Stockwell War Memorial

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Bernard Allen Miller Dunning

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B. A. M. Dunning
Service no. 558257
Driver, Royal Engineers, Army Signal Company
Died of dystentery age 39 on 6 December 1918
Son of Mrs Julia Dunning; husband of Rosina Harriet Dunning, of 17, Somerleyton Road, Brixton, London. Born in Dorset.
Remembered at Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery, Iraq

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

Bernard Dunning joined the war effort early – he attested on 5 December 1914 from the Territorials. In civilian life he was a tram conductor; he became a driver in the Army Signal Company in the Royal Engineers.

Dunning’s medical notes state that he was 5 feet 7 inches tall with a 35 inch chest, which he could expand by 2 inches. His physical development was “fair”.

Dunning survived the war, but fell very soon afterwards. He served in France, in the British Expeditionary Force, between 12 February to 7 November 1916, and had periods in England. During  this period he was admitted to hospital suffering from haemorroids, which were operated on.

Later he was deployed in the Middle East, where he was admitted to hospital on 23 August 1918 – again suffering from haemorroids –  and discharged 22 September 1918. On 10 November he was admitted to the 31st British Stationary Hospital field hospital and by 24 November he was described as “dangerously ill” with dysentery. On 6 December he died.

Dunning left a widow, Rosina Harriet Dunning, and a 12-year-old son, Herbert William.

Information from the 1911 census

Bernard Allen Miller Dunning, 31, and Rosina Harriet Dunning, 27, lived with their son at 56 Edithna Street, Stockwell. Bernard was born in Lulworth, Dorset, and worked as a tram driver for the LCC (London County Council). Rosina Harriet Dunning was born in Blackfriars. Their son Herbert William, born in Eastbourne, Sussex, was 5. Two boarders lived with the family: Henry Miles, 25 and single, worked as an estate agent; Alice Lily Murphy, 25, was a dressmaker.

Ten years previously (1901 census), Bernard was single and living in Eastbourne, where he worked as a door porter at the Grand Hotel. His father (1891 census) was a groom and general outdoor servant.

Geoffrey William John Dee

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G.W.J. Dee
Private, 24th (County of London) Bn (The Queen’s)
Service no. Regiment 720356
Died on 15 February 1920, aged 23, after discharge 

Chris Burge writes:

Geoffrey Dee was born on 26 November 1896 in Woolwich, southeast London, the first child of John Edwin and Emma Churchill (née Loftin) Dee, who had married earlier in the year. Geoffrey was baptised with the given names Geoffrey William John on 10 September 1897 at St Bride’s, Fleet Street on the same day as three of Emma’s younger siblings, when his parents’ address was 120 Ivydale Road, Nunhead, southeast London and his father worked as a licensed victualler (publican). Geoffrey’s younger brother Philip was born on 15 September 1898 and baptised Philip Walter Loftin Dee on 30 October 1898 at St Martin’s, Dorking, in Surrey, during the period his father was running the Red Lion Hotel. 

Geoffrey’s father died in 1899, and the following year his mother, then living in the Walworth Road, near Elephant and Castle, married George Edward Holton at St Bride’s. Holton, a police constable, was based at the nearby Bridewell Place Station. At the time of the 1901 census George, Emma, Geoffrey and Philip were living at 6 Clock Passage (also known as Clock Place), off Hampton Road and close to Newington Butts, a densely populated area in the parish of St Mary Newington, Southwark. The property was home to three families totalling 11 people. 

George and Emma’s first child Dorothy Ellen was born on 19 June 1901 and baptised at St Mary Newington on 25 August. 

Ten years later, Geoffrey and family were living in Stockwell, at 13 Portland Place North, near Clapham Road in Stockwell. Geoffrey’s stepfather was had risen to the rank of serjeant in the City of London Police and he had listed their children in age order on the census form: Geoffrey Dee Holton, 14; Philip Dee Holton, 12; Dorothy Holton, nine; Stanley Holton, seven; Kathleen Holton, five; John Holton, two. Emma’s younger brother Walter Robinson Loftin, a 34-year-old stereotyper from Kent, boarded with the family. A total of nine people occupied the property’s seven rooms. 

