Stockwell War Memorial

Friends of Stockwell War Memorial & Gardens

Israel

Sidney Charles Withey

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S. C. Withey
Service no. 490673
Serjeant, London Regiment, 2nd/13th Kensington Battalion
Enlisted in Kensington; lived in Brixton
Killed in action on 8 December 1917, aged about 22
Remembered at Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel and St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Information from the censuses

Insurance clerk Sidney Charles Withey lived at 14 Dalyell Road, Brixton with his parents and six siblings. His father, William Henry Withey, 46, was a travelling salesman for grocery products, born in Yeovil, Somerset. His mother, Louisa Emily (née Hutchings), 45, was from Camden Town, north London. Seven of their 10 children survived. Ethel Louisa Withey, 24, a dressmaker, and William James Withey, 24, a commercial clerk, were born in Kennington. Leonard Robert, 14, an accountant’s clerk, Ernest George Withey, 12, Mary Victoria, 10, Maud Alexandra, 9, and Sidney Charles were born in Stockwell. The family lived in six rooms and had lived at this address since at least 1901.

Frederick Ward

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F. Ward
Private, London Regiment, ‘B’ Coy. 2nd/19th Bn.
Service no. 614287
Died of wounds on 3 April 1918, aged 23
Remembered at Ramleh War Cemetery, Israel and Palestine (including Gaza) and at the war shrine at St Michael’s Church, Stockwell Park Road, London SW9 0DA

Chris Burge writes:

Frederick Ward was born in Lambeth and baptised on 20 May 1894 at St Andrew’s, Stockwell, when his parents Edwin and Agnes Ward (née Woolsey) were living at 19 Stockwell Green, and his father worked as a decorator. In the 1901 census Frederick was the third eldest of five siblings living with their parents in four rooms at 8 Clark’s Row (between Ingleton and Robsart Streets, near Brixton Road; Ingleton Street was demolished after 1945 becoming Ingleton Street Open Space, then renamed The Slade Garden in 1958 and is known today as Slade Gardens). His father Edwin was then employed as a ‘laundry carman’. Hardship followed when Edwin died in 1902, aged 46. The family suffered further loss in 1903 when Frederick’s younger brothers Ernest and Christopher died. 

When Frederick’s 51-year-old mother Agnes completed her 1911 census return, the household consisted of five other people: her children Agnes, 22, Edwin, 21, and Frederick , 16, and boarder Charles Ward, a widower aged 59. Agnes entered ‘no occupation’ for herself and Elsie, who was disabled. Edwin worked as a restaurant porter and Frederick as a milkman’s assistant. They lived in five rooms at 5 Ingleton Street, off Brixton Road.

Edwin was married with a young child when he volunteered in October 1915, serving as a motor driver in the Army Service Corps throughout the war. Frederick was conscripted late in 1916 and was first sent to Salonika, landing on 1 March 1917. Frederick spent three months there in miserable weather. Morale was low and the men were glad to leave in June 1917 when the battalion was moved to Egypt. The battalion took part in the campaign in Palestine in 1917 and 1918. They were present at the hugely symbolic capture and subsequent defence of Jerusalem in December 1917. ‘B’ company fought at ‘Talaat ed Dumm’ in February 1918. Late in March 1918 they were part of the forces that attacked Amman for the first time. Frederick Ward was wounded and evacuated to the 76th Casualty Clearing Station where he died on 3 April 1918. 

Frederick’s brother Edwin returned to his family at 15 Medwin Street in April 1919. Agnes and Elsie lived at 5 Ingleton St until his mother passed away in 1932, aged 73. Elsie later lived with Edwin’s family in Sevenoaks, Kent. 

