Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

France

George Herbert Canham

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G. H. Canham
Service no. 3861
Rifleman, London Regiment (Queen’s Westminster Rifles), “D” Coy. 1st/16th Battalion
Born in Chelsfield, Kent; enlisted in Westminster; lived in Stockwell
Killed in action on 10 September 1916, aged 21
CWGC: “Eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. W. Canham, of 35, Mordaunt St., Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

CANHAM, G. H., Rifleman, 16th London Regiment (Queen’s Westminster Rifles).
He volunteered in March 1915 and was drafted to the Western Front the following year. He took part in several important engagements and was killed in action on the Somme on September 10th 1916. He was entitled to the General Service and Victory Medals.
35, Mordaunt Street, Stockwell, S.W.9.

George’s brother William James Canham, who survived the war, also appear in the National Roll, as does A. H. Canham of the same address.

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

George Herbert Canham enlisted at 58 Buckingham Gate on 1 March 1915. He was 20 years and 5 months old, stood 5 feet 9 inches and had a 36½ chest (which he could expand by 3½ inches). His physical development was judged to be “good”.

Canham’s file does not include much more than the basic details of his movements. He was Home from the day of his enlistment to the Territorial Force until 21 April 1916, when he embarked for Rouen. He was deployed in the field from 4 May 1916, and survived there until 10 September, when he was killed in action at the Battle of the Somme.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 the Canham family inhabited 5 rooms at 4 Tivoli Road, West Norwood. William Canham, 41, was a brewer’s drayman, born in Wenhaston, Suffolk. Clara Amy Canham 43, was born in Farnborough, Kent. They had had 6 children, 5 surviving at the time of the census
George Herbert Canham, 16, a shop porter, born in Chelsfield, Kent
William James Canham (cited in the National Roll), 14, an office lad, born in Farnborough, an office lad
Arthur Kitchener Canham, 10, born in Chelsea
Florence Maud Canham 7, born in Chelsea
Maurice Gordon Canham 3, born in Brixton

Frederick H. S. Caiger

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frederick howard stewart caiger
Frederick Howard Stewart Caiger, from The War Illustrated Album De Luxe: The Story of the Great European War told by camera, pen and pencil (1915)

F. H. S. Caiger
Second Lieutenant, Royal Field Artillery, 92nd Bty. 17th Bde.
Killed in action on 11 November 1916, aged 19
CWGC: “Son of Frederick Foord Caiger, M.D., and Madeline Caiger, of South Western Hospital [now Lambeth Hospital, Landor Road], Stockwell”
Remembered at Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval, Somme, France

Frederick Howard Stewart Caiger was born on 23 September 1896, the only child of Dr Foord Caiger and his wife Madeline Orr Caiger. He was educated at Winchester and went up to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge on 1 October 1915 where he resided for one term. His father, superintendent at South Western Hospital for 39 years, died on 5 September 1929. His obituary is available at the BMJ Archives. There is at least one branch of the Caiger family still living in Stockwell.

Dr Foord Caiger donated the clock to the Stockwell War Memorial fund.

Caiger was born in 1896 and educated at Winchester (he was in the Officer Training Corps); he later went up to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge on 1 October 1915 where he resided for one term.

He was gazetted in December 1915 (meaning that his Army commission was announced in the Gazette), embarked for France on 23 April the following year and was attached to the 36q Battery. Caiger was admitted to the 87th Field Ambulance with a hydrocele (fluid in the scrotum) and later to the General Hospital suffering from scabies. This highly infectious skin disease was caused by infection by the mange mite. He was discharged on 24 June and posted to the 92th Battery in September.

Caiger was killed by a high explosive shell near Flers on 11 November 1916 and was buried at McCormick’s Post. In 1920 the War Office wrote to his father: “I am to inform you that … it has been found necessary to exhume the bodies buried in certain areas. The body of Second Lieutenant F.H.S. Caiger has therefore been removed from McCormick’s Post Cemetery and re-buried in Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval.”

caiger headstoneIn 1922 Dr Foord Caiger donated the four-faced clock to the Stockwell War Memorial fund in memory of his son. “I… shall be very pleased to give it as a tribute to the memory of my only son, who fell in the battle of the Somme at the early age of 19.” he wrote to Samuel Bowller, secretary of the Memorial Committee. “The idea of placing a clock … struck me as such a ‘live’ and appropriate tribute to one who was born and always lived in Stockwell, and who entertained a warm affection for his home.”

University of London Officers Training Corps, Roll of War Service 1914-1919 (published 1921)

Frederick Howard Stewart Caiger
Second Lieutenant Royal Field Artillery – St. Thomas’s Hospital – Son of Dr. and Mrs. Foord Caiger of Stockwell – killed by a high explosive shell near Flers on 11th November 1916 – buried at McCormick’s Post.

Frederick Howard Stewart Caiger, a medical student at St. Thomas’s Hospital, London, was born on 23 September 1896, the only child of Dr. Frederick Foord Caiger and his wife Madeline Orr Caiger. The family lived on the premises of South Western Hospital (now Lambeth Hospital) on Landor Road, where Dr. Caiger was Superintendent for 39 years.

Harry Robert Burvill

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H. R. Burvill
Service no. PS/1794
Private, Middlesex Regiment, 16th Battalion
Manchester Regiment, attd. 22nd Battalion
Died age 24 on 2 September 1916
Son of Harry and Eliza Burvill, of 15 Hubert Grove, Stockwell, London. Born in Kilburn, north London.
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

Harry Burvill was a 22-year-old storekeeper, living at 15 Hubert Grove, Stockwell. He attested on 27 March 1915 in London (the record is not specific about where). His physical development was judged to be “v. good” – 5 feet 9½ inches, with a 37 inch chest (which he could expand by an impressive 4 inches).