In May 1911 life changed abruptly for the Holton family when Emma died. Forty-year-old George Holton was married for a second time on 3 December 1912, to 23-year-old Constance Muriel Chapman at St Stephen’s Church, South Lambeth.By 1915, there would be three more additions to the Holton family.

Geoffrey Dee was working as a stereotyper at Spottiswoode & Co., Shoe Lane, in the City when war was declared. In the excited rush to volunteer many employees of the print firm joined the City of London Rifles at their Farringdon Road drill hall, but Geoffrey Dee made a different choice. On 6 August 1914 he went to the drill hall at New Street (now Braganza Street), Kennington on 6 August 1914, determined to join the 24th County of London Battalion (The Queen’s). 

He added a year to his age, claiming to be 18 years and 11 months. At 5ft 9in in height with a 33in chest, no questions were asked and he was passed fit. Within days, Private 1894 Dee was in the St Albans area with the 24th Londons. The battalion was sent to France early in 1915, landing at Le Havre on 16 March, the beginning of Geoffrey Dee’s three years on the Western Front. He was wounded in the right leg around 15 June 1915 and treated at 4th Stationary Hospital at St Omer.

Geoffrey was an infantry observer and survived all of the 24th London’s actions until seriously wounded on 16 July 1918, again in the right leg. He was evacuated to the UK where he underwent an above-knee amputation. After the amputation, a medical board at the military hospital Denmark Hill judged his general health as ‘good’. When Geoffrey completed a statement of his own case, he said that he had been treated at Weir Hospital in Grove Road,  Balham, which housed a section of Third London (T.F.) General Hospital. A final review was made at Charterhouse Military Hospital, Charterhouse Square, London, a specialist hospital for limbless men, on 8 March 1919. Geoffrey Dee was discharged six days later and awarded a pension of £2 7s 6d for 13 weeks and then 16s 6d for life. It was noted that his figure (frame) on discharge was ‘slight’ and he faced ‘uncertain’prospects of employment. Geoffrey’s address throughput this period was the Holton family home now at 262 Clapham Road.

Geoffrey died in Torquay, Devon, in 1920 of an infection in his right leg. He is not listed in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database. The military authorities may not have regarded him as a war casualty, but the Stockwell War Memorial committee thought otherwise. 

Geoffrey’s younger brother Philip, also an electrotyper, was conscripted into the Army after 1916 and served in the Royal Fusiliers. Philip returned to Lambeth and in August 1924 sailed for Brisbane, Australia, seeking a new life. He died in 1991. 

George Edward Holton, Geoffrey and Philip’s stepfather, was living in Streatham Vale when he passed away in 1930. 

 Geoffrey is not listed in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database as his death came after the cut-off date for inclusion. His story serves as a good example of the wider remit adopted by the Stockwell War Memorial Committee

William Edward Crabb

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W. Crabb
Service no. M2/150639
Private, Army Service Corps, 618th M.T. Coy.
Died of cerebral malaria (“due to field operations”) on 23 May 1917, aged 39
CWGC: “Son of Richard and Mary Ann Crabb; husband of Alice Beatrice Crabb, of 19 Thorne Rd., South Lambeth, London. Born in London. Served in the South African Campaign.”
Remembered at Morogoro Cemetery, Tanzania

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

William Edward Crabb died on 23 May 1917 in the 15th Stationary Hospital at Morogoro, Tanzania. He had cerebral malaria caused by “field operations.” Crabb’s file offers few details on this, other than to note that he was admitted and that he was dangerously ill and subsequently died.

Malaria is transmitted by infected mosquitos and its presence in sub-Saharan Africa was and is endemic. Only some cases develop into celebral malaria, an acute disease of the brain that is accompanied by high fever and whitening of the retina. The mortality rate is currently between 25 and 50%, probably greater in 1917.