Sydney Herbert John Sore

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S. H. J. Sore
Service no. 614318
Private, London Regiment, 2nd/19th Battalion, formerly 5508, 9th London Regiment
Born in Clapham; enlisted at Oxford Street, London; lived in Clapham
Killed in action on 22 March 1918, aged 22
CWGC: “Only son of Alfred Harry and Mary Emma Sore, of 8 Larkhall Lane, Clapham, London. Served also in France and Salonika.”
Remembered at Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel

Information from the censuses

Sydney Herbert John Sore, 15, was an architect’s clerk, born in Clapham. His father, Alfred Sore, 48, was a solicitor’s clerk born in South London; his mother, Mary Emma Sore, 40, was from Tuddenham, Suffolk. Kathleen Mary Sore, Sydney’s 7-year-old sister, was born in South Lambeth. The family lived at 8 Larkhall Lane, Stockwell. Ten years previously, they lived next door at 10 Larkhall Lane. They shared their home with Mary’s brother, Ernest Daniel Aldous, 25, a single warehouseman born in Peckham.

Charles Edward Small

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C. E. Small
Service no. 960469
Driver, Royal Field Artillery, “A” Bty. 302nd Bde.
Enlisted in Fulham; lived in Stockwell
Killed in action on 31 October 1917, aged 21
CWGC: “Son of Charles Edward and Laura Louisa Small, of 61 Mordaunt Street, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Jerusalem Memorial and St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

British Army WWI Service Records 1914-1920

Charles Edward Small presented himself at the Fulham recruiting office early in the war – on 16 September 1914. We do not know what kind of occupation he left behind, as this was not recorded in the service records. However, it was a settled kind of life.

His family had lived in the same house for at least 13 years, and although his father had died, his mother, Laura, earned a living through dress-making. They were doing well enough to order headed paper, on which Laura wrote on 24 April 1918 to the War Office enquiring about the “watch and silver mizpah ring” which should have been among her son’s effects. “Will you kindly make enquiries for me,” she wrote, “as I should value them much.” The mizpah ring, popular during the 19th and early 20th centuries, was given and worn when close relatives or lovers were about to be separated, often by catastrophic events such as war.

Small was 19 and a good 5 feet 7half inches tall when he enlisted. His vision and physical development was noted as “very good.”

Information from the censuses

Lambeth-born Charles Edward Small, 14 in 1911, lived with his widowed mother, Laura Louisa Small, 46, a dressmaker from Eastman, Southampton, and his siblings, Winifred Small, 21, a business clerk; Kathleen Small, 18, a student teacher; and Leslie Allan Small, 9, in 4 rooms at 61 Mordaunt Street.  The family at been at this address since at least 1901 Charles’s father, also called Charles, was on the 1901 census described as a 37-year-old coach painter, born in Reigate, The girls were born in Reigate, but Charles (junior) and Leslie was born in Stockwell.

Benjamin Charles Peploe

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B. C. Peploe
Service no. 453135
Rifleman, London Regiment (Finsbury Rifles), 1st/11th Battalion, formerly 6329, 9th London Regiment
Born in Stockwell; enlisted in London; lived in Stockwell
Killed in action on 2 November 1917, aged 25
CWGC: “Husband of Josephine Elsie Peploe, of 30 Lingham Street, Stockwell, London.”
Remembered at Gaza War Memorial, Israel and St Andrew’s Church, Landor Road, London SW9

Information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

At the end of March 1917, Gaza was attacked and surrounded by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in the First Battle of Gaza, but the attack was broken off when Turkish reinforcements appeared. The Second Battle of Gaza, 17-19 April, left the Turks in possession and the Third Battle of Gaza, begun on 27 October, ended with the capture of the ruined and deserted city on 7 November.

Information from censuses

Stockwell-born Benjamin Charles Peploe, 19 in 1911, lived at 70 Lingham Street, Stockwell, where his family had four rooms. His widowed mother, Mildred Elizabeth Peploe, 54, was a greengrocer from Euston, north London. He had four siblings, two of whom lived at home: Violet Daisy Peploe, 16, who is described as “assisting in the business”; Milly Rebecca Savill, 30, a restaurant manageress born in Clapham. The household included Milly’s husband, George Alfred Savill, 31, a meat carver born in Stockwell.

The family at lived at 70 Lingham Street for at least 20 years (they are there on the 1901 and 1891 censuses).  In 1881 the family were at 14 The Polygon, Clapham. The census gives Benjamin’s father Charles Peploe’s occupation as fishmonger and states that he was born in Bermondsey.