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Edward George Cox

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Chris Burge writes:

E.G. Cox
Rifleman, London Regiment (London Irish Rifles), ‘B’ Coy.
Service no. 590198
Died in hospital in the UK on 18 February 1919, aged 22
Remembered at West Norwood Cemetery and Crematorium

Edward George Cox was born on 10 May 1896 and baptised at Holy Trinity (demolished in 1953), Vauxhall Bridge Road in Pimlico on the north side of the Thames, on 7 June 1896 when his parents Edward Charles and Harriet Cox were living at 32 Ponsonby Terrace in Pimlico. Edward’s father worked as a moulder in a brass foundry. Four years later, when Edward’s sister Mabel Johanna was born the family lived at 30 Garden Street [where?]. At the time of the 1901 census, the Cox family were living in two rooms at 54 Romney Buildings in Erasmus Street, just behind the Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain). 

At the age of five, in 1902, Edward George Cox attended the newly-opened Millbank School, across the street from the Romney Buildings. The school, and Edward’s early home, were part of the Millbank Estate, an ambitious housing scheme built between 1897 and 1902 by the London County Council. Two years later, when their third child, Ivy Georgina, was born, the Cox family had moved again, to 11 Hunter Buildings on the recently built London County Council Borough Road Estate.  

By 1911, Edward and family were living in more suburban surroundings at 5 Hill Street, Peckham, near the corner with Bird in Bush Road and close to the Surrey Canal. The Cox household then consisted of: Edward Charles, 40, and Harriett, 44; Edward George, 14; Mabel Johanna, 10; and Ivy Georgina, seven. In 16 years of marriage, Edward’s mother had borne four children, of whom three had survived. Edward had followed his father and now worked in a brass foundry. The Cox family lived in four rooms, the fifth room being occupied by Dora Saunders, a 74-year-old widow in a receipt of her old-age pension. 

Edward George Cox was already a member of the part-time Territorial Force at the outbreak of war. His original service number 1349 corresponds to those joining the London Irish Rifles towards the end of 1913, qualifying him as a recipient of the Territorial Force War Medal. (Note: The CWGC information refers to the wrong TF medal. The criteria for the Territorial Force War Medal is explained here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_War_Medal.)The medal roll of the 18th (County of London) Battalion (London Irish Rifles) was annotated with the dates and theatres Edward George Cox served in, and this corresponds with soldiers in the 2nd Battalion who served in France, Salonika, Egypt and Palestine 

Captain Ernest May wrote the story of the 2/18th London Regiment (2nd Battalion), London Irish Rifles during the Great War, a work started in 1926 but not completed and published until 1972. It explains how the battalion was disbanded in Palestine around June and July 1918 and the men drafted to other battalions in their Brigade. But the medal roll entry for Edward George Cox shows him leaving the theatre months earlier, on 6 March. Although wounding or sickness are possible explanations, there are no surviving records to say why or when Edward George Cox returned to the UK. The Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects merely records that Edward George Cox ‘died in hospital’ on 18 February 1919. His death was registered in the district of Weymouth and he was buried on 25 February 1919 at West Norwood Cemetery.

The Cox family were living at 48 Stockwell Park Crescent when Edward’s father passed away in 1934, aged 64. Edward’s mother Harriet moved to Sutton to live with her married daughter Ivy. Harriet Cox died in Sutton in 1942, aged 75. 

Victor Leslie Corben

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V. L. Corben
Second Lieutenant, Royal Fusiliers
Secondary Regiment: Rifle Brigade, attd. 52nd Battalion
Died age 23 on 22 July 1918
Son of Fred and Esther Margaret Corben, of “Stonehaven”, 55 St Albans Avenue, Bournemouth. Born in London.
Remembered at Lambeth Cemetery, London SW17

In July 1918 Victor Leslie Corben, a Second Lieutenant attached to the Rifle Brigade, was on leave in London when he started to suffer headaches and fever. He was admitted to the 3rd London General Hospital (this building, now known as the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building, sits opposite Wandsworth Prison). A few days later, appendicitis was diagnosed and on 7 July he was operated on by an Army surgeon. He had further surgery to drain a pelvic abscess but died the next day at 10.40am.

Corben’s personal effects, a suitcase and a small parcel of personal property, were sent to his father, Fred Corben, a stone merchant of “Hillside”, 51 Union Road, Clapham.

The will was proved by his father, who undertook to settle any debts left by his son. “The loss of the boy is indeed a severe blow to us,” Fred wrote to Major Bright of the Rifle Brigade at Colchester in August, thanking him for his sympathy and for the settlement of Victor’s accounts.

However, when Fred applied to the Army for funds to cover his son’s funeral expenses, he was turned down. Your son died in England, of an illness not related to his service, they said. Fred was outraged, barely concealing his anger in a note written on 10 December 1918. For him, the appendicitis was clearly connected with the wounds Victor had sustained the previous year, and also with a bout of trench fever. “I was never consulted in reference to the operations which were performed on him at the hospital,” he complained. “[Yet] as soon as he had passed away in his country’s service I was called upon to pay for the coffin in which he was to be buried. … This seems to me a gross injustice.”  The Army was intransigent: “No grant for Army funds is admissable,” it stated.