Crabb left a widow and four children, the youngest born in 1915. His pension records have not survived, so we cannot know how the local pension board treated his widow, Alice Beatrice. Crabb had, however, stacked up a number of years in the Army – with previous service in the South African campaign with the Royal Engineers.

An engineer’s fitter in civilian life, Crabb stood only 5 feet 2 inches tall, with a 34½ chest (to which he could add 3½ inches). He weighed under 8½ stone.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 William Edward Crabb, then 32, was working as an engineer’s fitter. He lived with his wife Alice Beatrice Crabb (née Stout), 24, at 44 Union Grove, Clapham, along with their two children, Alice Marie Crabb, 2, and Elsie Amelia Crabb, 1. Crabb was born in Southampton. The family lived in three rooms.

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. 

James Stephen Clack

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J. S. Clack
Service no. MS/775
Private, Army Service Corps, 1st Div. Supply Col.
Died age 29 on the 2 October 1914
Son of the late Andrew and Lucy Clack; husband of Annie Clack, of 25 Probert Road, Brixton
Remembered at La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial, Seine-et-Marne, France

Information from British Army WWI Service Records

James Stephen Clack stood 5 feet 7¾ inches tall, weighed 165 pounds (11½ stone). He was 38 inches around the chest, which he could expand by 2½ inches. The statistics bring to mind a fine-looking man. He would have been a good head taller than many in the recruitment office and his build would have contrasted markedly with his fellow soldiers – who were, by and large, skinny and slight. The approving officer gave his physical development the rare accolade: “very good,” he wrote enthusiastically.

Clack’s sallow complexion, grey eyes and brown hair were recorded, as was the ganglion on his left wrist. This last was nothing. What’s more, he was among the first to volunteer, presenting himself on 8 August 1914. He was recruited to the Army Service Corps as a driver. Another perfect fit as he was a lorry driver in civilian life and had worked as a motor engineer. The Army must have been delighted to have such a keen, healthy, qualified candidate.

Alas, after only 58 days the war was over for Clack. He was admitted to the 16th Field Ambulance on 28 September 1914 and by 2 October he had died of appenticitis and peritonitis.

At home, his wife Annie Clack, living at 10a Lingham Street with her 2-year-old daughter Mary Lucy, was sent her husband’s effects with a handwritten note: “Herewith 70 centimes (French) cash, the property of the late Private James Stephen Clack…” Later she was awarded 15 shillings a week for herself and her child. It cannot have seemed like a fair exchange.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 James Stephen Clack, 27, occupied in 3 rooms at 28 Connaught Mansions, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton SW2 with his wife Annie Clack, 24. James, who was working as a motor engineer, was born in Stockwell and Annie in Hounslow. They had been married less than a year.

Frank Bowring

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photo of frank bowring ww1 soldier
Frank Bowring Photo: Kind permission of Ian R. King

F. Bowring
Service no. 115005
Private, Royal Army Medical Corps, 6th Stat. Hosp. (Antwerp)
Died age 24 on 26 October 1919
Son of Mr and Mrs Henry John Bowring, of 41 Priory Grove, South Lambeth
Buried at Schoonselhof Cemetery, Belgium

Frank died of pneumonia (information from family members).

National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918

BOWRING, F., Private, R.A.M.C.
Joining in 1916, he was sent overseas in the same year. He was engaged on important duties at the 6th Stationary Hospital whilst in France, but in October 1919 unfortunately died at Antwerp of an illness which he contracted while in the Service. He was entitled to the General Service and Victory Medals.
41, Priory Grove, Lansdowne Road, S.W.8.

Information from the 1911 census

In 1911 the Bowring family were living at 41 Priory Grove, London SW8. Henry John Bowring, 49, was a goods porter from Dorchester, Dorset. His wife, Ellen Maria Bowring, 47, was from Kent. Frank Bowring, then 15, was an apprentice engineer, born in Battersea. His sister Elizabeth, 12, was born in South Lambeth, as was his brother Charles Bowring, 7. Elizabeth Haysman, 49, Frank’s aunt (sister of Ellen), a single servant from Kent, was visiting on the night of the census.