Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

France

William Albert George Fuller

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W. A. G. Fuller
Private, 17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge’s Own)
Service no. L/4110
Died in hospital on 24 March 1917, aged XX
Remembered at Mazargues War Cemetery, Marseilles, Bouches-du-Rhone, France

William Albert George Fuller was born in Lambeth in 1893, the eldest of five children of Albert Arthur Fuller, a machinist from Battersea, and Rose Maud (née Everett), from Stockwell. 

In the 1911 census the family of seven lived in two rooms at 1 Saunders Place in Saunders Street, which ran between Fitzalan Street and Lollard Street in Kennington. William, aged 17, worked as a labourer. 

William attested at Kingston Upon Thames in 1914. He and his wife Annie Harris had two children before marrying in Hampstead on 12 November 1915. 

Henry Frost

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H. Frost
Service no. 2/9508
Private, East Surrey Regiment, 7th Battalion
Died on 24 March 1916, aged 29
Remembered at Calais Southern Cemetery, France

This identification was made by Chris Burge, who writes:

Henry Frost was born at the end of 1886 in Lambeth, the second youngest of what would be eight known children of parents Thomas and Letitia (née Knight) Frost. Henry’s mother died in 1897 and the family home had broken up by 1901. Henry (Harry), then 14, worked as a ‘carman’ and lived with his older brother Joseph’s family in Stockwell.

The idea of six months initial training, followed by annual camp with bounty, was attractive enough for Henry Frost to join the newly formed ‘Special Reserve’ of the East Surrey Regiment on 16 January 1908. He was described as being 5ft 2ins (1.6m) tall, weighing 114lbs (51.5kg) and with brown eyes and dark brown hair. Part way through his initial training, Henry Frost decided his future lay in the Army and he transferred to a regular battalion of the East Surrey Regiment, becoming private 9508, Frost, on 25 April 1908. After two years in the UK, his battalion was posted overseas in 1910 and Henry Frost would not return to England until late in 1914 after the outbreak of the Great War.

After a short period of acclimatisation and re-fit the the 2/East Surreys, arrived in France on 19 January 1915. Henry Frost suffered a bad case of frostbite to both feet due to the squalid conditions in front line trenches. He was invalided back to England on 17 February 1915. He returned to duty on 8 April 1915, posted to the 3/East Surreys at Dover to regain fitness before returning to France on 14 December 1915, in time for another winter. Henry Frost did not rejoin his old battalion but was posted to the 7/East Surreys, part of Kitchener’s New Armies.

In March 1916, Henry Frost’s battalion manned trenches opposite the infamous Hohenzollern Redout, which had been the scene of bitter fighting in 1915. Between 7 and 18 March, the 7/East Surreys were subjected to intense enemy shelling, suffering 34 killed, 22 missing and 243 wounded. Another 39 were hospitalised with shell shock. Henry Frost was likely to have been wounded around this time and evacuated to one of the hospitals at Calais before he succumbed to his wounds on 24 March 1916.

At some stage Henry Frost had nominated as next of kin both his bother Joseph Frost living at 11 Moat Place, Stockwell, and his brother George who lived in Norwood. It was Joseph Frost who received Henry’s medals in 1920. In the absence of a sole legatee, the war gratuity was paid in equal shares to his six brothers and two married sisters.

The creation of the Stockwell War Memorial was their chance to the honour the name of a lost brother.

Victor Edwin Finch

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V. E. Finch
Service no. 2829
Rifleman, London Regiment (Post Office Rifles), 1st/8th Battalion
Killed in action at around age 21 on 25 May 1915
Remembered at Le Touret Memorial, FranceInformation from the censuses

In 1911 Victor Edwin Finch was living in 2 rooms at 11 Stockwell Green with his family. Frederick James Finch, 46, was a brewer’s drayman, born in Surrey. His second wife Elizabeth Finch, 45, was from Headley, Surrey. Victor Edwin Finch, 17, was a telegraph messenger for the Post Office. His half-siblings were Edward James Finch, 9, Alexandra Hilda-May Finch, 8, Gilbert Arthur Finch, 6 and Margery Emily Elizabeth Finch, 4. All the children were born in Stockwell.

