Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

France

James Stephen Clack

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J. S. Clack
Service no. MS/775
Private, Army Service Corps, 1st Div. Supply Col.
Died age 29 on the 2 October 1914
Son of the late Andrew and Lucy Clack; husband of Annie Clack, of 25 Probert Road, Brixton
Remembered at La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial, Seine-et-Marne, France

Information from British Army WWI Service Records

James Stephen Clack stood 5 feet 7¾ inches tall, weighed 165 pounds (11½ stone). He was 38 inches around the chest, which he could expand by 2½ inches. The statistics bring to mind a fine-looking man. He would have been a good head taller than many in the recruitment office and his build would have contrasted markedly with his fellow soldiers – who were, by and large, skinny and slight. The approving officer gave his physical development the rare accolade: “very good,” he wrote enthusiastically.

Clack’s sallow complexion, grey eyes and brown hair were recorded, as was the ganglion on his left wrist. This last was nothing. What’s more, he was among the first to volunteer, presenting himself on 8 August 1914. He was recruited to the Army Service Corps as a driver. Another perfect fit as he was a lorry driver in civilian life and had worked as a motor engineer. The Army must have been delighted to have such a keen, healthy, qualified candidate.

Alas, after only 58 days the war was over for Clack. He was admitted to the 16th Field Ambulance on 28 September 1914 and by 2 October he had died of appenticitis and peritonitis.

At home, his wife Annie Clack, living at 10a Lingham Street with her 2-year-old daughter Mary Lucy, was sent her husband’s effects with a handwritten note: “Herewith 70 centimes (French) cash, the property of the late Private James Stephen Clack…” Later she was awarded 15 shillings a week for herself and her child. It cannot have seemed like a fair exchange.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 James Stephen Clack, 27, occupied in 3 rooms at 28 Connaught Mansions, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton SW2 with his wife Annie Clack, 24. James, who was working as a motor engineer, was born in Stockwell and Annie in Hounslow. They had been married less than a year.

Richard Charman

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R. Charman
Service no. L/21002
Driver, Royal Field Artillery, “B” Bty. 156th Bde.
Died of wounds age 17 on 23 July 1916
Enlisted at Camberwell, lived in Brixton
Son of Henry and Mary Charman, of Brixton, London.
Remembered at Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L’Abbé, Somme, France and on the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London 0DA.

Information from the South London Press

The South London Press reported Charman’s death on 25 August 1916:
Killed in action was the young son – he was only 17 – of Mr. and Mrs. Charman, Ingleborough Street, Brixton. He was one of six brothers serving with the colours, all descendants of a fighting race. In a letter to his mother, his company officer says: ‘Your son died nobly, doing his duty and as his section commander I can testify to the fine young soldier whom we mourn. He was, for his age, quite exceptional in his work, and beyond praise in the fearless way in which he carried out his dangerous and arduous duties. In him we have lost one who is irreplaceable and who, by his cheerfulness and courage endeared himself to us all.’

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Richard (or Dick) Charman’s family lived in 4 rooms at 13 Ingleborough Street, London SW9 (between Robsart Street and Lorn Road). Henry Charman, 56, a general labourer, was born in “Lambeth Parish” (St Mary’s Parish, north Lambeth). Mary Charman, 54, was born in Clapham. They had had 15 children, of whom 12 were still living in 1911. Those listed on the census for this address were
Henry Charman, 31, a carrier’s carman, born in Clapham
John Charman, 28, a painter’s labourer, born in Brixton
William Charman, 21, a painter’s labourer, born in Brixton
Daisy Charman, 13, born in Brixton
Lilly Charman 13, born in Brixton
Dick Charman, 11, born in Brixton

Albert Edward Chandler

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A. E. Chandler
Service no. 3527
Private, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 1st Battalion
Killed in action age 19 on 1 July 1916
Enlisted at Handel Street, lived in South Lambeth
Son of James and Ada Chandler, of 3 Oval Place, Clapham, London.
Remembered at Hubuterne Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 the Chandler family lived in 2 rooms at 3 Oval Place, off Dorset Road. James Walter Chandler, 41, was a timber carman, born in Clapham. Ada Emily Chandler, 39, was born in St George’s in the East. There were 2 children on the census, both born in South Lambeth:
Ellen Ann Chandler, 15, a checker at a laundry
Albert Edward Chandler, 13

Arthur Ernest Newton Chance

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A. E. N. Chance
Sub-Lieutenant, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Howe Bn. R.N. Div.
Killed in action 13 November 1916, aged 24
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 the Chance family was living in 7 rooms at 24 Winslade Road, London SW2. Lambeth-born Henry Chance, 56, was a journalist; Margaret Anne Chance, 54, was born in London. The household, all of whom were born in Lambeth, included their daughter, Margaret Isabel Layder, 28 and granddaughter Margery Florence Layder, 6; son Harry William Chance, 25, a black-and-white artist” (he was probably an illustrator working only in monochrome, probably using graphite); and Arthur Ernest Newton Chance, 19, an insurance clerk. Henry and Margaret Chance had 5 children, 4 of whom survived until 1911.

