the property with a young couple and their baby son in three other rooms. 

An entry in the Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment Rough Register of Recruits shows 3438 Private White A. aged 21 enlisted on 16 November 1914. Albert volunteered in central London and probably trained with the 3rd Royal West Surrey Reserve based at the Chatham Lines before he was sent to France on 11 March 1915. A draft of 50 men reached the 1st RWS on Sunday 14 March when the battalion was in billets in the Bethune area. The battalion was held in reserve and on standby during March and April. More routine work followed in May. One man was killed and five wounded in a party helping to collect the wounded and bury the dead during the night near Givenchy on 26 May. June and July were months of providing various working parties before the battalion entered trenches near Cuinchy in the last week of July, sustaining small numbers of casualties on most days before returning to billets on 15 August 1915. More trench duty followed before the battalion prepared for their part in the offensive on 25 September. They advanced under cover of smoke wearing rudimentary gas helmets. Counterattacked, they were forced to retire under heavy machine-gun fire. Nine officers were killed or wounded, a total of 226 other ranks were killed, wounded or missing. Private 3438 White A. was posted missing that day.

Florence made enquiries via the Red Cross, hoping that Albert was a prisoner of war. The related card record showed her son had served in ‘D’ company, but there was no trace of the missing soldier who had ‘disparu [disappeared] 25 Sept 1915’. Florence gave her address as ‘Mrs. F. M. White, 3 Lansdowne Gardens, Stockwell, London S.W.’. The reply was ‘rien [nothing] 17.11.15’. After some months, Albert White was officially presumed to have died on or since 25 September 1915.

After 1918 Florence moved from Lansdowne Gardens to 66 Wilcox Road where she remained until 1928. There are no existing public records that show Albert’s initials as A.V.O.; to the Army he was plain Albert. Florence may have added two initials to make her son’s name more prominent on the Stockwell War Memorial. chris burge 

a.v.o. white. Private, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 1st Bn. Service no. G/3438. Died on 25 September 191, aged 22. Remembered at Loos Memorial, France