Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

France

Arthur Webb

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A. Webb
Service no. 651657
Serjeant, London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles), 21st Battalion
Died of wounds on 31 August 1918, aged 35
CWGC: “Son of James and Mary Jane Webb, of 22, Kendoa Rd., Clapham, London. Native of Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at St Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, France and St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

The Army was evidently impressed by draper Arthur Webb. Shortly after he presented himself at the London Regiment’s Camberwell recruiting office in June 1915 he started on a trajectory through the ranks. Exactly a month later, he was appointed paid Lance Corporal. By the end of July he was Corporal, by October Lance Serjeant, and before he was posted to France he was Acting Serjeant. By January 1917 he was Serjeant.

Webb’s conduct was excellent – but not perfect. There was one black mark against his name: for being late for company parade some time in May 1917, for which he was reprimanded.

It was all over on 31 August 1918, when Webb died of a gunshot wound to the neck, “penetrating the spine” as noted in his file.

What else do we know about Webb? Physically, he was short (or rather, not tall) and not well built. He stood 5 feet 4½inches, with a 36½ inch chest (plus 2½ inches). He weighed 8 stone 10 pounds. He left a collection of effects, all forwarded to his mother, including the usual photos, letters, discs, pipe and notebook, but also two pairs of glasses, a watch and chain and, a small surprise,  a rosary in a tin box. We have plenty of evidence that Webb was an Anglican: his documents state it clearly, he is remembered on the memorial plaque at St Andrew’s, Landor Road and he lived in a Church institute with his mother, he may nevertheless have been “High Church” enough to find comfort in the use of a rosary. Or it may have merely been his good luck charm in a world in which every iota of luck was worth keeping beside you.

Information from the 1911 census

Arthur Webb, 27 in 1911, worked as a commercial clerk. One of six children, he lived with three siblings, two boarders and his widowed mother, Mary Jane Webb, 51, the caretaker at 57 Stockwell Road, a “preventive home” for girls, dedicated to training girls for domestic service. The property had 14 rooms, most probably not for habitation. The siblings were Henry James Webb, 30, an insurance clerk; Florence Webb, 23, no occupation; Alfred Webb, 21, an insurance clerk. The two boarders were Church of England ministers: John Smith, 24, single, from Hackney, and Harry Thomas James, 25, from Penarth in Glamorgan.

Henry Thomas Weatherley

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H. T. Weatherley
Service no. 4712
Private, London Regiment, 24th Battalion
Died on 24 January 1916, aged about 21
CWGC: “Son of Mr A. Weatherley, of 25 Aylesford Road, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Noeux-les-Mines Communal Cemetery, France

This is a tentative identification. I have not seen any data that relates “H.T. Weatherley” on the memorial with Henry Thomas Weatherley living at 158 Larkhall Lane in 1911. However, they both have Mr. A. Weatherley as a father – and I have not found any other H.T. Weatherleys in the area at that time.

Information from the 1911 census

Henry Thomas Weatherley was 14 and out of work in 1911. He lived with his parents, Alfred Weatherley, 45, a painter from Uxbridge, and Elizabeth Jane Weatherley (née Taylor), 45, from Maldon, Essex, at 158 Larkhall Lane, where the family had five rooms. Three siblings lived at home (one was elsewhere; one had died): Alfred Henry Weatherley, 21, a gas fitter born in Brixton, William Edward Weatherley, 18, a boot repairer; Eva May Weatherley, 11. Jack John Weatherley, a married baker, father of nine, and brother to Alfred, lived with the family, as did Malcolm John Morgan, a 30-year-old married boot repairer from Clapham.

Albert Edward Waymark

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A. E. Waymark
Service no. 40762
Private, Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment), 15th Battalion
Enlisted at Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire
Killed in action on 26 November 1916, aged 37
CWGC: “Son of Mrs S. A. Waymark, of 38 Heyford Avenue, South Lambeth Road, London.”
Remembered at Faubourg d’Amiens Cemetery, Arras, France

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

Details on Albert Edward Waymark are scant but bring to mind a vivid picture. We know that he was 5 feet 2¾ inches tall and weighed 9½ stone. He measured 38 inches around the chest, which he could expand by a further 2 inches. He stated that he was a concrete worker, and was 36 years and 113 days.