He was posted on 30 March 1915, and again on 18 January 1916. But despite his evident good health, he was admitted to the Countess of Lytton Hospital, London some time after that. His illness or condition is not recorded. On 1 February 1916 he was sent to Summerdown Convalescent Hospital, Eastbourne. Summerdown, which opened in April 1915, held 3,500 convalescing soldiers. Three weeks later, Burvill was granted furlough (leave) until 3 March, when he was declared fit.

Burvill was killed in action in France on 2 September 1916. He had served 1 year and 160 days.

Information from the 1911 census

Harry Burvill is on the 1911 census as a 19-year-old  “wharf scaleman” living with his parents and brother at 35 Walpole Road, Deptford. His father, Harry, 67, was a “butcher scaleman”, born at Ramsgate, Kent and his mother, 68, was born in Walworth. Charlie Burvill, 17, was a draper’s assistant. Both boys were born in Kilburn.

John Henry Burns

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J. Burns (listed on the Memorial as J. Burns)
Corporal, Royal Army Medical Corps, 15th Field Ambulance
Service no. 6003.
Died on 20 April 1918, aged 28
Remembered at Tannay British Cemetery, Thiennes, France

Chris Burge writes:

John Henry Burn was born in 1890 and baptised on 15 January at St Mary the Less, Lambeth, the first child of Henry Thompson Burn and Elizabeth (née Castle) who had married on 11 May 1886 at St Paul, Walworth.  By 1901 there were five children and the family lived at 39 Neptune Street (Seaham Street in 1912) along with two other families, totalling 16 people. 

In the 1911 census, John, then 21, is shown living in three rooms at 35 Dashwood Road with his parents and six younger siblings. John’s father Henry worked as a bill poster,  while John worked as a cellarman. By then Elizabeth had given birth to 13 children, seven surviving. 

Dashwood Road, sandwiched between the Longhedge and Nine Elms locomotive works and criss-crossed by the lines of the competing railway companies, was an area of social deprivation.  John’s home was a few yards from both St Andrews Church and the Bolingbroke Public House. It  was never silent and always grimy. 

John’s service number is within the range of men who joined the RAMC early in 1912, when initial training took place at Aldershot.  To the Army he was 6003 Burns.

John was sent to France on 20 August 1914, one of four men attached to the Regimental Medical Officer’s team for the 5th Divisional Ammunition Column. At some later date he was transferred to the Division’s 15th Field Ambulance, a mobile medical unit with orderlies, bearers, horse and motor transport.  It had been a long war and on 14  April 1918 the 15th  FA moved near Boeseghem.  Five days later, a party of 20 men was sent to assist the 13th  FA, based at Thiennes, who were hurriedly moving their advanced dressing station to the safety of a cellar, after their farmhouse location was shelled.  The keeper of the 15th  FA war diary noted on 20 April that ‘1 man Cpl. Burns killed by shell at CROIX MORRAISE ref map 36A 1/40000 J.21.C.10.2’ (50°38’49.5”N 2°32’03.4”E Rue de Tannay France).          

John’s parents wanted an inscription for their son’s headstone at Tannay British Cemetery, making sure his name was correct.  It seems possible the evidence they provided to those dealing with the Stockwell War Memorial led to his name being spelt as he was known to the Army. 

Henry Thompson and Elizabeth Burn were living at 55 Gaskell Street by 1918, remaining there for several years after the war.

Harry George Burls

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H. G. Burls
Service no. 15147
Gunner, Royal Field Artillery, “B” Bty. 211th Bde.
Died of wounds age 25 on 25 October 1918
Born in Stockwell, enlisted at Camberwell
Son of George and Elizabeth Burls, of 25 Moat Place, Stockwell, London.
Buried at Romeries Communal Cemetery Extension, France

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

BURLS, H. G., Gunner, R.F.A.
Volunteering in April 1915, he was sent to the Western Front in the same year. He took part in many important engagements, including those on the Somme, and was wounded. He also served in the Retreat and Advance of 1918, and was killed in action at Cambrai in October of that year. He was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, and the General Service and Victory Medals.
25, Moat Place, Stockwell, S.W.9.

There is also an entry for Harry’s brothers Walter Alfred (born 1897) of 25 Moat Place and Frederick Arthur Burls of 1 Combermere Road, a few streets away. Both these men survived the war (the latter being invalided out of the Army).

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Harry George Burls lived with his widowed mother and siblings in 5 rooms (including kitchen) at 25 Moat Place, Stockwell SW9. Elizabeth Burls, 45, was a housekeeper, born in Finchenfield, Essex. She had given birth to 9 children, 8 of them surviving. Six of them lived with her:
Frederick Burls, 24, a labourer
Harry Burls, 18, a labourer
Zillah Burls, 16, a daily servant
Alfred Burls, 13, part-time schoolboy and baker
Eva Burls, 12
Nellie Burls, 6
All were born in Lambeth

Charles Henry Burchell

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C. H. Burchell
Service no. SD/3529
Private, Royal Sussex Regiment, 13th Battalion
Killed in action aged 22 on 30 June 1916
Son of Thomas and Harriett Burchell, of Mate’s Nest, Balcombe, Sussex.
Remembered at Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

This is a tentative association. This is the only British-resident C. H. Burchell in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database.