Victor Corben was born in Clapham on 23 February 1895, and after boarding at Cranleigh School, Surrey, worked in mechanical engineering. He was 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed just over 10 stone. The 1911 census shows the Corben family living in 10 rooms at 51 Union Road. Fred, then 49, was born in Lambeth; his wife, Esther Margaret, 48, was from Chelsea. Their daughter Florence, 25, was “assisting in the business,” as was Leslie’s brother Frank H. Corben, 20. A servant, Mary Bower, 26, from Langton Matravers in Dorset, had been with the family for at least 10 years (she appears on both the 1901 and the 1911 censuses). Later Fred and Esther moved to “Stonehaven,” 55 St. Albans Avenue, Bournemouth.

Information from the 1911 and 1901 censuses
In 1911 the Corben family lived in 10 rooms at 51 Union Road. Fred, then 49, was a stone merchant, born in Lambeth; his wife, Esther, 48, was born in Chelsea. Their daughter Florence, 25, was described as “assisting in the business”, as was Frank H. Corben, 20. Victor Leslie Corben, 16, meanwhile, was a pupil at Cranleigh School at Cranleigh, Surrey.

Victor is on the 1901 census as a six-year-old, although Florence is not. In 1901 there was a second son, Fred N. Corben, then aged three. He is not on the 1911 census, and may have died in the intervening years (the 1911 census shows that the Corbens had lost one child by that date). The household kept a live-in servant, Mary Bower, 26, from Langton Matravers in Dorset, who had been with them for at least 10 years (she appears on the 1901 and the 1911 censuses). In 1901 the family kept two servants, the other being Florence Dawson, aged 20, who was born in Battersea.

Albert Tom William Cook

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A. T. W. Cook
Service no. Z/447
Rifleman, Rifle Brigade, 1st Battalion
Died on 11 July 1916
Remembered at Lambeth (Tooting) Cemetery, London SW17

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

COOK, A. T. W., Rifleman, Rifle Brigade.
He volunteered in 1914 and was drafted to the Western Front the following year. During his service in France he fought at Ypres and was severely wounded in the Battle of the Somme. He was invalided home to hospital and subsequently succumbed to his injuries in July 1916. He was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, and the General Service and Victory Medals.
“Whilst we remember, the sacrifice is not in vain.”
23, Brooklands Road, South Lambeth, S.W.8.

Frederick Harold Capewell

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The Capewell headstone in West Norwood Cemetery
The Capewell headstone in West Norwood Cemetery

F. H. Capewell
Service no. G/75140
Private, Royal Fusiliers, 17th Battalion
Died age 18 on 1 April 1918
Son of Brian Charles and Lily Rosina Capewell of 35 Union Road, Clapham.
Remembered at West Norwood Cemetery and Crematorium

Brother of Brian Harvey Capewell

Information from the Capewell family

“Fred was due to take over his father’s business and his father never got over their deaths. Their sisters did well – Isabel read Geography at University, quite something for a working class girl of that time, and went on to become a headmistress in Palmer’s Green. The other boys became bank managers or civil servants. The last survivor, Richard Thomas, died in 1986. Their second cousin was Sir Malcolm Sargent, the famous conductor via their grandmother.
The family originated form Fradswell, near Stone in Staffordshire and their grandfather Brian Capewell came down to London and worked in a variety of jobs including as a muffin man.”

Information from the censuses and from the family headstone in West Norwood Cemetery

In 1901 Frederick Harold Capewell was living with his family at 68 Paradise Road, Lambeth. By 1911 they had moved to 24 Union Road, London SW4 where they had 7 rooms.

In 1911, Frederick’s father, Brian Charles Capewell, was a 47-year-old master plasterer born in Finsbury. The headstone states that he died on 20 October 1939, aged 76.

Frederick’s mother, Lily Rosina Capewell (also shown on the headstone) was 47 in 1911. She was born in London. The children listed on the census were:
Isabel Capewell, 20, a college student, born in Battersea. She died 8 April 1963, aged 72.
Brian Harvey Capewell, 17, born in Clapham. He is shown on the headstone: “BRIAN HARVEY CAPEWELL. KILLED IN 1914-1918 war (NAVY) AGED 22”
Harry James Capewell, 15, born in Clapham. He died 27 November 1965, aged 70. (The headstone includes Harry’s wife Grace, who died 8 July 1988, aged 93.)
Frederick Harold Capewell, 12, born in Clapham. He shown on the headstone: “FREDERICK HAROLD CAPEWELL. KILLED IN 1914-1918 WAR (ARMY) DIED 6 APRIL 1918. AGED 19”
Richard Thomas Capewell, 2, born in Clapham.

The 1901 census also lists
Lily E. Capewell, 3, who died aged 7 October 1904.
Daisy Capewell, 8

The headstone includes
Sidney G. Capewell, who died 10 February 1905, aged 7 months.