In 1901 Victor Finch was 7 and living at 47 Stockwell Green with his father, stepmother Elizabeth and two sisters Nancy Rebecca Finch, 11, and Dorothy A. Finch, 5.
Frederick Finch was married first in 1899 to Nancy Bella Pickard, mother of Nancy, Victor and Dorothy, at St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, in 1889. Nancy died in childbirth in 1895, and Frederick married Elizabeth May in 1900. The couple went on to have the four chiildren listed in the 1911 census.

Victor Finch’s great nephew Adrian Purkiss adds the following interesting information:

Victor Edwin Finch’s first cousin once removed was Albert George Richard Henley, Mayor of Bermonsey, who was killed on 11 May 1941 clearing incendiaries from the roof of the town hall during a bombing raid. Another first cousin once removed was Sir Cyril Stanley Pickard KCMG of the British Diplomatic service. Angela Simmons, a first cousin twice removed, married Canon Paul Simmonds, who was for many years the Vicar of St Andrew’s Church Stockwell Green where Victor Finch is remembered.

Leonard George Henry Erdbeer

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L. G. H. Erdbeer
Service no. 30085
Private, Grenadier Guards, 4th Battalion
Died age 21 on 13 April 1918
Son of Henry and Helen Erdbeer, of 9 Stockwell Grove, Stockwell, London.
Remembered at Merville Communal Cemetery Extension, Nord, France

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 the Erdbeer household of 9 Stockwell Grove consisted of Henry Erdbeer, 43, a “general tinsmith” born in Poplar; his wife Ellen Elizabeth Page Erdbeer, 34, born in Brighton; Charles Morris, 72, Helen’s father and a retired tram conductor from Guestling, Sussex; Leonard George Henry, 13 and still at school; Doris Jessie, 12; and Alec Charles, 10. All the children were born in Stockwell. The family occupied 6 rooms.

Erdbeer means strawberry in German.

Jeffrey Ely

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J. Ely
Service no. C/276
Private, Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 2nd Battalion
Killed in action at around age 25 on 25 September 1915
Remembered at Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1911 census and other sources

The Ely family lived in 4 rooms at 95 Paradise Road, Stockwell. Charles Ely, 47, a sewer flusher born in Horseheath, Cambridgeshire, and his wife, Alice, 50, who was born in Lambeth had 9 children (one had died). All were born in Lambeth:
William Ely, 27, a gold blocker
John Ely, 23, a carman
Jeffrey Ely, 19, labourer
Alice Ely, 17
Robert Ely, 15
Samuel Ely, 13
Arthur Ely, 11
Ada Ely, 9
The family were at the same address in 1901.

In 22 December 1912 Jeffrey Ely married Rose Leeves at All Saints, South Lambeth.

Frederick Thomas Elson

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F. T. Elson
Service no. 62188
Lance Corporal, Royal Fusiliers, 4th Battalion
Died of wounds, age 32 on 11 May 1917
Son of Thomas and Louisa Elson, of London. Husband of Laurel Elson, of 5, Grove Rd., Brixton, London.
Remembered at Etaples Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London 0DA.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Frederick Thomas Elson, 25, was living with his family in 6 rooms at 74 Victoria Avenue, Plashet Lane, East Ham. His mother, Louisa, a 56-year-old widow born in Stepney, had 6 children surviving (of 7). Five of these were on the census.
Frederick Thomas Elson, born in Leyton, Essex
Alice Rosina Elson 23, a draper’s clerk, born in Leyton, Essex
Henry Charles Elson, 22, an invoice clerk, born in Leyton, Essex
Herbert James Elson, 20, a motor mechanic, born in Leytonstone, Essex
Florence May Elson, 18, a shorthand typist, born in Leytonstone, Essex

On 21 November 1915 Frederick married Laurel James at St Michel’s Church, Stockwell. Laurel lived at 5 Grove Road.