Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

France

Arthur Ambrose Wallis

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A. A. Wallis
Service no. 30098
Private, Welsh Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Camberwell; lived in Lambeth
Killed in action on 8 September 1916, aged 18
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France

Information from the censuses

In 1911 Arthur Ambrose Wallis was a 13-year-old schoolboy living in three rooms at 29 Fountain Street (off Wandsworth Road, south of Hemans Street) with his parents and seven siblings. His father, Herbert Wallis, 38, was a railway porter from Tunbridge Wells, Kent; his mother, Louisa Wallis, 34, was from Westminster. The siblings were James Wallis, 14; Louie Wallis, 11; Kate Wallis, 9; Rose Wallis, 6; Minnie Wallis, 4; George Wallis, 1; Herbert Wallis, 2 months.

When Arthur was baptised at All Saints, South Lambeth, his parents lived at 9 Lansdowne Gardens, Stockwell.

John Frederick Wake

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J. F. Wake
Service no. 75115
Private, Royal Fusiliers, 10th Battalion; formerly 42273, 99th Training Reserve Battalion
Born in Battersea; enlisted in Lambeth; lived in South Lambeth
Died of wounds on 18 May 1918, aged 19
Remembered at St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, France

Information from the 1911 census

John Frederick Wake was a 12-year-old schoolboy in 1911. He lived with his family at 25 Bognor Street, Battersea (this street has now disappeared but was once in a tight knot of streets off Thessaly Road). John’s father James Stowe Wake, 43, was a painter’s labourer born in Westminster; his mother Elizabeth Wake (née James), 39, was born in Lambeth. John had five siblings (two had died): Sydney Albert Wake, 14, a messenger boy; James Stowe Wake, 9; Ivy Kathleen Wake, 6; Daisy Isabell Wake, 6; George Edward Wake, 1.

William Childs Wadmore

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C. W. Wadmore
Service no. R/31892
Rifleman, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, 10th Battalion
Born in Stockwell; enlisted in Camberwell
Killed in action on 9 January 1917, aged about 21
Remembered at Sailly-Saillisel British Cemetery, Somme, France

Identification

I believe there is an error on the memorial. I can find no trace of a C. W. Wadmore, but there is evidence that a W. C. Wadmore lived in Stockwell at the appropriate time. In addition, the Soldiers Died in the Great War database includes a William Childs Wadmore, born in Stockwell. Further evidence that a Wadmore family lived in Stockwell includes a parish register recording the baptism in 1892 of Elizabeth Wadmore, daughter of William and Eliza Wadmore of 7 Bromsgrove Road, at St Andrew’s Church, Stockwell.

Thomas Vincent

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T. Vincent
Service no. 10262
Lance Corporal, Bedfordshire Regiment, 1st Battalion
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in Hertford; lived in Clapham
Killed in action on 22 October 1914, aged 19
CWGC: “Son of Maria Vincent, of 106 Railton Road, Herne Hill, London, and the late Thomas Vincent.”
Remembered at Le Touret Memorial, France

Information from the 1911 census

Thomas Vincent, 15 in 1911, was a messenger for the telegraph office. He lived with his parents and two brothers at 15 Springfield Place, Stockwell (Springfield Place has now disappeared – it was in the area near Lansdowne Way and Wandsworth Road). Thomas Vincent (senior), was 70 and worked as a messenger for the borough council. He was born in Islington. His wife Maria Vincent, 48, was from Hanwell, west London. They had three surviving children (of four): Thomas and two younger brothers, Harry Vincent, 13, and Fred Vincent, 7.

Albert Henry Vickers

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A. H. Vickers
Service no.10022
Private, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion
Born in Stockwell; enlisted in London; lived in Stockwell
Killed in action on 28 January 1917, aged 20
CWGC: “Son of Thomas and Sarah Vickers, of Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Sucrerie Military Cemetery, Colincamps, Somme, France

Information from the censuses

Albert Henry Vickers, 15 in 1911, was one of 10 surviving children (of 11) of Thomas George Vickers, 52, a stoker for Lambeth Workhouse, from Poplar, east London, and Sarah Vickers, 51, from Stockwell. Thomas and Sarah lived at 26 Moat Place, a four-roomed tenement, with three of their children: George Vickers, 25, a milk porter, William Vickers, 13, and Georgina Vickers, 11. The Vickers family had lived at that address since at least 1901. Meanwhile, Albert was an apprentice bootmaker living with the Goward family at 39 Elm Road, New Malden.

Vickers’s name is included in Ireland’s Memorial Records 1914–1918. 

Albert Edward Upton

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A. E. Upton
Service no. L/17507
Private, London Regiment, 7th Battalion, formerly Middlesex Regiment
Born in Lambeth; enlisted in London
Killed in action on 21 March 1918, aged about 23
Remembered at Chauny Communal Cemetery British Extension, Aisne, France

Information from the censuses

Albert Edward Upton, 16 in 1911, was described by his father Edward Upton as “youth – not settled” on the 1911 census. Edward repeated the word “unsettled’ in the next column (which is meant for information on the type of business a person is employed in) and added “butcher”, confusingly, to the next column (designed to record whether the business took place at home or outside the home). Edward Upton’s mistakes have given us a lot more information than most census returns. For instance, he tells us that he was born “between Brixton and Clapham Roads” and that he and his wife, Mary Ann Upton, at 54 the same age as her literal-minded husband and from Beaulieu, Hampshire, had been married 21 years last September. We also know that he worked as a goods guard for the London & South West Railway.  The couple had two children (one had died): Albert and Ada Mary Ellen Upton, 19, a service housemaid. Both were born, Edward tells us, were born at 7 Dawlish Street, South Lambeth, where the family still lived.