He was assigned to the 15th (Service) Battalion (Nottingham), a bantam battalion for troops under the normal regulation minimum of 5ft 3in.

Waymark joined the British Expeditionary Force on 18 July 1916. During that month, the battalion took part in the fighting for Arrow Head Copse and Maltz Horn Farm and for Falfemont Farm, on the Somme. 

After he was killed in action on 26 November 1916, his mother, Sarah Ann Waymark, living at 38 Heyford Avenue, South Lambeth, received his medals but no effects.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 Albert Edward Waymark, 32, was boarding with the Shephard family at Donington-on-Bain, a small village near Louth in Lincolnshire. Waymark was born in Clapham. The host family, Frederick (also a bricklayer’s labourer) and Louisa Shephard, had lost six babies in their marriage. Only one, Ivy Shephard, 11, survived. Waymark had been in Lincolnshire since at least 1901, when, aged 21, he lived with in Wigtoft, Lincolnshire, again boarding. The 1891 census shows Waymark living with his parents, William H. Waymark, a valet, and Sarah A. Waymark, at 9 Stamford Buildings, South Lambeth Road.

Frederick Walter Warman

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F.W. Warman
Lance Corporal, Royal Irish Rifles, 15th Bn.
Service no. 44903
Died on 22 November 1917, aged about 32
Remembered at Cambrai Memorial, Louverval, France

Chris Burge writes:

Frederick Walter Warman was born in Kent in 1885, the third child of John and Ellen Eva Warman. By 1891, John and Ellen lived with their five children close to the seafront at 2 Pleasant Villas, Victoria Road, St Lawrence, Ramsgate in Kent. John Warman, who worked in a public house as a barman and cellarman, died in 1894. By the time of the 1901 census widowed Ellen was running her home as a boarding house, with the assistance of her 21-year-old daughter Lilian. Frederick, 15, was employed in a local hotel, possibly the nearby Granville Hotel on Victoria Parade.

In the 1911 census, Ellen had moved a short distance to 1 Avenue Villa, Avenue Road. Her three-storey home, one of four in the terrace, was adjacent to Holy Trinity Church and the open space of Arklow Square. Ellen now lived with three of her five surviving children: Lillian, 31, John, 27, and Ernest, 23. Both of Frederick’s brothers worked as hotel porters. The six-room property was also home to two male boarders. Frederick Warman was living at 83 Carter Street, Walworth, south-east London, renting one of Annie Smith’s five rooms, and was working in London hotels.

He married Florence Agnes Rowland early in 1915, in Southwark. She was the daughter of confectionery maker James Rowland who had premises in Borough High Street, Southwark, and a family home in 247 South Lambeth Road, Stockwell. The couple’s son, John Metcalf Warman, was born on 21 July 1915. Frederick’s brothers Ernest and John had both volunteered by the end of 1915, but Frederick waited to be conscripted. 

He was called up in the second half of 1916 and sent to France in February 1917 as Lance Corporal 8838 Warman of the 1st/8th London Bn (The Post Office Rifles). At some stage in 1917, he was transferred to the 9th Royal Irish Rifles and renumbered L/Cpl. 9/44903. He received medical treatment for a bad case of trench fever, a lice-borne infection, in August 1917 at the 18th General Hospital in France, which was then run by the US Army. The 8th and 9th RIR were amalgamated at the end of August 1917. 

Late in 1917, Frederick Warman was with the 15th RIR who were part of a major offensive near Cambrai, when tanks were used en masse for the first time. Their assault on part of the Hindenburg line on 22 November was met with stiff resistance and the 15th RIR suffered many casualties. Soon after, Frederick’s wife Florence received news that her husband had been posted missing that day. Florence made enquiries through the Red Cross in the hope that Frederick was still alive. A search was made but the response was ‘négatif envoyé’, Frederick had not been found as a prisoner. 

