Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

France

Sidney Alfred Bunker

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S. A. Bunker
Service no. G/8995
Private, Middlesex Regiment, 11th Battalion
Killed in action at about age 21 on 18 October 1915
Remembered at Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

Information from the 1911 census

The Bunker family lived at 4 Richmond Street, Kennington, Lambeth (the street has now disappeared). Henry Bunker, 51, was a widower from Shepherds Bush, west London, who worked as ox tongue curer. Three sons (all born in Lambeth) lived at home:
Charles Bunker, 19, a warehouseman
Sidney Bunker, 17, a press boy in the printing industry
Rodney Bunker, 14, an errand boy
Henry Bunker, 28, Beatrice Bunker, 26 and Ada Bunker, 23 (all named in the 1901 census) appear to have been living elsewhere.

Information from the 1901 census

In 1901 the Bunker family lived at 36 Richmond Street. Sidney’s mother, Mary, 41, was born in Camberwell. Henry Bunker, 18, was working as a carman; Beatrice Bunker, 16, was a “boot socker”; Ada Bunker, 13, Charles Bunker, 9, Sidney, 7, and Rodney, 4, were all at school.

Henry Bull

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H. Bull
Service no. 393397
Private, Labour Corps, 179th Coy.
Died age 33 on 14 July 1918
Son of Frederick and Isabell Bull, of 3, Tregothnan Rd., Clapham, London. Born at St. Pancras, London.
Remembered at Lapugnoy Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France

This is a somewhat tentative identification as there are two men named H. Bull with possible connections to the area in the Soldiers Died in the Great War database: the Henry Bull above and Harry Bull who died 21 September 1917. However, the latter is recorded as living in “Clapham Common, NE”.

John Edward Brown

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J. E. Brown
Private, Middlesex Regiment, 18th Battalion
Died 22 June 1916, aged 23
Service no. PW/2950
Remembered at Gorre British And Indian Cemetery

Chris Burge writes:

John Edward Brown was born in Peckham in 1893, one of five children and the only son of Mark Edward and Alice (née Spash) Brown, who were married in 1891 at St Agnes, Southwark. The family later moved to Lambeth.

In the 1911 census,  John was living with his mother and three of his younger sisters.  Then 18, John worked as a warehouseman for a dealer in glass and china.  Five people shared four rooms at 68c Hackford Road. The family had moved to 20 Nealdon Street by 1914. 

John volunteered on 25 May 1915, enlisting in London. Just three sheets of his original service papers have survived; they describe him as a labourer who was 5ft 6in tall and weighed 124lbs. John’s vision without glasses was only good enough for a ‘non shooting unit’. He found himself posted to one of the Middlesex Regiment’s three pioneer battalions. By July 1915, the 18th Middlesex had moved to the Clipstone Camp near Mansfield, home to thousands of soldiers in training. The final months before departing for France were spent on Salisbury Plain. Private Brown landed at La Havre on 15 November 1915.

By June 1916, John’s battalion had suffered fewer than 20 casualties. In the third week of the month they were working on the construction of dug-outs and shelters, with one company ‘mining under no-mans lands’.   On the 21st at 2am the enemy blew several large mines destroying part of the front line where C and D companies were working. Total casualties were: seven killed (including John), one officer and 20 men wounded and one missing.  

John’s parents remained at 26 Hargywne Street until at least 1930.  

Arthur Brooker

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A. Brooker
Service no. 30907
Private, Devonshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Died of wounds at about age 18 on 24 April 1918
Remembered at St Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France

Information from the 1911 census

rthur Brooker is the youngest person in his household at 36 Rutland Street, South Lambeth. His mother, Annie Brooker, 53, was a widow from Wroughton in Wiltshire. Annie had had 10 children (all survived) and she lived with 7 of them (6 sons and a daughter) in 5 rooms. The children on the census were:
Joseph Brooker, 27, a locomotive fireman
John Brooker, 23, a goods porter
Charles Brooker, 21, a bricklayer’s labourer
Frederick Brooker, 19, an office boy
Albert Brooker, 17, a messenger
Elsie Brooker, 15
Arthur Brooker, 12
All but Annie were born in Lambeth.

Mark Harry Briggs

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H. Briggs
Private, London Regiment, ‘A’ Coy. 23rd Bn.
Service no. 701038
Died on 5 April 1918, aged 19
Remembered at Martinsart British Cemetery, Somme, France

Chris Burge writes:

Mark Harry Briggs was born in Lambeth on 14 May 1898 and was baptised at All Saints’, South Lambeth on 12 June. He was named after his father, and his parents Mark Harry and Elizabeth Jane Briggs were living in three rooms at 5 Madrid Place, off Dorset Road, which was still the family home in 1911. Six of Elizabeth’s eight children had survived infancy and in the 1911 census, Mark’s father had placed his son, now aged 12, above all his sisters names in the census return. They were: Elizabeth Jane, 17; Esther Amy, 11; Phyllis Winifred, six; Florence Gertrude, five; and Ruby Ellen, just eight months old. Mark’s father was working as a house painter and his sister Elizabeth as a domestic servant. There was one final addition to the family when Ernest John Briggs was born in 1912. 

Mark was 16 at the outbreak of war and was underage when he volunteered at St John’s Hill, Clapham Junction on 18 April 1915, the administrative base of the 23rd London Regiment. He claimed to be over 19 and at 5ft 6in in height passed the medical with ease.  He was posted to the 2/23rd London Regiment as 3556, Pte. Briggs. His parents informed the authorities of his true age and prevented him from going overseas until he was over 19. Mark spent time in the 108th Provisional Battalion before being sent to France on 29 September 1916. In the summer of 1917 he was hospitalised in France with pleurisy, suffered an arm wound in November 1917 and was unfit for duty for a month. He was granted home leave in January 1918. In March and April 1918 the 1/23rd London regiment were on the old Somme battlefield near Aveluy Wood, north of Albert. They were in the path of the enemy’s spring offensive and suffered hundreds of casualties at the end of March and particularly on 5 April 1918.  

In early May 1918 Mark’s parents received notice that he had been reported missing and his name subsequently appeared in British Red Cross & Order Of St John Enquiry List of missing or wounded on 2 August and 20 November 1918. When the military authorities presumed Mark’s death had occurred on, or since, 5 April 1918, the Briggs family were left to come to terms with their loss

It was Mark’s father who completed Army Form W5080 naming himself before his wife and children in order of precedence of the relatives of a deceased soldier. It was witnessed and countersigned at St Anne’s, South Lambeth, on 27 October 1919.The family’s address was now 2 Madrid Place. In another blow to the family, Mark’s father died late in 1921, aged 48. Mark’s mother Elizabeth only received her son medals after providing evidence of her husband’s death. 

Mark’s mother Elizabeth remained at 2 Madrid Place into the 1930s before moving to Tooting. She passed away in 1946, aged 71.