Arthur Ernest Newton Chance, one of four children of journalist Henry Chance, and Margaret Anne Chance, enlisted in the Navy on 10 August 1911, aged nearly 20. He was previously an insurance clerk. He was commissioned  as a Temporary Sub Lieutenant in November 1915 and joined the British Expeditionary Force in July the following year. He died at the Somme on 13 November 1916.

Chance’s record lists the vessels he served on before the war and after it started – all very straightforward – and describes him as 5 feet 5¼ inches, with red hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion. It also gives an outline of his court martial. He was tried on 13 September 1916 for “(1) uttering a forged document (i.e. forged cheque for £3/10/-) on or about 15 July 1916; (2) for ditto on or about 21 July 1916; (3) for behaving in an scandalous manner unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentleman in giving a cheque signed by him in a fictitious name having no account in that name.” He was found guilty on all three charges and sentenced to be cashiered and imprisoned (without hard labour) for six months. Unfortunately, the record does not show where these events or how Chance’s life ended at the Somme.

The 1911 census shows the Chance family living in seven rooms at 24 Winslade Road, Brixton. The household included Chance’s sister, Margaret Isabel Layder, 28, and her daughter Margery Florence Layder, 6. Arthur’s brother, Harry William Chance, 25, was a “black and white artist” (he produced monochrome illustrations, probably for magazines or newspapers).

Royal Naval Division data

Born 26 November 1891
Missing, assumed killed in action
Enlisted 10 August 1911
Hawke Battalion D/652 22 August 1914 – 26 October 1914 to Chatham Depot & Sea-Service (HMS “Digby”)
Commissioned Temporary Sub Lieutenant RNVR 12 November 15
Howe Battalion draft for BEF 7 July 1916-13 November 1916
Discharged Dead
Father, H. Chance, 24 Winslade Rd., Brixton Hill, London SW, later of: 317 Clapham Rd., London SW
1914 Star issued to mother 20 August 1925

Frederick Joseph Chaddock

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F. J. Chaddock
Service no. 9238
Corporal, Gloucestershire Regiment, 1st Battalion
Died around age 33 on 31 October 1918
Remembered at Busigny Communal Cemetery Extension, Nord, France

Frederick Joseph Chaddock

Frederick Joseph Chaddock was born in late 1880 in Lambeth, the fourth child and third son of Augustus Chaddock, a stone mason, and Caroline Ellen Chaddock.

The family lived at 12 Esher Street (now Aveline Street) in Kennington, an area defined in 1899 by Charles Booth as ‘fairly comfortable: good ordinary earnings’ and populated by ‘labourers, cabmen, mechanics, police.’ By the time Frederick started attending Vauxhall Street School in 1885, the family had moved to 47 Bonnington Square. In 1891, when Frederick was 10, the Chaddocks had moved a few doors down, to No. 14. There were now seven children in the family (there were eventually eight).

In 1901, Frederick was lodging at Rowton House, a working men’s hostel in Vauxhall accommodating 470 men in ‘cubicles’, while his parents, four siblings including his married sister, her husband and their two young children, along with three people from another household, lived at 10 St Stephens Terrace. Frederick was then listed as having no occupation. It is possible that he was between jobs, unwell or the Chaddock household was simply too full to accommodate him.

Rowton House at Bondway, Vauxhall was the first of a new type of accommodation created by politician and philanthropist Montague William Lowry Corry (Lord Rowton), formerly a private secretary to Benjamin Disraeli. Rowton was previously involved in setting up the Guinness Trust, which aimed to provide low-cost housing for respectable working people in London and Dublin (there is a Guinness Trust estate on Kennington Park Road).

Frederick entered the Lambeth Infirmary on 26 September 1903, for unknown reasons and left nearly five weeks later. The reason for his stay is unknown, only that he was discharged at his own request and to the care of his father.

Postcard showing Frederick’s original burial place, the envelope within which it was sent to his widow, Florence, and a card which probably accompanied a wreath.

At an unknown date Frederick enlisted in the 1st Dragoon Guards. He was later transferred to the Gloucester Regiment. The 1911 census records him as a private with the 2nd Battalion, then stationed at the Verdala Barracks in Malta. At some point before 1911, his parents had separated, with Augustus, by then retired, lodging at 28 Tradescant Road and Caroline living with two daughters a three-minute walk away at 39 Guildford Road.

Frederick served from the beginning of the war, arriving in France in December 1914. In early 1918 he married Florence Victoria Ding. He was killed in action in the final push against the Germans near Busigny (south-east of Cambrai in Nord) less than two weeks before the end of the armistice. His widow Florence later married Frederick’s older brother Percy, and had two children.

Many thanks to the Chaddock descendants for this information. All images are © Stanley Fletcher