Six months later, in July 1918, Frederick Warman was officially presumed to have died on or since 22 November 1917. Florence was awarded a weekly widow’s pension of 13 shillings and 9 pence on 27 July 1918. She was still at her Stockwell address in 1920 when she made the decision to emigrate to America with her young son John. 

Ernest Petley Warman

In 1915, Frederick’s brother Ernest Petley Warman volunteered in Ramsgate. Ernest landed in France on 14 November 1915, as private 53284 of the 18th Royal Fusiliers. Just a few weeks before, he had married Folkestone-born Annie Elizabeth Standing in central London. The couple had first met when Annie was working at the Granville Hotel, Ramsgate, before the outbreak of war. At the end of April 1917, Ernest’s wife Annie learnt that her husband had been posted missing. Not giving up hope, Annie made enquiries via the Red Cross in July 1917. A search was made but nothing was found, and in late 1917 Ernest Petley Warman was presumed to have died on 1 April 1917. Mrs Annie E Warman was awarded a widow’s pension on 29 December. 

Ernest Petley Warman is remembered on a grave of the Standing Family in Folkestone and on the Arras Memorial. His widow, married Charles Ernest Boddy in 1929 at St Luke, Berwick Street, Westminster. 

John Philip Warman 

In 1915, Frederick’s brother John Philip was working as head porter at the Royal Bath Hotel, Bournemouth and he married local-born Hilda Constance Hembury on 16 June. John decided to attest at Bournemouth under Lord Derby’s Group Scheme, under which men could enlist on the understanding that unmarried men would be called up first, in November 1915, hoping to defer his service. He would have been issued with a grey armband and have his National Registration card stamped, “ATTESTED 24 Nov 1915”. John was finally called up on 25 January 1917. At 5ft 10in and weighing 15 stone, John P Warman found himself posted to the 3rd Grenadier Guards for initial training. When medically examined, it was noted he was ‘not fit for marching’. John was sent to France in April 1918, after the death of his brother Ernest and fearing the worse for his missing brother Frederick. He survived the war and returned to his family in early 1919. 

William George Ware

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W. G. Ware
Service no. 1187
Private, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 2nd Battalion
Born in Brixton; enlisted in Westminster; lived in Lambeth
Killed in action on 27 March 1915
CWGC: “Son of Mr W. H. Ware, of 34 Bessborough Gardens, Westminster, London.”
Remembered at Ferme Buterne Military Cemetery, Houplines, Nord, France and St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Information from the 1911 census

William George Ware, 16, was a junior clerk at the Army & Navy Stores. He lived at 16 Dalyell Road, Stockwell, with his parents, William Henry Ware, 45, a foreman for a timber merchant, born in Battersea, and Edith Annie Ware (née Etheridge), 39, from Chelsea, and elder sister Edith Annie Ware, 17, a “lady clerk” at a coal office. The family had eight rooms. WIlliam Henry Ware has written “householder” proudly in the space for “Number of rooms in this dwelling.”

Walter Percy Wallis

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W. P. Wallis
Service no. 153407
Private, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), 200th Battalion
Died on 3 February 1919, aged 19
CWGC: “Son of Percy William and Sarah Naomi Wallis, of 9, The Mount, Bidborough, Kent.”
Remembered at Lapugnoy Military Cemetery, France

Information from the 1911 census

Only child Walter Percy Wallis, a 12-year-old schoolboy in 1911, lived at 11 Glendall Street, Stockwell with his parents, Percy William Wallis, 38, a railway riveter from West Malling, Kent, and Sarah Naomi Wallis, 40, from Rye, Sussex. Walter was born in Ashford, Kent. They shared their four-roomed home with John James Seckert, a single 44-year-old restaurant waiter from Mayence, Germany.